Stormy

In the beginning...

I met Stormy about 14 years ago at an old farm in Topsfield, Massachusetts. I was just becoming a teenager and my parents had split up recently. Stormy had been abused when he was younger and was very anti-social. At the time, I had a huge brace on my knee from an injury, so I just cleaned some stalls to earn lessons for when I was better and stronger. When I entered his stall for the first time, he pinned his ears and swung his rear end towards me. I could feel his anger.

This horse didn't trust anyone and I knew exactly how he felt. Despite his obvious discontent with the world, I thought to myself, "I wonder if anyone is riding this horse?"

When my knee healed and I could start lessons, my instructor, Nancy asked if I would like to have lessons on her seasoned veteran, Sailor, or start riding Stormy and potentially leasing him. Well, I always liked a challenge (years of riding ponies will do that for you) and picked Mr. Personality, Stormy.

Our beginning was rough. Stormy had some issues. He was extremely head shy, it would take me a half an hour to put his bridle on! I had to unbuckle the bridle and slowly ease it up his neck and hopefully get it onto his poll before he freaked out. He also had back problems. Riding him was like saddling up a jack hammer and going for a spin around the arena.

With head high and back hollowed, we struggled through our first lessons. Mind you, I was learning a lot then too, I had been incorrectly taught in the past and I was in un-chartered territory myself. So we learned together in spite of each other.

New Beginnings

As we became friends, Stormy started to open up. I treated him with respect and had the utmost patience in our interactions and he appreciated it. I had to earn his trust through compassion and love. Soon he started to show himself. He was goofy and affectionate. The struggle with his head shyness started to melt away as his trust for me grew. I remember putting my gloves on his ears and watching him move them back and forth, now that was a break through!

We competed in many of the local shows and had a blast. We even won the entire western youth division one year! He certainly was starting to shine from all the love and attention.

I began my teaching career with Stormy's help. At age 15, I was giving a young girl lessons on him. I loved to watch students figure things out and become a real rider. I have taught other people informally with Stormy and seen amazing results.

These days is seems that my old Stormy and I communicate on an intuitive level. We are so in tune it's awesome to go for a ride and just use the slightest cues to communicate with him. I watch Stormy's body language when I teach to help the student with problems or to let them know when they are doing something right. The knowledge I have gained from working with him and teaching others on him has given me great insight on teaching and working with horses and has changed my life dramatically as a result.