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A spunky and short miniature horse at Woodside’s Wunderlich Park is keeping the county park’s Meet a Mini Horse program alive at Folger Stable. Stormy, a 10-year-old mini horse, has taken over for the beloved Shetland pony Lightning, who died in March 2024.
The Meet a Mini Horse program launched with Lightning during the COVID-19 pandemic as a partnership between Chaparral Ranch and Wunderlich Park. The owners of the ranch were unable to keep up with the cost of his care and offered to lease Lightning to the park’s stables to serve as the program’s ambassador. During his time at Wunderlich Park, he helped comfort community members during a time marked by loneliness, isolation and fear.
After Lightning’s death, Chaparral brought in Stormy to carry on his predecessor’s legacy in May 2024.
“He’s very sweet but he has an attitude,” said 15-year-old Sariah Kazem, who has been taking care of Stormy for the past nine months. Kazem had been struggling a bit, but Stormy has helped her a lot, said her mother Amy Kazem.
Equine therapy has been clinically shown to have benefits for people struggling with anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder and depression. Amy Kazem said that she feels Stormy has been more beneficial to her daughter’s mental health than some humans that have tried to help her.
Once a week, Kazem spends an hour with Stormy, grooming, feeding and taking him on a hike. After spending time with him, Kazem said he feels like a friend. Over time, she’s gotten to see his personality grow and looks forward to seeing him every week.
“I’ve always loved animals and worked with a lot of different ones. It’s been nice getting to know how to work with horses, especially since he’s a mini horse,” she said. Stormy is the first horse she’s ever known.
Since large horses can be intimidating, the mini horse program gives people the space to interact with horses in a safe and approachable manner. Kazem’s mother said she had a negative experience with a horse when she was young but Stormy has been helping her regain her confidence around horses again.
As the ambassador of the program, Stormy meets hundreds of people every week including young children, medically fragile youth, senior groups and park visitors.
“Horses used to be a part of every person’s everyday life a hundred years ago and now it’s very rare,” said Wunderlich Park Executive Director Kym Teppo. “We see it as a special mission to maintain that connection to horses that’s special to people in some way.”
Stormy is still learning the ropes at his new job and Kazem is helping him adjust to the new environment. When she takes him on hikes, it gives Stormy the opportunity to be exposed to hikers, other equestrians and desensitizes him to new things out in the field, said Teppo. As an added benefit, Kazem is able to gain the mental health benefits from being outdoors and working with an animal.
Kazem is part of a pilot program for one-on-one sessions where students have the opportunity to form long-term relationships with horses, Teppo said. Equine assisted therapy can be expensive and organizations often have long waitlists. Kazem’s mother said she’s grateful for Teppo to offer this opportunity to her daughter.
“It’s undoubted that there’s a human horse connection that is so good for people’s mental health,” Teppo added. “Stormy is a great little ambassador for the work that we’re trying to do on a bigger scale, which is showcasing these two parks (Huddart and Wunderlich Park) that we’re stewards of.”
