A Vist to the Work House

I visited Stormkite yesterday for the first time since my knee surgery.  His trainer, Ashley Haffey at Lane Cove Dressage in Greene, NY, had put him in the indoor arena before I arrived, to give him a chance to stretch out before work.

Learning to stand at the mounting block.

When I walked in, he was looking over the gate.  

"Stormkite!" I said.  

"Amy!" he said.  

Well, no, he didn't, actually.  But it seemed like he did. He definitely recognized me.

He was probably surprised to see me there.  Maybe had decided he would never see me again.  Who knows?  

From his perspective, first his big sister, Dee, went away with me in the trailer and never came home.  Several months later, I put him in the trailer and took him to a strange new place, and who should be there, but Dee!  Then I disappeared for a month, only to reappear suddenly on this unseasonably warm Saturday in January.   

Stretch!

Ashley showed me how he has progressed, longeing him and doing some stretches, then riding him at a walk and trot.  His pasture-puff body is still not in riding shape, and he is learning to balance with a rider as he makes circles around cones.

He was a very good boy as he showed off for me, carrying Ashley and listening to her commands so diligently that at one point when she said, "HO-ho," asking him to stop, he halted so abruptly he made us both laugh. 

Walk on.

He's got "whoa."

At the moment, Stormkite and my husband are the only ones in our family doing any work at all.  The mares and I are all just lounging around, waiting for my knee to heal. 

Stormkite has come a long way since I dropped him off in December, and this is just the beginning for him.  I hope this is the start of many years of a good and productive life for this sweet and bratty little paint horse.   

Striving for balance at the trot.