2023 – present
Leo’s family reached out to me because they were struggling to adjust to owning a new horse. They had had him for a year and had been working with a trainer with little success. His favorite pastimes were charging at his owner and trying to bite at her. After watching a little video of their interactions I could tell that his intent was playful and not aggressive and that his owner’s body language was accidentally confusing him. I explained what I was seeing to her mother and how I felt that I could help. We moved Leo here a week or so later and started our work. He was severely overweight. He was very bored from living alone in a small paddock. And he didn’t understand his role as a mature horse. His owner wanted him to be a liberty horse. His story was that he was gelded late and was essentially a 2-year-old horse in a 9-year-old body. My first step with him was to let the other horses help me. I turned him out with a small herd of 5 other horses who wouldn’t put up with his playful antics. A few days later I began lunging him. He needed discipline but was easily corrected. He understood my body language and was eager to learn. Over the next 6 weeks, we introduced increasingly difficult questions. Adding leading, backing up, ground manners as well as trot poles and small jumps on the lunge.
