Relaxed & Forward Blog

Nube: What If This Isn’t Wrong?

My first ex-husband used to tease me about my frantic love of shortcuts. I was always up early, on the...
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The Joy of Imperfection

We are sick to death of the violence against horses. It isn't just the damage caused by rollkur in reining...
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Are We Over-training Our Horses?

My Grandfather Horse was so good with latches he could have broken out of Alcatraz and made it back to...
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The Gap Between Wanting a Horse and Having the Horse You Want

Sometimes it happens behind a trailer. The horse needs a moment, but the human is in a hurry. Horses and...
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Nube: More Dark Clouds and Questions With No Answers

The worst thing about remembering a horse in the past is that maybe there are current options that your horse...
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Nube: Dark Clouds and Questions With No Answers

Nube (Nu-bay) was particular. He required my undivided attention in the saddle and on the ground. My focus had to...
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How To Buy a Horse

He was a bay gelding in his teens when we met. A Quarter Horse with a bit of a downhill...
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Edgar Rice Burro. All He is Saying is Give Peace A Chance.

Yet another horse trainer got tarred and feathered on social media this week. It happens all the time. People jumped...
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Trainer Love: In Memory of Seri

Seri died this week. She was never my horse, but she is part of the trainer I've become. Seri was...
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Nube’s Ulcers: What We Can’t Control and What We Can.

When Nube (nu-bay) was two and first diagnosed with ulcers, it felt rare, almost exotic. People were just learning about...
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Resolutions and Horse Dreams

It's the twilight zone between holidays, meandering like a long, slow-motion hangover. I have no idea what day it is...
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Culture Wars in the Barn

There is a recent article in the NYT about the culture wars going on in dog training that's worth reading....
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Horse Training Means Affirmative Waiting

Humans, aren't we swell? Compared to horses, we have dim, frail senses, we're seven times slower in our response time,...
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What It Means to Love a Horse

I'm talking to a new client who contacted me for help, asking them to tell me about their horse. They...
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Famous Cruelty, Ordinary Cruelty, and an Affirmative Solution

  Another story of cruelty hit the international press last week. Operation X documented horrors happening in a well-known Danish...
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Thanksgiving: Our First Horse Was a Dog

Meet my dogs, Preacher Man, Mister, and Jack. They're in the doorway to my writing studio. It's Thanksgiving night, which...
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Euthanizing Your Horse: How to Trust Yourself

It's colder now. The leaves are gone. The wind charges at us from the north, and the temperature drops ten...
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Horse Trainers: How Do You Know Who to Believe?

It was the end of a long clinic day, and we were wrapping up. Almost done on time until this...
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