Hello! My name is Kristina Truluck. I served in the U.S. Army for 9 years as a combat cameraman with a tour to Afghanistan. After my deployment, I dealt with crippling PTSD. Not long after returning home, I ended up volunteering at a horse rescue. I've always loved horses, but never got to grow up with them. Working with neglected and abused horses helped me work with my own demons - we both saw monsters in the shadows and reacted violently to the imagined demons. Helping horses helped me. I eventually started bringing my camera out and started working as the rescue's photographer as well as a feed shift leader. I spent all of my spare time learning what worked and what didn't work for equine photography. I developed a huge passion for having horses in front of my lens, but never dreamed that I could make my hobby a business. At the time, I was too afraid of being independent and was focusing on my military career. After I was medically retired in 2017, I tried working at the base's stables and kennels, but because of my husband's deployment, I couldn't maintain employment. At the end of 2020, after much deliberation and a whole lot of faith, I chose to take the leap and start my equine photography business. It gave me the freedom to attend my numerous VA appointments, take care of my kids, and spend time with my family. I struggled in the beginning because I didn't know enough about how to run a profitable business and didn't have strict boundaries for the business. I was giving sessions away because I wasn't confident in myself or my business. In 2021, I chose to return to school so that I could become a better business owner. I plan on traveling to clients across the United States and want to start hiring employees so that I can sell on site for horse shows. I know a lot about photography from the Army, but the military doesn't teach you much about being a good business owner. This education has been a great investment so far in helping me find answers to problems I didn't even know I had! Now I'm based in far west Texas serving the equine community and helping my barn owner run her ranch. Learning how to run an effective business isn't just for me, but to help her out as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how much my education can help the both of us in the future!

What excites me about being an entrepreneur? The freedom. As a disabled veteran, I have many important appointments needed to maintain my quality of life and I'm not disrupting anyone else's schedule to attend these appointments. I can adjust my schedule as needed and I get to spend time with my family every day. I'm able to schedule my sessions around my family's needs and pause when I need a mental health break. I’m attending school while running a business and taking care of my family to show my kids how important education is. I have an amazing job as an equine photographer - there's no such thing as a bad day behind the camera or editing the gorgeous photographs that I get to capture. I've been able to travel to amazing locations and meet some of the coolest equestrians because of my job. What inspired me to pursue this path? I was a Combat Cameraman for the U.S. Army starting in 2009. I deployed to Afghanistan from 2011-2012 in the Kandahar region and saw some horrific things. I started volunteering at a horse rescue in 2014 to help with my post-traumatic stress disorder. Being around horses again greatly helped my mental health and volunteering was something I've done for most of my life. I started using my skills as a photographer to document daily life around the rescue and give the horses professional photographs to make them more appealing to potential adopters. I eventually learned that I could make a living doing this and became a business owner in 2020, three years after I was medically retired from the Army. I fell in love with an old Amish horse, a late-30s grumpy Standardbred gelding named Brocca. I couldn't adopt him due to the unpredictability of my military career, but he was unofficially my horse. In the horse world, we have the term "heart horse" for the horses that come into our lives and change them for the better. He was my first heart horse. He died in 2017 and I was crushed. I didn’t have any professional photos of us together, and I promised him to change that for the equestrians around me. I believe that everyone deserves professional photos with their four-legged best friend. I take courses every year to improve my craft so that I can provide the best possible service to equestrians all over the United States.

As a photographer, I love being able to capture memories that equestrians will cherish for a lifetime. There's something special about the bond between riders and their horses, a kind of magic that is wonderful to capture. What inspired me to pursue this path was volunteering at a horse rescue after returning home from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. I was a combat cameraman, so I knew I wanted to continue to tell stories from behind the camera. I started documenting the stories of neglect and abuse that came in and that transformed into telling stories of love and perseverance. Being trusted to tell the stories of the equestrian community means a lot to me. I have to build up my business every time I move. I am able to live a wonderful life because of my business. I'm able to travel and tell stories, something I've loved to do since I was a little kid.

Through an equine therapy program, I learned that service members with PTSD are similar to horses - we both see monsters in the shadows. This is what started me on the path of understanding my trauma and how to cope with it. I understood horses and how they react to almost everything as if it's a monster. I didn't understand my PTSD and why even the little things triggered a bout of panic. Horses helped heal me. As soon as I pull into the dirt driveway, I feel the stress of my life melt away. When I focus on the horse in front of me, my mind has no room to focus on exit strategies and reliving the worst moments in my life. I hear horses happily munching on hay instead of hearing the gurgle of my teammate as he tries to breathe through a bloodied face. I feel smooth fur beneath my fingers instead of the hot metal of my rifle. The barn is a sanctuary. The barn is safe. Once my husband and I decide where to live permanently once he retires, I want to volunteer at a therapeutic riding center again and start a section that focuses on veterans. I want to share my safe space with others and give them this opportunity to heal.