Windjammer.

[HENRY JAMES ACKERMAN]

Registered Name: Windjammer.
Stable Name: Locke.
Age: Four years.
Gender: Gelding.
Breed(s): Hanoverian x Thoroughbred
Height: 16.1 HH
Discipline(s): Dressage prospect. English under saddle.
Owner(s): Henry Ackerman, used as a school horse.
Personality: Locke is kind of a goofball, a young horse sold as a dressage prospect on not very good advice. He's hyperactive, although well-meaning, an escape artist and a troublemaker. He's still a little green under saddle, not very well focused... and just an all around mess sometimes, but most people admit that Locke is one fun horse to ride. He likes to go fast and doesn't like to collect, although he's very pretty if you can get him to... Most endearing is his in-your-pocket doglike nature on the ground - he's the horse who likes to play tag, runs away in the pasture, and then runs right up to people and bumps them with his nose hard enough to knock them down. A silly boy indeed, Locke will brighten up anyone's day.

He gets along well with most other horses if they can put up with his antics, but he's not at all a bully, he just likes to play and kick up his heels every now and again. A lot of his behavior is just youth and inexperience, though, and he's really willing to work and to learn as long as he doesn't have to keep his attention focused on one thing too long... Henry will let any intermediate or advanced rider on him as long as he's there, because the more work Locke has the better he is. Locke is still trying to figure out exactly what he wants to be, still growing, and is being trained in dressage for now unless it turns out he wants to jump (he's maturing slowly and his knees aren't ready for that kind of thing yet.)
History: Windjammer was one of those strange breedings that people sometimes make, a pretty jumper-type thoroughbred mare to an unproven Hanoverian stud with great conformation. It seemed to work out, though, because Locke was always a very pretty horse. The woman who bred him kept him until he was old enough to be saddle broken and started him pretty late into his third year, because he was always a pretty small, less developed horse than other horses his age. It was a good enough start for him, and he always had his same natural energy. The woman had planned on keeping him just as a pleasure horse, but it was quickly becoming clear that he was bored with that life so she decided to sell him as a jumping or dressage prospect.

Henry Ackerman bought him by almost complete chance. Locke was boarded at the Ackermans' stables before Henry decided to sell them, and at one point the woman who owned Locke asked Henry very nicely if he would ride the horse around and see how he took to a little dressage. Henry did, and found Locke to be a perfectly willing horse and ready to learn... if a bit silly, recommending to her that she sell him as a dressage horse under his personal recommendation. The stable was sold and six months later Henry moved to Gemara, and since he was teaching at an equine academy he figured that he needed at least a school horse. A casual internet search for horses within twenty-five miles of Gemara brought up none other than Locke, moved but still unsold... And Henry bought him. Locke has just moved to Gemara and is getting to learn the ropes pretty soon.