Kodi is a very special horse and thanks must go to Carlos. Kodi spent his youth roaming free with a mob of approximately thirty unhandled Arabs. The opportunity arose for us to purchase his full sister. When we went to look at her, Kodi cautiously mingled through the mob to see what was going on, taking great care not to invade the space of his father. He caught my eye and much against my better judgment to take on a three year old unhandled Arab stallion, we negotiated for both he and his sister to be purchased. It took half a day to yard the mob on foot and several hours of gentle handling, my old mare to tease him on the float and the journey began. I spent hour upon hour quietly gaining Kodi’s confidence but soon realised that my approach worked well for Kodi and I but others had difficulty getting close to him. He’d lived his life relying on instinct and was determined to continue this way.

Good friends of mine, Carmen and Peter recently had their Irish Draught stallion started with Carlos and Carmen had attended one of Carlos’s clinics. They indicated how pleased they were with the results. I trusted their judgment and booked Kodi in with Carlos. I left a frightened horse who was totally out of his comfort zone and I had faith that Carlos would gain his confidence and lead him forward through the steps to begin his partnership with humans. Meanwhile I madly read Carlos’s book, practicing the techniques he uses on my older horses.

Carlos won Kodi’s confidence and guided him gently through one step at a time building a true human horse relationship. The kindness, skill, techniques and patience that Carlos uses shows through directly into the horse. Through the depth of perception he has for each individual horses personality he works with the horses to create a safe, sensible, responsive, kind horse that is a pleasure to work with every time.

Kodi proved this yesterday, in gale force winds we went out for our first ride along the road which was only his third ride since coming home. We had company for the first time and there were a myriad of new experiences happening all at once. Information overload for a young stallion…what a champion he coped with it all! Carlos has allowed us to begin a partnership that we will share for as long as possible.

Thanks Carlos for this opportunity.

Helen Lambert and Kodi