Tennessee Walking Horses that do More than Walk!

Delight's Texas Storm

and

Bocelli

Delight's Texas Storm ("Stormy")

  Stormy is a cherry bay TWH gelding who thinks he can do anything. And he may be right!

The list of things that Stormy can do is growing every day. Gait (flat walk, running walk, trail walk, extended walk) Western Pleasure English Pleasure Trail Obstacle Dress up (Stormy just sighs and puts up with it) Jumping Barrel Racing Pole Bending Reining Work cows (but not very well; Stormy thinks the way to work cows is to bite 'em until they run) Dressage (dressage drills are the best!)

We also attend a lot of clinics. Stormy and I have been to clinics for basic reining skills, stock horse skills, dressage and gaiting. Clinics are wonderful places to learn new skills and refine old ones.

Stormy is good with little kids. His first real "little rider" was Aaron. Aaron started riding with his dad, but it wasn't long before he wanted to ride on his own. Aaron wasn't quite tall enough to reach the stirrups, so I invested in a kid's saddle. That turned out to be a good investment. Since I bought that saddle, Stormy has carried around Sienna, Jenna, Ruth and Ruby. In fact, Stormy and Sienna won 2nd place in a Walk Whoa class! And now Stormy has a new little girl, Mayce, who is so small that she can't even reach the stirrups on the little saddle.

Stormy at Work and Play

Elegant Sidesaddle (Lydia)	Stepping out with Josephine	Learning to jump (Lydia)	MHCT July 2005 (Lydia) First blue ribbon!	Can I help?
	The Stop (Lydia)	2 Riders, 2 Days, 22 Ribbons Moonwalker Memorial Show 2006		Susar Feb 2007 High Point Reserve Champion, 12 - 17 (Natasha)

Check out Liz's Photo Albums for lots more pictures of Stormy and Peanut!

Bocelli ("Peanut")

The story of how Peanut came to join Stormy is worth telling. A little, dark (almost black), colt was born in East Texas. There he lived a relatively uneventful life until Spring 2006, when he was donated to the NWHA to be used as a "raffle horse" in the NWHA fundraising effort. I met him that spring, and thought he was just the cutest little guy. I began plotting. I bought raffle tickets. I told Lydia, who got her mom, Lissa, to buy raffle tickets. My friends Val and Shannon bought raffle tickets.

In late summer 2006, Peanut (he was still known as "Bo" then), moved from East Texas to Tennessee. The idea was that Tennessee was centrally located and he wouldn't have to go as far to be at his new home. Hah! I though this was rather silly since I was sure that he was going to end up back in Texas. The drawing was to be held at the NWHA Membership Meeting in Dallas in November. Lissa, Val and Shannon and I worked out various plans, all of which had Bocelli (Peanut's registered name) ending up with me. Finally, the drawing! And Lissa's name was drawn! Several excited phone calls later, the little horse was effectively mine.

Val brought Peanut back from Tennessee. After a couple of days on his own, we moved him to paddock #1, with Lady, Tucker and Alizeer. Penaut became instant best friends with Tucker, but Lady used her position as alpha horse to be mean to him. Then we moved Peanut (who still didn't have an official barn name) to paddock #12, with Duke and Mo. That was a better; the 3 youngsters, all within a year of each other in age, became instant friends. But we ran into a name issue: Mo + Bo = MoBo, BoMo, Bocephus, Bobo, Bozo, etc. You get the idea. The girls started calling him "Nut Horse" and that became "Peanut."

In August 2007, Peanut and Stormy moved from Princeton to a new barn in Pilot Point. Along with the move came sessions with a trainer. Peanut had to work every day. And he was introduced to a bit! But it all paid off. Peanut now has a very nice walk, with a cute little head shake. Not a lot of speed yet, but that will come.

Milestone #1 - Sunday, 11 February 2007 ... First time with a saddle! Peanut wasn't too wild, only a few little baby bucks and a couple of kicks.

Milestone #2 - Monday, 19 February 2007 ... First time with a rider! We were ready for anything, but Peanut only twitched when Lydia (lucky girl) sat down, and then sniffed her boots. Very anti-climatic. Sorry, no pictures; my camera battery died.

Milestone #3 - Sunday, 25 February 2007 ... First show! Lydia and Natasha showed Peanut in the Halter and Showmanship classes. No ribbons, but since all we were really asking was for Peanut to behave, he did marvelously.

Milestone #4 - Sunday, 11 March 2007 ... First bareback ride! And this time I got pictures! (FYI - we're using a bitless sidepull bridle with Peanut; bitting will come later.)

Milestone #5 - Sunday, 22 April 2007 ... First ribbon at a show! Lydia and Peanut won 3rd in English Showmanship.

Milestone #6 - Sunday, 30 March 2008 ... Peanut's first ribbons in rail classes! Emma and Peanut won a 2nd, two 3rds, and a 4th.

Milestone #7 - Saturday, 21 March 2009 ... Peanut and Katrina won Youth High Point at the Walking Tall Ranch Schooling Show (Emma and Stormy won the Adult High Point). To see pictures of a great show, go to Richard Higgins Photography on SmugMug.

Peanut Tales

Setting hoof in North Texas for the first time	Peanut loves Carol!	Will you play with me?	So, how was your day at the show?
	Lydia makes Peanut work. Peanut would rather play with Coda.	3rd in Showmanship MHCT, April 2007

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