Sometimes I have the rare privilege to watch a partnership begin. The first day I was at Silver Dollar Stables I got to meet Gretchen and Cosmo. He was there on trial and Gretchen had made the decision that day to purchase him, I was told later. That first meeting, I had arrived early, before anyone had shown up and was immediately greeted by a huge red horse looking at me from a small paddock beside the barn. I greeted him in return and moved on to look around for the best back drops for the up coming photo sessions. He watched in mild amusement as I walked around, chatting at myself, I know this because every time I looked over he was staring at me, ears forward, hip cocked with a lazy swish of the tail.

Then people started to arrive and the chaos of photographing took over. At one point I came back in the barn and saw him standing quietly in the cross ties, eyes almost closed in bliss as a woman groomed him. This is a picture you see very often if you hang out at horse barn for longer than 5 minutes, the other common occurrence at just about every barn is that the person grooming will have to get a step stool or go up on toes to reach the horses back and top of the rump. This always makes me smile when is see because I have a daughter that admits she is vertically challenged and struggles with anything over 15hh. Cosmo is a tall boy.

As the day went on I caught glimpse of the pair quietly riding in a small arena away from the F5 hurricane of chaos that is children, ponies and pictures. The big red horse listening to his rider and a smile of budding love on his riders face. These were my first glimpses of a beautiful new partnership and Gretchen was wonderful enough to give a little history on her new horse Cosmo...

"Cosmic Hallelujah, affectionally known as Cosmo, is a 7 year old freshly (as of last year) retired thoroughbred racehorse. He had 26 starts with earnings over $66,000. He came to me from a lady in Wagner, SC. We are having fun figuring each other out! My hope is that our future holds plenty of trail riding, maybe some eventing and lots of adventures!"

On my second visit to Silver Dollar Stables I was happy to learn I would get to photograph the pair, I hope to have a small part in documenting their adventures.