In the photo, an exultant young woman sits astride a rearing horse. Even without a saddle, she looks as comfortable as if she were in a rocking chair. That young woman, Clara, wears her first pair of cowboy boots, while beloved Queen, displays her own splendor. Together, the horse, sleek and strong, and the rider, young and happy, conjure an air of freedom, of possibility—and unity.

The photographer beautifully captured this exuberant moment in Clara’s life. And it’s no surprise that he did, when you know who he was. Albert Lamoreaux, whom everyone called Jack, was a farmer and hired hand, his family close to the Reida family. He knew Clara well. After Clara’s father died at a young age, Jack helped father her. And when she went off to college, Jack and Bud Riggs took care of Queen.

Clara was intent on keeping her beloved horse, no matter what. She remembered all too well the time her mother noticed that she hadn’t been riding Queen and was considering selling her. True, Clara hadn’t riding Queen, and it was because of Queen’s tendency to rear up and fall over backwards, endangering the rider. But the thought of losing Queen threw her into a fit.
She went around asking everybody she could think of how to break a horse from rearing like that. One way she learned about was this: when the horse rears, break a bottle of water between its ears. The horse thinks the water is blood and will stop the unwanted behavior.

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