It was a warm spring evening on a Memorial weekend.  We were staying with a large group of close friends, and there is a beautiful girl who loves her horse more than anything in that group.  I've known her since she was a shy youngster, and she was always with us on our trips, but she occupied a quiet place in the fringe of the group: obsessed with her horse, riding all day, and we hardly ever saw her. 

Until...

On this particular trip, it struck me how she'd grown into such a lovely young woman virtually overnight, as is often the case with young ladies.  She was riding her horse around the campground we were staying at, the sun was setting - it was a sight that struck me and I had to get some images.  Bless her, because when I asked if I could photograph her and her horse, Rio, she was a willing model.  I literally took all kinds of shots playing with exposure values, shutter speeds, and poses.  The equine photographer in me took over and I could have photographed her and her handsome horse for hours (I go into this zone where I switch over to tunnel vision and nothing else matters but photographing the subject.  It's pretty OCD and I freely admit it!)  I'd picked out another shot that I took during that session and used it for a project I'd been working on, and the rest of the images were saved and waiting for the right combination of inspiration and available time (a rare commodity) for me to actually go through them in great detail.

While I do make time for shooting for my own projects, those shoots always get put on the back burner because paying jobs have to take precedence, so they never get attention until I find some spare time.  I finally found some spare time and was going through my older work, and fell in complete and utter love with this image.  (Why it did not make the cut the first time is beyond me, I actually think it's better than the one I'd originally picked!).

So, here's to lovely young girls who love their sweet horses with all of the heart.  It never goes away.  ♥