Relaxed & Forward Blog

How to Focus Simply.

I had just finished a lesson when another woman I knew at the barn came up to me with a...
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Forging a Path: What to Do Next With Your Horse.

It's that time of winter when you half-think spring isn't real. Are you frustrated with how you and your horse...
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Calming Signals and Why the Second Time’s a Charm.

Want to know the smallest thing you could change in training for the biggest improvement? I usually say doing a...
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Beyond Legal Whiskers

The International Federation for Equestrian Sports unanimously banned horse whisker trimming, effective 1 July 2021. Horses snort and rub their...
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Take a Cue from Your Horse

He was a bright young gelding. Alert, athletic, and so willing. One day he would become the kind of breathtaking...
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Real-Time Communication: The Land of What-If

My horse always pulls his head away. My horse never wants to go first on the trail. My horse always...
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How a Legend is Born

What is it about horses? I think I might have drawn them on cave walls at the beginning of time,...
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Confidence Lost and Found

  We thought having a horse would make everything perfect. It's a dream most of us were born with; we...
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Finding Your Horse's Sense of Humor.

His name is Normandy, but he goes by Norman at home. He's been here almost a year now; he belongs...
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Riding From Behind

In my fantasy world, you've read about leading from behind and beyond, and tried it with your horse. It wasn't...
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Leading from Behind, Part One.

Here's Norman, the new kid at the barn. He's a young Percheron-TB cross with pretty wonderful gaits and a sweet...
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Riding: If We Can’t Feel It, We Can’t Fix It.

    After the last blog, a friend/trainer thought legs should have been mentioned. Or as she put it, "'The...
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See It Through His Eyes

It's a perfect day. No wind, not hot. The kind of day that you spend most of the months of...
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Building the Bubble #5. Just Honor Them

  Some of us value horses for their physical working ability on ranches, we "use 'em hard." Decent care, no...
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Building the Bubble #4. Just Train Less

It's an obstacle course, by golly. And there's a pedestal, by golly. We both see it, but one of us...
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Building the Bubble #3. Just Move

Morning. Once she's turned out, she bolts to a soft spot and rolls, and then this. No, her tail isn't...
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Building the Bubble #2. Just Converse

  One of us flaps our legs while standing still, banging our boots in the stirrups, twisting around in the...
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Building the Bubble #1. Just Notice

Here's last week's Pretending to be a Horse scenario, from the equine point of view, abbreviated for sense-limited humans. His...
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