This spring I began teaching intermediate-level lessons to a rider who pilots an enormous dark bay draft horse. When I met this gelding, his rider told me he had a barn-wide reputation for being clumsy. For example, they said, “When you are leading him to the paddock, if he turns his head, his entire body swings and follows.”

Equal parts long, lanky, and imposing, what this gelding seemed to lack in self-awarenessÑI tried to feed him a peppermint from my palm and my entire arm disappeared in his cavernous mouthÑhe made up for in his charming personality and willingness to try