Bend… Like a Crescent Moon.
I arrived at the barn mid-fight. The barn manager was refereeing a dust-up between a trainer and a boarder who...
Touchy About Bits.
Confession #1: There was a time that I would have sold my soul for a spade bit with 12" shanks....
Touchy About Contact
Question from a reader with a mouth-sensitive green horse: " ...when I watch a video of me riding I worry that...
Circling Back: How We Became One.
We were hooked and it was written all over us. The first weird looks passed between our parents. We were...
Photo Challenge: Easy Being Green
I’ll take this gray rain to wet a controlled burn in my lungs that’s taken my air and dropped...
What Are Your Legs Doing? (Half-halt Help)
How are the half-halts coming? Does a breath and a light thigh pulse work? Or are your legs exhausted by the end...
Photo Challenge: Atop
It's an inherited seat; elders and babies ride loose in time, strong and vulnerable and not quite domesticated. Sky-tall and exquisitely...
The Mysterious Half-Halt
Thanks to a request, I'm writing about the half-halt. Ever notice how every definition you read starts with the disclaimer that it's the...
Photo Challenge: Wish
We felt them close before we had skin; from an infinite prairie the vibration began. A slow rolling nicker rumbled,...
Do You Communicate Like a Coyote?
Some of us baby-talk and cuddle our horses like they're twelve-hundred-pound teddy bears. Some of us enter the pen with...
Part Two: Norman, Is That You? (The Reactive Horse)
Last week, I wrote about horses who are The Strong Silent Type. This horse is the opposite. Describing him sounds...
Part One: The Strong Silent Type (Of Horse)
I've said it before: While growing up, I saw She Wore a Yellow Ribbon more often than I saw my...
What To Do When Your Horse Is Wrong
It started small. It started the way it usually starts; the rider pulled on her horse's face. It's a fundamental disagreement:...
Photo Challenge: Shadow
I mean to blur the edge, a half-stop between dark and light, of the distance between us. He's walked on from this...
Thin Horses, Body Scoring, and Inconvenience.
Start here: There is no rule that says when a horse's age goes up, his weight needs to come down. Age is no excuse...
Photo Challenge: Solitude
Out on the fringe of wrong, and late, and forgotten, and just not being a match, hold and...
Email Subject Line: "Do I Want a Horse?"
February 2nd, 10 pm, 12 degrees. There was dense fog all day. We didn't see the sun and the temperature stayed...
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