Relaxed & Forward Blog

Loafing in Limbo: Hibernation as a Training Aid

We are in Limbo. It's that week between Christmas and New Year when nobody knows what day it is. Not...
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Silent Night: The Truest Words Aren’t Words At All.

I was standing outside of a hotel at five in the morning waiting for my limo. Obviously, several things had...
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Nebulous Lameness. Nebulous Anxiety. And a List.

Your inner monster screams, "Just Kick Him!" but you don't. You aren't that person. You don't use spurs or whips....
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You Know I’m a Small Business, Right?

Do you like the writing I share? It's free, and it always will be. That's my gift to horses, hopefully....
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Do You Need to Keep Your Horse Calm?

I can't be the only woman of a certain age whose parents thought she needed to be muffled indefinitely. They...
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“Why Don’t You Post Training Videos?”

Photo by Ilona Gerou   It was at the dark ages of VHS, long before the...
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Leading Horses with Spatial Kindness. What?

The exercise was to halter your horse thoughtfully, asking the horse's permission for each step of the process, and acknowledging...
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When Impatience and Cruelty are Normalized

Sometimes I find myself standing in front of people talking about horses' feelings. I'm almost embarrassed; I was raised to...
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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...
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Being the “Good” Horse Isn’t Easy.

People want to tell me about their challenging horse, the quirky one, the scary one, the kill pen (scam) horse....
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Calming Signals: Thoughts About Spooking at Nothing

There are two kinds of spooking. This is the first: It was midmorning on the ranch, and we were riding...
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Reverse Anthropormophism: Building A Better Relationship

Do you ever go to the barn and pretend to be a cowboy? You'd wear the shirt that matched your...
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Calming Signals: What Normal Looks Like

Do you ever think about what horses give up in living with us? Humans have a way of always seeing...
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Horses Are Like Bad Boyfriends (Or Why the Wrong Answer Might Be Better)

Horses are like bad boyfriends because they only want to talk about themselves. Wait, let me explain. First of all,...
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Is Your Horse Mentally Exhausted?

No other animal is quite like a horse; never fully wild and never quite domesticated. Engaged with us but never...
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On The Road for Horses: Adventure, Drama, Dog Hair.

  Aftermarket radar. I hope you didn't worry I'd get lost. I installed radar and didn't...
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The Failure of Good Intentions

There was a time that I thought if I saw my horse curled to one side, itching his flank, I...
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Euthanizing and Herd Anxiety

"I’m wondering if you could address animals and grief in one of your columns. We’ve lost a horse and a...
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