Lisa & Jack | Project 27 Portrait Session
Lisa & Jack’s Horse & Rider Photos
Private Stable in Abrams, WI
Our next installment in Project 27 takes form in the story of Lisa and Jack, a horse and rider that have spent their time together learning, growing, and pretty much just having the greatest time. Loving a horse can mean many things; feeling safe and comforted by their mere presence comes to mind. But for Lisa, Jack has been crucial to not only getting through the tough times. He makes the good times that much better!
From the age of four, Lisa has been riding horses. Her first horse was a pony that had the characteristics of a miniature Belgium–his name was Rusty, and Lisa remembers him fondly as the best horse she could have learned on. Since then, Lisa and her horses have been inseparable, but it wasn’t until Jack that she felt she had truly met her heart horse.
“I am not sure what I did to deserve this incredible being,” she says of Jack, a three-year-old Paint whose registered name is Sent Me A Loper. “But I am beyond grateful and blessed for the opportunity!”
Lisa found Jack in the most unexpected of ways, but it really shows that these two were meant to be. Lisa was visiting lower Michigan from her home in Abrams, Wisconsin on a trip to purchase a completely different mare–one she had already put a deposit on and had her heart set on bringing home. But upon meeting the mare in person, Lisa just didn’t feel like it was going to be the best match. Wanting to wait for the right opportunity, Lisa decided to continue the hunt for a new horse–but this doesn’t mean the decision was easy.
“My heart was broken, and the tears were streaming down my face,” she says of the experience. But her daughter, who had accompanied Lisa on the trip, was eager to continue the search. “She convinced me to start looking for horses online, and she found a beautiful Paint yearling gelding in lower Michigan.” In an effort to appease her daughter, whom by this point was begging her to pursue this find, Lisa messaged the owner. “I asked them to call me before 9:30. 9:30 came and went, so we packed up to go home.”
The journey was far from over, however. An hour into their drive back home, the horse’s owner gave Lisa a call and gave her their address. The best news? Lisa and her daughter were just a mile away, and the very next exit took them straight to meet Jack. “It was love at first sight,” says Lisa. “He was so handsome, and I absolutely fell in love with his movement.” Jack’s personality was another reason Lisa felt so drawn to him. “We were leaning over the fence chatting about Jack, and what does he do? He leans over and bites me!” But nothing, not even a sassy mouth, could keep Jack from coming home with Lisa.
In the three years that Lisa has owned Jack their relationship has seen its share of highs and lows. “I lost my sixteen-year-old mare that I raised from a foal, and Jack came home a week before her passing.” But Jack was there to help her through it. Of their bond, Lisa says, “I don’t have to be riding him, I can just be around him!” Together they have gone on to compete and place in shows, and Jack has become accomplished at pulling cart.
Jack and Lisa are two best friends that take care of each other, and their relationship only continues to grow. Jack is still young, and Lisa has big plans for him and their future endeavors together. But at the end of the day, the most important thing to Lisa is just spending time with Jack.
“His bright eyes and ears up say it all. No matter how bad a day I have, he is always my bright spot.”
