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Sue De Laurentis’ mother remembers the first time she saw her daughter on a horse; she was just 18 months old. Now, at the age of 58, horses surround De Laurentis at her boarding and training ranch, Red Horse Ranch, a place that she calls “the ranch that faith built.” Across 30 acres of land, De Laurentis has created a home for dozens of horses, complete with trails for riding and arenas where horse owners can work on training their equine companions. But there is more to it than meets the eye. She has also created a safe place for growth and development, for horses and humans alike.
Though horses have always been a part of De Laurentis’ life, the path to the Red Horse Ranch was not a direct one. For more than 20 years, she worked in radio sales and promotion, keeping distance between her career and her passion. The last two years of her corporate life were spent working for Clear Channel, until De Laurentis experienced an alarming epiphany. “I thought, if I don’t do something, will die from this stress,” she recalls.
Being one to listen to her gut, De Laurentis left the thick concrete of the city behind and decided to expand the horse training classes she was giving in her spare time into a full-time commitment. She bought some property in Dripping Springs and Red Horse Ranch was born.
DeLaurentis and her partner in life and in business, Allen Pogue, use an approach they call “enlightened trick horse training” to train exhibition horses, trick horses and companion horses; a key part of which is training the horse owner to communicate effectively with their horse. “You can’t fool an animal,” she says. “You have to be in the moment. If you lose your focus, the animal disengages.” It is De Laurentis’ philosophy that people can learn a lot from their animals. “Horses are the great equalizer; it doesn’t matter how much money you make or what other accomplishments you may have,” she says. “Horses make you change your expectations.” De Laurentis also believes that horses help humans empower themselves through discernable feedback. “Horses are mirrors. They help people become the best type of leaders, because they reason in two senses: my leader is confident and in control, so I’m safe, or; she’s afraid that something is going to eat us.”
Horses give subtle and not-so-subtle visual and audible cues that can inform the well-attuned trainer about how the horse is feeling, thereby teaching the trainer about what is working and what is not. “Watch horses and note their natural tendencies, then go with those,” De Laurentis advises. “Wipe away your human ideas and look into the horse's eyes; they cannot disguise their feelings.” In this communicative exchange, the trainer must be entirely focused on what she is observing; she can’t be thinking about her job, her finances, her grocery list, or any of the other random and often useless things in which we can find ourselves lost. It is in noticing the horse’s feelings and tendencies that the key to noticing her own feelings and tendencies lies, and when those truths surface, real change occurs. “I believe in building on the strength and nature of the animal,” says De Laurentis. “That applies to all species.”
De Laurentis doesn’t believe in waiting to build on the strength of horses or people; she has trained newborn foals and regularly employs kids at the ranch throughout the year, giving them the opportunity to learn about the care and training of horses, along with a few other things. She is happy to see young girls step away from the computer and the television and get out into the “real world.” “I think it’s important for them to see real women and to see what actually matters,” says De Laurentis. “One day I was walking by two of the young girls who work here and I heard one say to the other, ‘Look, it’s Miss Sue.’ The other girl said ‘No, it’s not.’ Then the first girl said, ‘Yes, she showered!’ “De Laurentis laughs. “They always see me dirty because that’s how it is out here.”
De Laurentis also sees the empowerment girls gain as they develop their ability to handle their horses. “When you have learned to negotiate with a thousand pound animal, you can handle negotiating with people.”
The success of De Laurentis’ work is measurable not only by the beautiful, well-behaved horses at Red Horse Ranch, but also in the women whose lives have been changed with her support and encouragement. De Laurentis has seen empowered women leave lifeless jobs to pursue independent careers doing what they really love. She knows other women who finally dared to explore an avenue of creative expression and were surprised to find that they had a natural gift all along. De Laurentis’ educated advice to all of them and all of us: “Don’t ever give up. You may not know how, but it will happen. You have to keep trying.”
Valuable Life Lessons from Horses:
Give
Think in a different way
Be present
Be curious
Get out of your self
Don’t ever give up
MORE INFO
www.redhorseranch.net