The Messenger's Plight

This is a sketch for a watercolor I plan to do. Originally the sketch was inspired by my neighbor, so I simply put things in it that I guessed she would like. Then I decided that it should be a story, so I've got a complete outline of the story in my "secret" writing notebook. So now it is an illustration of that, even though the picture came first.

It says bigger above the horse because the first horse was too small and the erased word showed up on the scan. It says king fisher next to the bird so that I don't forget and can find a reference for the colors. Did you know that king fishers can live in forests and eat insects? I didn't!

Any suggestions before I water color it?