Can You Afford a Pet?
I never thought I'd say this. Me, of all people. But do you ever think we might need some balance...
Deconstructing Horse Aggression
When I got home after school, I walked in the front door, dropped my books, and walked out the back...
Culture Wars in the Barn
There is a recent article in the NYT about the culture wars going on in dog training that's worth reading....
Famous Cruelty, Ordinary Cruelty, and an Affirmative Solution
Another story of cruelty hit the international press last week. Operation X documented horrors happening in a well-known Danish...
Thanksgiving: Our First Horse Was a Dog
Meet my dogs, Preacher Man, Mister, and Jack. They're in the doorway to my writing studio. It's Thanksgiving night, which...
The Difference Between Training and Retraining a Horse
Lesson #1. Learning to Lead Horse Training is the process of collecting good experiences. Let it...
Bhim: The Thing About Dimensionally Succinct Horses
I've written "The Thing About" essays on Mares, Geldings, and Donkeys to dispel untrue myths and sing their praises. These...
How to Stop Taking Your Horse Personally
Bhim is a one-of-a-kind, I surely hope. People might say he's still with me ten years after he came for...
The Season of Letting Go
The autumnal equinox is about change. There's a miserable fog today, dense and so uncommon on my high prairie. Chilly...
There Will Be No Faith Healings Today
We've all seen it. Someone holding a lead rope and hyper-stimulating a young horse with a stick until he...
Mental Maturity in Horses
Darryl, Darryl, and his other brother, Darryl I've never been good at remembering dates, so sometimes...
Calming Signals. You Can’t Save ‘Em All. Cat Version.
I walk in my pasture. Women of a certain over-thinking age do well to put a few miles in a...
A Book Report and What We Know Now.
A bit of explanation: I grew up on a farm without a bookshelf. We were not readers. Once we finally...
For the Fragility of a Horse…
"When we see horses galloping with ears sharp, tails flagged, and hooves churning up the soil, they are the epitome...
Life Happens: The Unplanned Dismount
"I owned horses for 20 years until divorce happened," the reader said, asking me to write about it. "I think...
Can Horses Forgive Us?
The reader said that an essay I'd written "brought to mind how many times my involuntary predatory instincts have surfaced...
Photo & Poem: As if Love
She declared that she loved her horse as if loving took a sort of noble skill rare to our kind....
Things My Dogs Don’t Care About.
I'm the kind of person who has big dogs. I always have been, not that my dogs care. I have...
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