Calming Signals and Feculence
I'm responding to a request to write a few words about poop. "BM, defecation, excrement, fecal matter, the deuce, sh*t,...
Calming Signals: Planning for Stress
Calming signals are an animal's emotional response to their environment, expressed in body language, sometimes in increasing anxiety moving toward...
Homeschooling Your Horsemanship
In one online class this week, a woman in Maine said it was 90 degrees that day and her...
Advice? Take a Deep Seat and a Faraway Look…
My young horse was lame, so my mentor asked if I'd like a lesson on her horse. It wasn't a...
Affirmative Training: A Cowboy Walks Into a Bar…
A cowboy walks into a bar. He's dusty, fresh from the barn. Shuffling his feet, keeping his eyes low, he...
Horses and the Pain We Can’t Stop.
The Grandfather Horse: Dirt Bath Interrupted. We've all done it. We look at that horse and...
Calming Signals: How Do You Listen To a Horse?
What is your first memory of listening to a horse? Not standing next to a horse and being certain he...
Horse Intelligence: What Are We Missing?
I love reading about science like hungry people love over-cooked greenish-gray Brussel sprouts. And that's the kind of sentence...
Whoa. A Hands-Free Halt.
She's an 18hh Thoroughbred-Shire cross. She's 30 years old and her name is Thyme. I'll give you a minute to...
Spring Fever, Bad Behavior, or Flight Response?
It's February on the high prairie at the fringe of the Rocky Mountains. The pond is still frozen so there...
Can Horses Forgive Us?
The reader said that an essay I'd written "brought to mind how many times my involuntary predatory instincts have surfaced...
Calming Signals: “But My Mare Likes This Bit”
I arrived at the clinic grounds Friday afternoon so I could meet the organizers and check out the facility. They'd...
The Solitary Journey to the Heart of One Horse
I listened to a podcast interview with Jane Goodall this week. She is my personal superhero, and I will never...
Calming Signals: How the Farm Says Thank You.
It's Thanksgiving time and I should write something special, but I feel kind of ordinary. All I...
Altering Time to Benefit Your Horse
You have a plan for your horse and an expectation of how it will go, but it's taking way too...
Who’s Risk-Averse?
This week a stranger asked for my prayers. She posted a photo of an incredibly young girl with a crushed...
Human Calming Signals: Authenticity
Some people are just so effortlessly magic with horses. They seem to do nothing, but horses hang on their every...
Human Calming Signals: What’s Your Barn Persona?
How aware are we when we pull on a persona? We're usually aware when we tidy one up to make...
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