Barrel Racing memories

So this was about 2000 or 2001 when this was taken. I was 7 or 8 and had trained for about a year before entering. These photos were taken during my 4th barrel racing competition with Rhastas, where we placed 5th out of 47 professionally trained horses and experienced barrel racing riders. We didn't win anything special but, inside, Rhastas and I both felt like winners! ^^

Name: Rhastas
Height: 6-7 hands
Breed: Highland/Welsh mix pony
Coat: black
Bridle: plain leather bridle decorated with yarn weaving by my mother for town parade
Saddle: full size western
Born: August 13, 1993
Passed away in September, 2011 an old, fat and happy pony

<3<3<3<3<3RIP Rhastas <3<3<3<3<3

How we got him was a funny story. The guy that owned him at the time was a pony breeder named Charlie Brown (no joke). Charlie had been trying to get rid of Rhastas for a while because nobody could break him, no matter how experienced the riders were. My sister fell in love with Rhastas when she first saw him and asked Charlie if she could pet him. He laughed at her and said "Honey, if you could touch that pony, you can have him!!!" Excited, she hopped into the pen with Rhastas, strolled up to him and loved on him like crazy. Baffled, Charlie attempted to pet him but Rhastas chased him out of the pen X'D. True to his word, the next day, Charlie and Rhastas arrived, throwing my mom for a loop when Anfesa said "We got a pony now!" Not once did Rhastas kick, buck, snort or cause trouble after that (except breaking out of his pen to gorge in the field of alfalfa beside us).
Rhastas often acted like a dog when my sister came home with apples. We'd run around the back yard with them and he'd chase us. He was also a total snugglebug and a sweet heart. He loved hugs and he loved rolling in the mud after a rain (when it actually doused the ground, that is lol). Hot days, he'd lay in the grass beside our duplex in Lovell. When my little brother (2 or 3 at the time?) came outside, Rhastas would keep an eye on him for my mom, so she never worried when dustin wasn't in the house. Usually, she'd find dustin laying against Rhastas' belly in the grass while the old pony kept an eye out (Bad Whiskey is based on Rhastas's protective nature)