Relaxed & Forward Blog

Affirmative Training: Navigating the Nebulous.

"I have a three-step process guaranteed to transform your horse into your perfect partner and it only costs ten thousand...
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Mental Maturity in Horses

Darryl, Darryl, and his other brother, Darryl I've never been good at remembering dates, so sometimes...
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Why “Ride ’em Through It” Is a Bad Idea

"Sure, your horse is tossing his head and wringing his tail, but you push him on. More leg. Ride 'em...
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What’s Love Got To Do With It? [Horse Version]

We love horses. We love to say it loud and proud. We love the ones we grew up with and...
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A Training Question About Hurrying Horses …and a Grass Fire

I see people in the grocery store thoughtfully reading labels and pondering choices. The Dude Rancher and I look like...
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The Simple Truth About Complicated Training

It was back around the time the light bulb was invented. My Grandfather Horse was a lanky spooky colt, I...
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Affirmative Training: Response Time and a Hail Mary Pass

My client and I were having an online meeting. We'd been working on a systematic process of getting her and...
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Does it Feel Like Everyone is Watching You?

It's you and your horse. Sometimes people looking at him think he isn't much but that's because they don't know...
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Calming Signal Substitutions: Helping Your Horse

Most of us are old enough to remember what a rolled-up newspaper is for. Wacking the dog, of course. Because...
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What Does it Mean to be Domesticated?

If you have been reading along for the last 1300 or so weekly essays of mine, you know sometimes I...
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A Love Letter to Dirt.

It's the eve of Christmas Eve and I'm worried about my dirt. Maybe the world has bigger problems and maybe...
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Patience in Real Time

A clinic organizer was telling me about a trainer she brought in, someone whose approach was significantly more aggressive than...
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Brain Science and the Art of Play

It's cold on the flat windy treeless prairie of Colorado. The next few months will be even colder but right...
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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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Gray Mares, Time, and Priorities

Do you notice that it gets a little easier to be yourself every day? Public speaking wasn't the sort of...
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How Horses Train Us

You are a horse trainer. It does not always give me joy to say so, but it's true and other...
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What Does Having a Connection With a Horse Mean?

What does it mean to have a connection with a horse? You just know I'm going to be a loudmouth...
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A Legacy of Homegrown Ingenuity and Bull-Headed Confidence

I am the great-granddaughter of pioneers. They traveled far, mixed their blood with those not like them, and built lives...
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