Relaxed & Forward Blog

1,354th Friday Morning and Not Bucked Off

  No, I’m not dreaming of a career as a hand model. My hands have looked like an elderly mechanic’s...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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The Thing About Dimensionally Succinct Horses

I've written "The Thing About" essays on Mares, Geldings, and Donkeys to dispel untrue myths and sing their praises. These...
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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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Things We Should Refuse to Train Horses To Do

Warning: Loudmouth Party Pooper Rant. I think we all know whose side I'm on in this horse training reality show....
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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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Listening is Acknowledgment: A Gray Mare’s Message

I pulled down the drive to a farm for a Calming Signal intensive. Meeting new horses and people who care...
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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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Helmet Safety and the Ability to Buy Hay

If my horses could see the big picture, they'd still say my job is hay. They have not read one...
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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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Are You Having a Midlife Horse Crisis?

I got an email from a reader last week. She had a hard question. She acknowledges she was naive, but...
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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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There Will Be No Faith Healings Today

  We've all seen it. Someone holding a lead rope and hyper-stimulating a young horse with a stick until he...
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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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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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