Barb finished working on the horse. Interestingly, he was
very wound up and appeared tense and reactive. Looking back at the situation,
things make sense to me now (more on that later). But at the time I was just
mystified by the whole episode. The horse was *so* up that Barb was reluctant to
turn him back out. The owner did so; the horse pranced and reared all the way
to the paddock.
That horse had deep and troubling physical issues that the
owners were not addressing. They wanted me to work with the horse anyway and
attributed his behaviors to attitude. I could not do so in good conscience and
we parted ways. The horse never did regain soundness. This was the only time
Barb was able to work on the horse.
And so that was my initial exposure to Mary Debono’s work. I
was intrigued, but did not see it as anything I particularly needed to pursue.
Since Fate/Kismet/God has a sense of humor, of course Mary
was placed in my path again. And again. And again.