Relaxed & Forward Blog

Are We Over-training Our Horses?

My Grandfather Horse was so good with latches he could have broken out of Alcatraz and made it back to...
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Nube. Dark Clouds and Questions With No Answers

Nube (Nu-bay) was particular. He required my undivided attention in the saddle and on the ground. My focus had to...
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Trainer Love: In Memory of Seri

Seri died this week. She was never my horse, but she is part of the trainer I've become. Seri was...
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Nube’s Ulcers: What We Can’t Control and What We Can.

When Nube (nu-bay) was two and first diagnosed with ulcers, it felt rare, almost exotic. People were just learning about...
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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....
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Horse Training Means Affirmative Waiting

Humans, aren't we swell? Compared to horses, we have dim, frail senses, we're seven times slower in our response time,...
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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...
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We’re Not Perfect: The Great Halloween Wreck of ’23.

In my online Barnie group, we do performance art around Halloween. My horse, Bhim, along with Edgar Rice Burro, Arthur,...
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Book Launch: Say Hello to ‘Undomesticated Women’ by Anna Blake

  It's before dawn on a Friday morning and I'm in an RV park in Amarillo, Texas. I've been mud-wrestling...
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Nube: A Living Lesson in “Less is More”

There's a woman and a tall young horse, moving in perfect strides together but with a healthy space between them....
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Riding Lessons: Seeing Your Horse Through New Eyes

A reader request: "I hope you will someday do an article on looking at the horse's ears and eyes to...
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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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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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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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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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