RELAXED AND FORWARD: Since 2010, an archive of weekly horse training essays. My dogs say it's their turn now. Happy to oblige, it's all affirmative. Including words from a gray mare on the fine art of aging cantankerously.
Life Coach: The Goat Version
It was a beautiful end-of-summer afternoon, just about feeding time. Cupid had been with us a few months by then....
Photo & Poem: Holiday Place
You had a plan for how this would go when you left home. Longing for a thing different than...
Calming Signals and Color: Do Horses Understand Laughter?
Every week new research comes out, some more ethically tabulated than others, about science proving horses are intelligent; an...
Photo & Poem: Tea
Stomping in the back porch to knock the dirt off my boots, there’s too much wind to work outside...
What is an Ethical Ride?
We are great horse owners. We love our horses. Some of us compete and some stroll around the pasture,...
Photo & Poem: Goodnight
Leaning on the gate. Checking water tanks at dusk, one last glance at the herd before heading in. Feeling...
The Advantage of Less Time
It's the second big freeze here on the farm and it isn't even Halloween. Much too early for such polar...
Calming Signals and the Myth of Desensitizing
This chestnut mare is all that. Alert. Intelligent. Willing. And in possession of the quickest response time of any...
Photo & Poem: The Call
To feel the red soil, fine dust to pea gravel, with each toe through the sole of my shoe....
Calming Signals: A Vow of Silence
By now you should snort out loud when someone says their horse is ignoring them. Really, is there a more...
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