Surprise Photo Shoot Results in Best 18th Birthday Present Ever!

By: Brittany Bevis

AQHA youth competitor, Hannah Warren, received the best 18th birthday gift a girl could ever ask for, a horse! But what made the moment even more special is that Mallory Beinborn of Impulse Photography was able to capture it all on film.

“I was going to be at the barn for another girl’s photo shoot, and Hannah’s trainers, Sydney and Keith Miller, called and asked if we could squeeze one more in,” Mallory says. “I was pretty shocked by this, because she told me this was going to be a surprise 18th birthday present. I agreed immediately, because it was nothing I’d ever really done before!”

In preparation of their daughter leaving for college, the Geldner family had sold Hannah’s former show horse, Hot Kattitude. But, in the meantime, Hannah had her eye on another promising show horse, Dreamin To Extreme, aka “Gus.” However, she had no idea her mother, Carrie Geldner, had a huge surprise up her sleeve.

In an effort to keep the surprise a secret, Mallory was recruited as an accomplice. “Her mom and trainer told her that we were going to take pictures of her with her mom’s horse for the upcoming ad season. When she got there, her mom’s horse was still in the stall, and we told her that we had to put another coat of hoof black on…”

Mallory, who has the opportunity to photograph some of the top horse and rider pairs in the industry, rarely gets nervous on photo shoots. However, this one was different.

“I was super nervous actually!” she says. “I never really get nervous, but this really freaked me out! It was such a big surprise. It was a huge deal, so I was super nervous.”

To keep Hannah in the dark as long as possible, her trainer Keith brought a chair out to the pasture and had Mallory do some establishing shots. “I had to keep her super entertained, focused on me, and facing away from the barn so she didn’t see her surprise birthday party walk up from the barn to the field where we were shooting. Keith brought a chair out, so we did a bunch of posing on the chair, and I managed to keep her attention long enough for Keith to get the horse right next to her!”

“It was really cool. It was definitely hard to keep such an awesome surprise hidden. We had her turned so she didn’t see the horse coming up behind her. It was such a touching moment.”

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Watch the video below.