Calming Signals and Boundaries
A request to write about boundaries, in which the Loudmouth Party-Pooper returns. Am I allowed a pet peeve? I've began...
Photo & Poem: Let Down
So convinced of her isolation, she had become its primary cause. So exhausted to chance, she had retreated to...
Does Your Horse “Respect” You?
I'm just the sort of old-fashioned cowgirl/dressage queen/dork that loves the concept of respect. Philosophically and in real life, I...
Photo & Poem: Finding Voice
“Curiosity is a sign of courage,” she said, hushing my correction. Bright praise for my colt chasing her dog...
Calming Signals and Ambivalent Horses.
Humans are impatient worriers. On the high side, it means we care but we want to know everything immediately. Perhaps...
Photo & Poem: Her Return
Lawn chairs got tossed, doors banged and windows rattled. She came back late, maybe even drunk. When I ventured...
Change: A Virtual* Barn Raising!
No, I'm not building a real barn. That would be easy. I'm handy with tools and I've been known to...
Barn Raising this Friday!
We're making some upgrades, remodeling the website, and adding on a new "Barn". We'll go dark for a few days...
Forward: Give Him His Head
Give him his head. You know what it means in the horse racing world and what it means in the...
Photo & Poem: Corgi Moon
The prairie rings with strange voices, this Wolf Moon is owned by coyotes, less visible by day in dry winter...
Ta-Da! Meet Me at the R&F Barn.
Ta-Da! Join Me at the Barn. Who knew I would love giving clinics this much? In the past, I’ve always...
Forward: Relaxed or Lazy?
Forward, having a ground-covering fluid gait, is the foundation of balance and comfort for a horse, mentally and physically. Horses...
Relaxed or Lazy?
Forward, having a ground-covering fluid gait, is the foundation of balance and comfort for a horse, mentally and physically. Horses...
Photo & Poem: Snapshot
How did these things get so old, when I remember as if just a week has passed? This snapshot of...
Training Issue or Pain?
"My horse won't go forward," she says. Are you sure he isn't in pain? "No, he's fine. No signs of lameness." Not going...
Forward: Training Issue or Pain?
"My horse won't go forward," she says. Are you sure he isn't in pain? "No, he's fine. No signs of lameness." Not going...
Photo & Poem: Old Guests
Told to fear the dark, my tiny legs bolted the breathless distance from the milking barn across to the house,...
Writing and Riding
Happy New Year. It's my ninth year of writing this blog about riding. Thank you for reading along, and I...
Photo & Poem: After Snow
This night snow floats down, each flake so light that it doesn’t land so much as hover precariously over fence...
Ta-Da! Join Me at the Barn.
Who knew I would love giving clinics this much? In the past, I've always done a scant few a year...
Photo & Poem: Calming Signal
inhale light exhale peace ... Every good wish from our herd to yours, with gratitude for all you have given...
Mucking on Winter Solstice
From Australian kangaroos sleeping in the dressage arena to Scottish castle ruins by the side of the road to the...
Photo & Poem: Dark Solstice
Christmas lights are a poor trade for the wildfire clouds at dawn, iridescent light draining the midnight purple fringe from...
Calming Signals Aren't Calming
Lots of the people who come to Calming Signals clinics are bright-eyed and hopeful that I have a signal to...
Photo & Poem: Not Allowed
Animals were not allowed in our farm house, three rooms and an attic. Dark mornings with frost on the inside...
Calming Signals from the Saddle.
Say you're learning to read calming signals, so naturally, you're scrutinizing your horse. Staring like a coyote. Very quietly...
Photo & Poem: Ice
Clouds fell to the ground in a fog, the air dense as mud forcing the sun dark early, resting so...
Calming Signals and Equine Stress
From a reader: What I am learning from you, Anna, is helpful as I work to understand the horse. What...
Photo & Poem: Stetson
Sweat-stained pinch front Stetson, the flat color of sand, perched over straight eyebrows. I asked after the swayback sorrel grazing...
Calming Signals and "Happy" Horses
Blog I'm now officially calling this my Loudmouth Party-Pooper Series. Today I'm writing about love and happiness, for horses, not...
Photo & Poem: Thanksgiving
We’d be grateful for a kind winter. If that works out, maybe a sweet season of green grass, probably not...
Photo & Poem: Thanksgiving
Relaxed & Forward Blog We’d be grateful for a kind winter. If that works out, maybe a sweet season of...
Calming Signals and Sensitive Noses.
"But My Horse Asks Me to Maul His Nose." I had questions about my loudmouth party-pooper post last week where I...
Photo & Poem: Winter
A night so frigid the snow stopped at midnight, the farm dark under thick clouds. He takes a shallow...
Calming Signals and Loving Your Horse
On any ordinary day of any year, we get so filled with emotion talking about a ghost horse that our...
Photo & Poem: Moonlit
The path north to the barn, icy mud slick with decomposing leaves, as a spent season slips away under the...
Calming Signals and Pressure.
Pressure. Even the Word Makes My Head Explode. Remember that circus old-time act with lions and tigers? We were supposed...
Travelblog NZ: The View From the Arena Middle
Let me see. Where was I? Yes, having the time of my life at Equidays in New Zealand. On...
Photo & Poem: Soft
Hands go soft, give him his head. The red gelding wants to be braver than he is, shaking his neck...
Always Begging for Hay
Horses eat like a horse. They're designed to graze most of the day. I think horses worry about their next...
How to be Interesting and Mysterious
Humans can be such dullish boors to horses. Not that we would ever actually admit that. Some of us...
Travelblog: Business Pajamas to New Zealand
To get to New Zealand from Colorado, it's usually a twenty-five or thirty-hour trip. The big hop in this flight,...
Photo & Poem: Ghost
Her big sister won a contest, sharing breakfast with minor horse celebrities, so this shy red-haired girl with glasses...
Dismounting: How the Ride Ends
You're riding a horse who has taken care of you for years. You're riding a young, greener-than-green horse. You're...
Photo & Poem: Respite
Caramel and blond, a mare as beautiful as she is wildly alert to every sound, brittle bravado searching for control...
Finding Your Horse's Sense of Humor.
His name is Normandy, but he goes by Norman at home. He's been here almost a year now; he belongs...
Photo & Poem: Other
Stalking each other, the pale color of prairie straw, she should be a coyote but her tail has short...
Hindsight Argument for Affirmative Training
He was a huge gelding with obvious draft blood. I could see white all the way around his eye. It...
Photo & Poem: Scream
Her crusty old body wobbles, too frail to run on uneven hooves, no energy to eat. Don’t call her...
Consistency in All the Right Places.
In the winter months, below-freezing mornings make for stiff joints and a cold bit; midday riding is the best. As...