Highlands, NC
 Dear Morgan:
Just a note to thank you again for the wonderful training Apollo received during his eight weeks at your "boarding school," as my daughter refers to it.
He has now been home six weeks. In that time, we have changed barns and attended three shows in three different venues. Through it all, Apollo has been so calm and well behaved. We are so pleased with him. He definitely has the best ground manners of any of the horses at either of our barns. He has gone from being unpredictable and spooky even at home to being calm and trustworthy even in unfamiliar places.
As you know, my daughter wanted to show him as a hunter. We had lost our faith in him because he had a tendency to spook and run off. At our last two shows, he has been the calmest horse there. He comes to the table with energy for his jumping rounds, but isn't excited or difficult when it is not his turn in the course.
Yesterday, I took him as lead horse on a long ride on a new trail with my daughter and her friend. Apollo was great. He was totally under control. When we came up to boats in the water and on the shore of the lake he just looked at them and went on. Old tires by the side of the road - no problem. I did get off and lead him across a wooden bridge he had not seen before, but I feel confident he will cross it next time. I am so happy with him. I am no longer afraid that he is going to take advantage of my (lack of) riding ability. I may end up keeping him for myself and getting my daughter another horse to jump.
We have also put your techniques to work on our nine year old mare. Her trailer loading and her ground manners have improved dramatically from even our amateurish training. She has been a beginner horse and allowed to get away with a lot of bad behaviors. But we are finding that just fifteen minutes of ground work, prior to a ride, does wonders for her attitude.
Working with you has been an absolute pleasure, Morgan. I enjoyed my three trips up to Warrenton for my own training. In your straightforward and kind way, you taught me a lot about training and riding in those several days. Since I hadn't really ridden much in thirty years, it did wonders for my confidence.
I also appreciated your availability to help us by phone when we first had Apollo home and were having trouble properly executing some of the training methods. I am sure we are still not doing everything perfectly, but we are really enjoying this horse. Since we were ready to give up on him before we sent him to you, we are so grateful and thankful that we found you!
With warm regards,
Dinah Davis
Highlands, NC
June 13, 2008
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