Daniel Toffolo of Salem remembers the day two years ago when he brought home a pony named Derby that was more than a bit cantankerous.

“He only bit me once that day, so we said ‘We’ll take him,’” Toffolo smiled.

The pony was to be a companion to a quarter horse mare named Moosewood that the Toffolos had bought only a few days earlier for their daughter Kayden, an avid rider who is now 18. Toffolo and his wife Janet hoped that Derby would come around and become a bit more placid once he moved to his beautiful new barn in the backwoods of Salem.

But the pony kept nipping and kicking for no reason, so Toffolo called Tricia K. Babcock to help the family figure out what to do. Babcock, a mobile horse trainer from Waterford, immediately suspected the main problem was ulcers and recommended a veterinarian to treat the stomach problem.

Derby finally became trainable.

The 66-year-old Babcock has been doing this job a long time, more than 40 years, and she said ulcers in horses are not uncommon. She also often has to recommend the right dentist or blacksmith to help turn the attitude of horses around so they can become rideable.

“I keep my people happy, and I keep my horses happy,” said Babcock, an award-winning rider herself who has ridden with Olympic equestrians and trained police horses and riders. “I try to make learning fun. Nobody gets yelled at. Nobody gets put down.”

Babcock currently trains about 20 horses throughout southeastern Connecticut and beyond, working seven days a week. She has worked with nearly all breeds, including hackneys, Appaloosas, thoroughbreds, draft horses, Morgans and Tennessee walkers.

“I competed my whole life, but I’m done with that aspect of it,” she told me. “Now I help people who have horses so they don’t know what to do.”

Horses she is currently training range in age from 1 year to 28, and riders range from teens into their late 60s. She teaches English riding, Western riding, dressage, saddle seat and jumping among other styles.

Babcock started riding at age 6 and never stopped. She’s been a jumper rider her whole life, and has competed as well in the western style and dressage.

“They’re everything to me,” she said of horses. “They’re my world.”

She began her mobile horse training business in 1981, when it was a very new idea, and now is so popular that she regularly has to turn down business, she told me Friday when I met up with her in Salem.

“I turned four people away last week,” she said. “I’m up at 4 every morning and I want to be done by 1.... The scheduling can be hard because everyone wants 8 o’clock.”

Babcock said she rides a lot of the horses she trains, and that has meant a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, including more concussions than she’d care to count. She usually has a plan for training each horse, but that often gets thrown out as soon as she arrives on site.

The best thing, she said, is teaching riders to train their own horses. You might lose a customer, but it’s the best outcome in the long run.

“It never ends,” she said of training a horse. “It’s like music ... you peal layer after layer.”

Each horse is different. Some have to be ridden every day, while others can go weeks without being ridden and still be fine.

Toffolo, the Salem horse owner, said Derby used to kick him and his daughter when the pony first came to his barn. Getting a halter on the pony was also an ordeal.

“Tricia helped immensely,” he said. “He’s still a little cheeky, but he’s much better.”

Lee Howard is The Day’s business editor. Reach him at l.howard@theday.com.