In February of this year, I was scheduled to photograph Marlee's sister, due to weather being what it is in the winter we had to reschedule once almost twice but it was a blessing because the day we were able to make everything happen Marlee and Jethro were able to spend time with me on the beach. I could tell right off that he had a hard story to tell and I wanted to be a small part (one of his happy moments) of that story. He had never been to the beach, never seen the ocean and at first, was not wanting to have anything to do with it but Marlee was patient, and walked him for hours as I photographed her sister and another client. In between I would catch snap shots of them just being together in the moment.

I ask Marlee to tell what she knew of his story...

From what I know, he came from a kill auction in North Carolina, someone purchased him then did a quick resell for cheap to try and give him another chance, that person bought him with the intentions of rehabbing him, but the place she had him at to rehab started off strong but ended up in over their head and weren’t able to help his medical issues, and eventually stopped feeding him.

He was then brought to a facility in the Summerville area, and the girl trying to help him had a bunch of tests done for his medical issues (floppy ear, goopy eye, the fact that he can’t blink his left eye, and his droopy lip) it turns out that they believe he had an injury at some point that paralyzed the left side of his face.

He needed to put on weight, learn to trust people, get daily eye drops, wear a fly mask while turned out to protect his eye, and find food that was easier for him to chew since his mouth can’t close all the way. His coat was awful and falling out, and he was covered in rain rot, but I knew from the moment I saw him that with a little love and special attention to his medical issues that he still had a lot of life in him.

I brought him our farm this  past summer, and began to rehab him. He went from an underweight, untrusting, scared horse who hadn’t found a soft place to land, to the biggest joy in my life. To be honest I wasn’t even sure if he would be very rideable at first, and yet after the trust was formed and the weight was put on, he has constantly impressed me. He is the first to meet me at the gate, calls for me when I pull down the driveway, and now lets me pick up his feet, bathe him, and ride, all of which were things that he didn’t allow us to do before. He is the poor little horse that someone threw out, and with a little bit of time and a lot of love has turned out to exceed all of my expectations!

We have come so far, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us! Thank you so much for capturing our relationship so beautifully.