I know everyone considers their horse as special - but Leo really is a case and a half, here's why:

He used to be a fairly successful harness racer, a pacer at that (with a lateral trot rather than diagonal) until an accident on track put an end to his career. I still have no detail about what happened, but it resulted in him being sold for meat, when someone took pity on his handsome features and bought him.

Unfortunately they hoped to retrain him into a winning show jumper, but hadn't reckoned with his injury - having bought him on looks alone. So when the huge scars on his back legs and his rather wonky way of going came to light, she then abandoned him in the middle of winter last year. Luckily he was on livery at a stable that also runs a small rescue centre, but with his routine gone he was very nervous, hard to catch to feed and rug up - but even then she had left no winter rugs for him!  Added to the fact that the yard had recently suffered a devastating fire that had destroyed three stables and a barn with most of the spare tack/rugs etc (though luckily with no lives lost) things were pretty tough all round.

I had just started to help out there and was asked if I could try to catch him and bring him in so we could get a good look at his condition - a minute and a polo later and out I come with Leo mooching along behind me - we stuck with each other from then on. After a lot of legal wrangling to get him signed over by his absentee owner, Leo was mine and came to join me at Uni where I am part way through studying an Equine Management degree.

As he gained condition I started gently exercising him, this progressed to riding him on short walks: I couldn't do much ground work in-hand as I'm disabled with a weak & nerve-damaged left knee so need a stick/brace or crutches to walk.  Everyone joked that the two of use limped to the same side!  But it soon became evident that far from being unsound - he was simply 'mechanically compromised' and so the long process of retraining him began.

7 months on and he's learned to trot diagonally, canter, manages poles and small jumps with ease, his hindquarters have evened out and his muscle balance is now almost equal. Regular sessions with a local wizard of both McTimoney and Equine Touch have helped, along with work on a water treadmill and a gradual exercise programme. In the last month, after hearing about the EquiAmi from Kathryn Nankervis whilst at the British Dressage Sports Science Seminar at Hartpury this year, it too has been added to his regime - and the results have been fantastic.

His normally very high head carriage was beginning to come down, but it was sporadic and never really maintained for long. The EquiAmi has helped enormously - though he did have to learn to lunge first as he'd never done that until 5 weeks ago! He'll now maintain a much more consistent self-carriage that looks more like a normal horse and far less like a camel with its ears up your nose! His musculature is defining itself quite nicely and has really built on the treadmill work.

All in all he's nothing like the horse he was early last year - and all for the better.

He's yet to transfer his lunge work to being under the saddle completely - but the signs are there and he's getting better all the time. It won't be long before he'll be ready for me to buy the riding aid as well to continue to help him progress.  Just to give you an idea of how well he's done in such a short time, here are a couple of links of his first session and then again after 3 weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbPStEkbRss&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTcej2gLT-g

So again, thank you for coming up with such a wonderful aid. There is nothing to fight against, restrain or force - just gentle encouragement that is just what I was looking for and Leo needs

I've no problems with you using anything I've sent to help promote the aids. Having something that is so harmonious to the horse’s natural biomechanics, whilst also providing real results, is something worth shouting about.

To fill in a few gaps about Leo - he's a Standardbred and 14 now; he'd raced from a 2 year old for about 10 more years - so to break the cycle of slack stomach, tense and hollowed back and high head carriage that is a mark of a pacer was somewhat of a challenge. As far as I know he'd never really been ridden much before either.

You may have noticed, in the first video he's actually using his regular bridle, which is a Dr Cook's cross-under bitless bridle. I worked to the theory that for all his life, a bit in his mouth meant racing and the associated gait and body position, in trying to break him out of that I went with something he would have never been used in and would have no pre-conceived ideas on how he should react. It has paid off as he is still ridden in the bitless, though occasional sessions were tried with a bit again, he'd almost immediately revert to type.  After a couple of sessions with the EquiAmi in his Dr Cooks, I tried him in a Happy Mouth snaffle and he had no adverse reaction to it at all. So this has also been the first step to slowly reintroducing him to a bit - and as you saw by the latest video he's fairly happy with it on the lunge.  Part of the reason for the change was that with a cavesson, it does interfere with the action of the bitless bridle slightly, similar to using a bit and simply looping the lunge line through the rings and over the poll. If I can engineer a method of lungeing with both the EquiAmi and the Dr Cooks that will not alter the action of the bridle I'll let you know.

The accident left him with a twisted pelvis (which is almost sorted now), but most significantly with severed annular ligaments to his hear hind, resulting in a significantly slack extensor tendon (so slack you can grab it though the skin and wiggle it about above the cannon bone!). This gives him the habit of dragging his near hind toe and using a kind of 'hitch and swing' motion with that leg. The supposedly 'good' one he then drags right under himself to support the (formerly) weaker one.  His muscle development is now even and so most of the current gait work is focused in getting him to work that little bit harder to pick up the near hind as normal and re-balance himself back to a more even sequence of footfalls.

His used to be incredibly fast in all gaits, walk, trot, pace and canter, but this legs generally went everywhere like some kind of epileptic camel and though he could manage straight lines, he lost it completely at a corner. We would go out on hacks and whilst a friend's horse (the same size as Leo at 17 1hh) would be comfortably cantering - Leo would be keeping up with an effortless pacing trot! ;-)  Significant work has slowed him down, but only really since using the EquiAmi has he really started to become centrally balanced enough to begin to develop his own rhythm.

I'll definitely keep you updated on his progress. KL

Another lovely endorsement from another very happy customer:-

I just wanted to drop you a line to say how wonderful I think  your product is.
 
I have just started lungeing Sky who has just turned 3 in preparation to starting him at the end of the summer. From the start I have used your product and the transformation is amazing. He really does not look like the same pony. We are just at the start and I know there are more improvements to come.
 
I showed Sky and last year we were achieving 5th and 6th place. The last 2 shows we have been to we have been placed 2nd and 3rd and I know he will just keep getting better.
 
So thanks for your great invention. I have told all my friends who are trialling mine so I hope you get a few more sales from it.
 
Regards  Terri

A new endorsement; June 2009