Relaxed & Forward Blog

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...
Read More about Do You Have Coyote Eyes? How to Look Without Looking

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....
Read More about Calming Signals: What If Horses Are Meant to be a Mystery?

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...
Read More about Legacy: We’re Riding for the Next Horse

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....
Read More about Bhim: Through Life Drama and Training Plateaus

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...
Read More about Nube: Ulcer Nostalgia and What I Didn’t Know

Training Tip: Improving Your Eye

Sometimes we look back at how we kept horses as kids, and it seemed so simple then. None of them...
Read More about Training Tip: Improving Your Eye

Affirmative Training is Fine, But What-if…

  A few years back, a pretty well-known trainer made a statement about using force with horses. Flat out, the...
Read More about Affirmative Training is Fine, But What-if…

Calming Signals: What Are You Really Afraid Of?

What are you afraid of? Maybe this question. Take a breath and check your shoulders. Are they down where they...
Read More about Calming Signals: What Are You Really Afraid Of?

Nube: We Cheat at Trailer Training

Nube was a beanpole of a yearling. If he and Ernest weren’t trying to get me bucked off a horse…...
Read More about Nube: We Cheat at Trailer Training

Worried About Everything? Protection From the Unexpected

"Want to go on a trail ride with me? The last time I was out, my friend's horse slid into...
Read More about Worried About Everything? Protection From the Unexpected

Nube: An Iberian Stall Toy for the Donkeys

Daryl, Daryl, and their other brother, Daryl. In the first months after coming to our farm,...
Read More about Nube: An Iberian Stall Toy for the Donkeys

How to Measure the Heart of a Horse

Have you experienced this? Someone says something that is a throw-away comment, not meant to be anything, they toss it...
Read More about How to Measure the Heart of a Horse

“How do I stop my horse from doing this?”

"How do I stop my horse from doing this?" An oversimplified version of the most common question a horse trainer...
Read More about “How do I stop my horse from doing this?”

Nube: When He Came Home

I was forty-nine years old with gray hair, calloused banged-up fingers, and chronic lameness in my left foot. He was...
Read More about Nube: When He Came Home

What To Do When You’ve Tried Everything

"I tried everything," my client says. This isn't something that I hear once in a long while. It's a time-honored...
Read More about What To Do When You’ve Tried Everything

Calming Signals: Adjusting the Volume of Quiet

It's been quiet here. Winter is good for that and we haven't had a day above freezing in a while....
Read More about Calming Signals: Adjusting the Volume of Quiet

Cleaning Out the Toolbox

If it weren't for manure frozen into the ice, we'd have no traction at all and it's only the eleventh...
Read More about Cleaning Out the Toolbox

Calming Signals: Repeat after me, “Not that I care…”

Because they're doing construction down the road. His previous owner says he once spooked at a llama. The wind is...
Read More about Calming Signals: Repeat after me, “Not that I care…”

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your name and email to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.