Relaxed & Forward Blog

Nube: How We Met

one year later... I was forty- nine years old, and my upcoming birthday was hanging in...
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How to Attend a Clinic

Gray Mare memories: It was one of the first clinics I ever attended. The clinician was famous; I signed up...
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Bit Contradictions: A Confused Conversation

"Slower, please." "Here we go." "Don't bang..." "Almost ready." "... my teeth." "Good..." "Not good." "Stand." "Let go." "Back up."...
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A Different Leg Cue

"My horse won't go forward!" the rider says. Many trainers respond with the traditional battle cry, "More leg!" What does...
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Relaxed & Forward in 2022. Now What?

The lockdown at the beginning of 2020, followed by months of quarantine, was a wonderful opportunity for a thoughtful assessment...
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Why Don’t You Ride?

"Why don't you ride?" It's the question we dread. Sometimes the people who ask are neophytes who don't understand that...
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Virtual Dressage and Girls in White Shirts

The FEI passed good rules this year, and the Olympic judging held to the high side. Dressage had things to...
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Boundaries: Whose Space Is It?

Horses gallop on pounding hooves that cut the ground and then melt to a stop, whiskers floating in the light....
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Is She Still Going On About Helmets?

Riding Habit 1801 Yes. I've been writing in support of helmet use since the start. I...
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Why Horses Don’t Multi-task

Imagine what it means to have senses as keen as a prey animal. Feel the roar of nature even on...
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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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A Short List of Things Horses Don’t Need Us to Teach Them.

If Edgar Rice Burro were to title this Bev Doolittle-like photo, he might call it Beauty and the Beast. He...
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Contact: Wait Too Late… Then Panic

  Dear Fellow Primates: It is our instinct to grab. It is our instinct to talk in imitation-semaphore with our...
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Poetry Out Loud: Horse. Woman.

This blog will get back to some sort of new "normal" soon. What a year, huh? For now, just a...
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Do You Need Riding Lessons?

It was a conversation about riding lessons. My friend said she thought it was strange that I'd worked so extensively...
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What Horses Want to “Talk” About.

  What is it about the snout of an old horse? Especially a pink and black muzzle? How can it...
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Escalation: Finding the Thing Before the Thing.

It feels like you wake up in the middle of a movie, one of those thriller-action plots that have too...
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How To Spoil Your Horse

Will we ever stop telling long-winded horse stories? No chance. We are besotted with horses; we need horse friends because...
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