Bettie, Captain Jack and Fatima - Washington Horse Photographer

Second set of photos of my mom, Bettie, and her horses. For the second part of the shoot, we included Fatima in the photos. I was riding Fatima for the duration of the photo shoot, so that we could get to all of the places we wanted to go in the park. She did great carrying me and my ridiculously heavy camera bag, though I must admit, after the third time mounting with my 15lb bag, I had to hand it to someone else while I mounted and then put it on once I was on her back. Fatima was with our family for 24 years. She was originally bred to be a 4h project horse for me, and we did win Champion in Ground Training. Then, she sat in my mom's pasture when I left home, and matured until she was of age to ride. I took her at that point and boarded her at various places, getting her started under saddle. After a couple of years she went back to my moms house when I started college -- my mom's horse, her dam, was showing unidentifiable lameness that made her no longer rideable in drill team, so she became my mom's drill horse. Later, my mom, who had plenty of horses, leased her to a 12 year old girl, then sold her to the girls mom. A few months later, she was given back due to an unexpected pregnancy. She stayed with my mom after that, doing dressage, then being used as a 4h horse for another young girl, and as a lesson horse for a few years, until she started being leased out again a couple of years ago. She was just recently given to the woman who leases her... technically, sold for $1. Fatima loves being a one person horse and getting all of the attention, and she loved her leaser as much as her leaser loved her, so we (well, my mom, though she did check with me to make sure I was okay with it, since Fatima had been mine for years) made the easy decision to give her to the woman she had bonded with to live out the rest of her years. This 24 year old mare is still fit, healthy and going strong. I hope they have years of happiness together.