I can’t quite believe that the day has come, I never really thought that it would. Of course it had to, I suppose it was inevitable. Birthdays come around every year like clockwork. They signify an important milestone in one’s life, but this one was particularly momentous.
Hope’s and Max’s birthday falls on the same day, April 13, and born exactly a decade apart, it seems somewhat eerie that they both ended up with the same owner. This year was special though because it was a particularly big milestone for both of them. Hope turned twenty and little Max has reached double digits.
It’s strange that Max is now ten years old, it seems not that long ago when I first met him as a four year old. Hope always seems to me like she is somehow immortal. I can never quite believe every year when she becomes one year older.
This is also the year that I will be turning twenty, so it is certainly a year of important milestones.
Rather than be upset that Hope is getting older, and that Max is no longer my little baby, I used this year to celebrate. It’s not every person who is able to say that they compete their twenty year old horse in third level dressage, schooling fourth level and playing around with the piaffe. Or that they’ve had their horse for six years, from a goofy and sensitive four year old to a slightly less goofy ten year old.
Their birthdays were a bit of an awakening for me. I’m so thankful for all the years I’ve known these two, and I’m looking forward to all the years I will continue to spend with them.

Great good luck with the dressage, my experience is watching it when the Olympics are on and i’m always in complete awe. Well done, and Happy Birthday to Hope and Max, they are lovely!
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Thank you!
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Beautiful photos.
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Thank you.
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Happy Birthday to both of them!
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Aw happy birthday to the special horses in your life!
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Happy Birthday Hope and Max!
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