A Message from Heaven (for my professional friends)
I am a woman who possesses an interesting range of enviable skills. Getting surgery is not on the list. One...
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...
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…...
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...
Letting Go of Shame and Blame. Do It for Your Horse.
Nope. Not me. I was allergic to this color, but Hannah dressed for success from the...
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...
Problem Solved: Space to Breathe.
I'm walking next to you and I'm talking loudly. I am so close that you feel the heat of my...
Nube: How We Met
one year later... I was forty- nine years old, and my upcoming birthday was hanging in...
Affirmative Training: The Opposite of Dominance Isn’t What You’d Think
Sitting in a horse pen is the easiest thing in the world. I might even like to cook if I...
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...
An Invitation to a Clinic in Your Home
I have a problem. I'm a clinician who loves her job and at the same time, wonders if there are...
Thank You, Mother: an Ode to a Farm
It's late afternoon as I drive along the front of my farm to the gate. The field fence is shrouded...