Calming Signals and the Thing We Call Stubborn
In celebration of Edgar Rice Burro's birthday, he's asked me to rant a bit about the thing humans call stubborn....
Photo & Poem: Flight
So still the herd, taking rest with soft flank to muscled shoulder, as the light shifts cooler. One nose lifts...
Calming Signals and Preacher Man: Still “Reactive” After All These Years
Bear with me, please. I miss my dogs, one in particular. I'm in Dunedin, and he's 12,620 km away. It...
Photo & Poem: Horse Trailer Conversation
Horse Trailer Conversation She takes me from the herd, pulling me to the box. Her hand is thick, there is...
Behavioral Euthanasia of Horses
"Anna, do you have any articles that touch on behavioral euthanasia?" It's from a question about a rescue horse...
Photo & Poem: Wild and Tame
You’ve landed in a place you don’t belong, the cat let me know, as she howled at you on...
Can a Horse Try Too Hard?
It was the first day of a Calming Signals clinic. I was talking to a group of people about leading...
Photo & Poem: Known
Across the long diagonal to the west corner of the dry lot, he’s on the far side of the herd,...
The Horse Trainer and the Dermatologist.
My gray mare calming signals included squinty eyes, a dry mouth, and a weird chicken-like movement with my neck and...
Photo & Poem: Waiting Out the Storm
Rusty coat, a spiky mane, and a spotted blanket, he would have been a firecracker of a colt, plain...
Horses in Solitary.
This is my fence panel. I lost count of the other's just like it, eight, I think. I find them...
Photo & Poem: Burning Snow
Nature swats at the pasty insects fussing with watch stems, adjusting mechanical time. Taking one hour, exactly sixty minutes,...
Creativity and the Problem with Training Techniques.
We were standing around the barn after the vet had left, a group of trainers and riders and horses, telling...
Photo & Poem: Lead Me
The horse’s eye curtained by his forelock, his ear turns to stare back as we walk in matched strides,...
Learning to Let Go: Pearl
She arrived at Infinity Farm unceremoniously. We moved a fence panel, backed the rig in close, and...
Photo & Poem: Explain the Sky
Restless eyes behind closed lids, the early hours lay flat, dull to these scurrying thoughts. Rise to use the...
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...
Travelblog: Addressing the Vegetarian Haggis
And again, sorry if this is a repeat, but it was time for the blog to come home to roost......
Photo & Poem: Snapshot
How did these things get so old, when I remember as if just a week has passed? This snapshot of...
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...
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 drainingthe midnight purple fringe from the...
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...
Horse Prayers. Available. No, Really.
Horse Prayers, Poems from the Prairie. First there were hold-ups in the printing. Then distribution went sideways. There were lost...
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...