Relaxed & Forward Blog

Nube: How a Horse Taught Me a Canter Cue

The short version is that my horse poked me in my sit bone, which isn’t possible, is it? But let’s...
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Balancing Energy with a Horse

Is your horse lazy? Lazy is a name we call horses when we want to denigrate them by comparing them...
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Horses Measuring Intelligence in Humans

It's my fault for asking for blog topics. She writes, "Can you possibly do a blog post on why your...
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Undomesticated Women. Anecdotal Evidence from the Road

30 states, 2 oceans, 14,000 miles, 8 months Welcome to our year of living compactly. My dog, Mister, and I...
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The Difference Between Peaceful Persistence and Nagging.

Today, I’d like to use you as a human demo horse. Please, play along with me. Let’s say you come...
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Letting Edgar Rice Burro Get Old

Edgar Rice Burro runs with a gang of misanthropes. A goat whose broken leg healed stiff, so he has an...
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The Difference Between Training and Retraining a Horse

Lesson #1. Learning to Lead Horse Training is the process of collecting good experiences. Let it...
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Human Calming Signals: Help Your Horse to Take Your Cue

You think it's a simple task you're asking your horse to do. You use an affirmative approach, not willing to...
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Nube: How to Train a Horse to be Patient

I don't like cameras. How you can tell is my neck swells up and my double chins flare out wider...
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Human Calming Signals: Actions Louder than Words

"Anna, after reading this piece I realized that I know how to do this; just not with horses. As a...
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Undomesticated Women, Anecdotal Evidence from the Road

Amanda and Stable Relation at the Pan Am Games. I don't know if I told you......
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Focus is Active Listening. Horses Do It Naturally.

I had a friend who used to write me little vignettes about the antics of her and her horse at...
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Do You Have Coyote Eyes? How to Look Without Looking

Can you tell when someone's looking at you? Or maybe a child in a waiting room, or it could be...
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Peaceful Persistence, a Horse Training Manifesto

  What does "not conceding" mean? Oh, I can't wait to bray about this, says this trainer whose spirit animal...
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Calming Signals: What If Horses Are Meant to be a Mystery?

I'm not sure when I started sitting on horses, but I hadn't started school. You couldn't really call it riding....
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Legacy: We’re Riding for the Next Horse

Driving home through northern Colorado yesterday, I passed the Berthoud off-ramp. Otherwise known as the Grandfather Horse off-ramp. I've only...
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Bhim: Through Life Drama and Training Plateaus

It's been six months now since starting Bhim's Training Diary online. But time is a fluid thing for a horse....
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Nube: Ulcer Nostalgia and What I Didn’t Know

I get nostalgic for the days when I didn't know what I know now. I miss the bittersweet, marginally innocent...
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