Episode description
Kristi Gravrock is a long time animal trainer having worked with dogs, horses, orcas, cats, dolphins and more. Her passion for training goes back to her early childhood pets before her first horse. Today, when she isn't competing in dressage, she uses her decades of experience with zoological species to train service dogs and mini horses. While there are many similarities to training dolphins for swim programs and dogs or minis for hospital and nursing home visits, one key difference is the people involved. According to Kristi, unlike working in a zoo environment with other trainers, most lay people react unpredictably around animals and don't know much about training. So to be successful in the service animal space visiting people who are often frail with serious health issues, animals must be extremely well desensitized to the unexpected. This emphasis on desensitization is particularly important working with prey species like equines.