Exuberance

SHH Vintage Event 2025

Featuring:

Foals: 1041 NRR Tiny Kisses and 1040 NRR Big Hugs

Accompanied by Dam and Handler: 51 BEC Caffeine Addict and Skyler Evans

Placed:

Hugs - First

Kisses - Fourth or Beyond

Results

Stand-alone story piece.

(story summary below the wall of text, feel free to scroll on down for all your non-reading needs~)

“Yeehaw,” Taysom rejoiced under a whisper, leaning forward and giving his fine stud, Hugs, a pat on the neck. He laughed at the horse’s antics, tossing his mane and giving a little buck. The kind of buck after a good run over jumps and he felt it! Daring Taysom to try giving him an actual challenge that met his physical capabilities! “Easy there, killer. People might think you’re belligerent or something. We can’t sully your family’s name like that.” He knew the antics were harmless, really. Some would say unnecessary but he was finding out as an owner, what was considered unnecessary as a trainer didn’t matter so much as the owner of the horse. He kind of appreciated the personality.

Kisses, his twin sister, had her own habits too. While she was much more calm under saddle, she was more expressive when in-hand. Bobbing her head when it was feeding time, sloshing her lips in her water bucket when she was done eating, sharing a mouthful of her water she slurped up right down the back of his shirt… He took great joy in learning the individual personalities of each of them.

Mostly, he hoped he was doing good by their bloodline. He didn’t realize how much it would weigh on his mind when he first picked them up. It wasn’t like there was a contract signed in blood that he would produce specific results by a certain deadline. They came with no stipulations whatsoever, as was the horse industry. Buy the horse, good luck to your success! Naturally, most breeders wanted their offspring to go to good homes but expectations had to be somewhat reserved, right? But in the same breath that it was a concern, it was also motivation. Motivation to keep these wonderful horses in their best shape, doing what they were good at. It was that competitive spirit in Taysom!

It got him curious, however. Where did these two start off at? In the era of the internet at everyone’s fingertips, it hadn’t occurred to him to dig a little deeper than the sales pages and recent history of them. With renowned pedigrees, perhaps he could get right down to the very beginning. An internal gasp! What if he could find their foal pictures?

With the horses tucked back in their stalls, Hugs munching on some hay, Taysom leaned over his stall gate and stared at his phone. He straightened up, looking down one end of the aisle to the other, checking to see if eyes were on him. This was normal right? To go stalking through previous owners and breeders, right? Totally normal. Who wouldn’t be even a little curious!?

He grinned and leaned forward again, going on a deep dive to see what he could find. Old sales ads that drew his initial interest, of course. That led him to the social media page of the barn hosting the sale. He dug a little more to find the breeders that had the dam on site. He happily scrolled through the long feed of accomplishments out of that stable. She wasn’t just some broodmare. This mare put the work in and had a lot of accomplishments to her name. She was quite prominent in her breed’s registry too. And quite a pile of offspring to her! She was a good mama!

So many spots!! He chuckled to himself under his breath at all the spots coming up in her offspring. Here, he thought maybe the stud’s signature was the spots but now he might have to consider it a shared trait! They wore their spots proudly!

“Ahhh! I found you!” Taysom rejoiced loudly! “Sorry, bud,” he laughed at Hugs that had jumped and stared at him with the whites of his eyes flashing. “Oooooohhhh my…” he lowered his voice again, not wanting to sound like a swooning schoolgirl. But he was smiling ear to ear! He had found them! Their beginning!

Hugs and Kisses were being shown together with their dam. He could see their personalities in full right from foalhood. And where they got it from! Their dam barely contained on a single lead by her proud handler, wanting to frolic with her babies. Hugs, his brave and bold stud leading the way, rearing up on his sturdy little legs. Look at that attitude and vigor! Kisses, trailing but not left out, giving her little baby buck. Such sass! How surprising, knowing she was the quieter of the two. She matured into such a pleasant young lady.

This. This is what he wanted to capture and reflect their futures off of. How alive and exuberant they were. Unapologetically their own version of their personality. The handler could have kept this snapshot all to themself if they felt it didn’t reflect well on them. She didn’t feel like it was unnecessary behavior! Look at the life behind these creatures. He felt a kindred spirit with her, proud to show off the lively foals and their equally lively dam.

“I need to go talk to your sister, Hugs,” Taysom talked to the stallion. “She didn’t tell me she had moves like this,” he chuckled, saving the picture to his phone. Being a horse owner was so dope.

(872 wordcount)

TLDR SUMMARY;

--Taysom gets curious about his twin ponies

--Let's go on a google adventure to find out more!~

--Deep dives to track them down and aawwwwwww look them precious <333

--He loves seeing they had always been allowed to be themselves, vibrant and full of life <3

Previous: n.a. || Next: TBA

Cuuuute lil' babies being cute!! Love seeing the others roll in for this event! It's a cute opportunity to show off some characters back in "ye olde foal days" <333 I've been right here with Taysom before; trying to track down previous information on a horse I've bought and just seeing what's out there! A couple of them, I'll never know :'') A couple of them, I've gotten to see their early years and its so precious 😭

AND NO SNOW!!! I didn't draw snow -sobbing- It was so nice lmao (still have one more snow piece in progress but that is beside the point lmao) I guess it inspired me a bit lol I was gonna make this a quickie since it's mostly RNG, keep it simple whatever. But my itchy hands wanted more and I wanted to go revisit my "standard" style?? More realism, more texturing, less lines and cel shading. And I had the time, so, eh, let the itchy hands do what they wanna do lol

Felt like I went in on the hard shading a liiiiiittle more than necessary but it is who I am lol Glowy shine extra forever lol

Hugs/Kisses/Taysom/Art © @Drasayer

Caffeine Addict/Skyler Evans © @theDeliriousOwl

Honorable mention to Zoltan © @Wouv

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