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