Relaxed & Forward Blog

Photo and Poem: No Other

  You are wise to not let me see, stoic one. Show not your age, certainly not a weakness. Be...
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Calming Signals and Color: Do Horses Understand Laughter?

  Every week new research comes out, some more ethically tabulated than others, about science proving horses are intelligent; an...
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Photo & Poem: You Know the Way

  The rhythm of hooves over even soft ground, we’ve lost time out together, rocked safe in the saddle like...
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Free Advice: Everybody’s a Trainer

"What I see astounds me. It's difficult to be around other riders who constantly give advice I didn't ask for."...
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What is an Ethical Ride?

  We are great horse owners. We love our horses. Some of us compete and some stroll around the pasture,...
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The Advantage of Less Time

It's the second big freeze here on the farm and it isn't even Halloween. Much too early for such polar...
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Calming Signals and the Myth of Desensitizing

  This chestnut mare is all that. Alert. Intelligent. Willing. And in possession of the quickest response time of any...
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Calming Signals: What is a “Hard No?”

  I worry that humans are losing the ability to carry on a polite conversation. I'm talking about civility of...
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Photo & Poem: Payment Due

  No more lingering in the melon-colored dusk, grazing late to the barn. The pasture is finished, even the weeds...
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Photo and Poem: Black Bay

  She was for sale: a black bay Arabian mare and I was looking for a beginner lesson horse. Tacked...
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The Real Helmet Heroes. (#ihad, #riders4helmets)

This week was ordinary in the horse world. We love horses, who have the quickest response time of any domestic...
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Does Your Horse Need a Tune-Up?

  This is how it goes: Sometimes it's just fine to go lollygagging around. The time isn't right; you're hungry...
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How to Have a Conversation with Someone Who Doesn’t Talk

People talk to horses constantly. The words are unintelligible most of the time, to both us and the horse, but...
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Photo & Poem: I Cannot Know

  We became strangers. I thought I knew her so well; that place just back from her ears where her...
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Photo & Poem: Sentient

  Long in the tooth, people say. Gray hairs dusting his temple, this gelding plays the part of good uncle,...
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Aggressive or Assertive?

She was a breathtaking draft-cross mare who I met at Duchess Sanctuary this year. There was just a presence about...
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Photo& Poem: Go Fish

  Mom took us kids in the station wagon to the church bazaar. Homemade women’s goods for sale; boring cross-stitched...
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Brain Science as a Training Aid

  It was a two-day-long science class and we were promised a brain dissection. I signed up immediately and have...
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