Relaxed & Forward Blog

When Nice People Carry Whips.

"I just carry the whip. I don't use it." "I do liberty with my horse, it's just an extension of...
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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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Photo and Poem: What If?

  There is a crisp apple coolness to the air. Soon there will be frost, I tell the horses, soon...
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The Thing About Donkeys

I wrote about mares and the response was so huge that I felt guilty and wrote about geldings. Since then,...
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Book Release: Going Steady, More Relationship Advice from Your Horse

Tada! It's here! Going Steady, More Relationship Advice from Your Horse is now available. Find the links for ordering through...
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Photo & Poem: Reluctant

  Stay outside until the sun is low, reluctant to let the day end, tidying halters, raking loose hay into...
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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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Photo & Poem: A Donkey’s Years

  His bray begins with a shallow panting, as he aligns the end of his nose level with his back,...
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What to Do When You See Cruelty

It was a sadly normal week in the larger horse world. Horses got hurt and humans waged war with each...
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Authorblog: A New Book. Does It Count If I Haven’t Suffered Enough?

Writing Stable Relation, my first book, took me sixty years, give or take. Okay, I exaggerate, but I had anxiety...
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Photo & Poem: A Cure for Sadness

  Jerk out the fencing staples and carefully pocket them, leave nothing in the dirt. Pull the sagging wire fence...
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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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Calming Signals: Trust Above Training

It was my job to haul him to his new trainer. He was a bright young gelding, some would call...
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Photo & Poem: When the Sunset is Through With Me

  The sunset plays me. In the heat of the day, colors are flattened by glare and searchlight bluntness, work...
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Calming Signals: Do You Tease Your Horse?

There was a time that I had a basset hound named Agatha and a bunch of friends with toddlers. It...
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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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