Whispering Winds Riding & Training

In 2021, I had the opportunity to work with Luke, a gelding who spent most of his early life in the pasture. After a rough first trail ride and a confidence-shaking injury to his rider, I was asked to help finish his training.

I spent two years working with him—starting with groundwork and obstacles, gradually building his skills and confidence. Just as we were nearing the end of his training, he suffered a fractured hock. I spent the next six months focused on his rehab, and once he recovered, his owner asked me to continue working with him during her own six-month recovery.

It’s been a long journey, but incredibly rewarding to help Luke grow into a solid, reliable horse and support both him and his rider through the ups and downs.

To tell WindRunner's story, I have to share a bit of my own.

I fell in love with horses when I was about ten years old. My family had the privilege to visit the Sandhills of Nebraska, where we stayed on a family ranch and rode one of their retired cow horses. That experience changed everything for us. We fell in love with the land, the lifestyle, and-most of all-the horses. From that moment on, we knew the country life was what we wanted.

A couple years after that trip, my younger siblings and I began taking riding lessons in early July of 2013 from a kind woman who lived across the street from the church we were attending at the time. We shared our dream of one day owning horses, and she did more than teach us how to ride-she taught us how to care for them. We were eager to learn and picked things up quickly.

My younger brother got his first horse that Christmas. My sister followed just a few months later. I was still waiting for the right one.

The WindRunner came into my life on September 13, 2014.

It was a day like any other-we arrived for our lesson and walked into the barn. Our instructor hadn't come in yet, so it was just the three of us and our parents. As we walked passed the stalls, we noticed a new horse standing quietly in one of them. We figured she must have taken in another boarder and didn't think much of it.

A few minutes later, our instructor came in and told my siblings to go start getting their horses ready. Then she looked at me and told me to come with her. She brought me to the stall and began telling me his story.

He had been rescued by a friend of hers from a heartbreaking situation. He was one of eight neglected horses-plus 2 miniature ponies, one of which, along with one of the horses, was a stallion. All had suffered from underfeeding and mistreatment. After being rescued, WindRunner spent three months recovering under the care of the woman who saved him. She worked patiently to bring the horses back to health until they were well enough to be considered for new homes.

Back then, his name was Snowflake. My instructor said that if I didn't feel a connection, that was okay-we could keep looking-but I was welcome to ride him that day and see how it went.

From the moment I rode him, I knew.

He moved with a smooth, floating gait that felt unlike anything I'd ever experienced. As I rode him a name came to mind: WindRunner. By the end of that ride I knew, he was the one.

He still needed training, which my instructor helped me with. We worked on desensitizing, standing still while mounting, and rebuilding his trust. He was especially fearful of men, likely due to his past, but my father and younger brother were patient and kind, and slowly helped him through that fear.

WindRunner taught me more than I could’ve imagined-about trust, patience, healing and about the deep bond that forms when you earn a horse’s trust after trauma.

He was my first rescue and the reason I started down this path.