horse body language

Horses are herd animals, which means they prefer to be in a group of their own kind. Feral horses living on open rangeland organize themselves into a family subset of mares, foals, a few youngsters, and a stallion who keeps them together. There are roving bands of bachelors, angling to […]

Friends Over the Fence

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I’m incredibly fortunate during this pandemic to be able to continue to ride and take lessons at my boarding barn. I’m even able to enter local schooling shows. I ride six days a week and because I’m competing I have a focus. There’s lots that both Tonka and I have […]

Tonka at Turtle Hill

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Tonka is an amenable horse. To the casual observer it appears that Tonka doesn’t freak out at the sort of novel things that scare other horses. Partly this calm demeanor is his innate nature. However, it’s at least equally the training that I’ve done, and relationship that I have developed […]

Dragging Jugs

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As part of Tonka’s search and rescue training (we’re members of this team), we have to get used to out of the ordinary situations. You can’t train for every scenario, but you can train for confidence around, over and through novel obstacles. Last week a few of us met to […]

Combining Curiosity and the Touch Cue

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We moved to Maine a year ago. Our house sits on a rise overlooking a beaver marsh. We named the property Turtle Hill because turtles lay their eggs here. Right now is prime nesting season. We are thrilled to see these ladies.   The view to the front of the […]

Tonka’s Thoughtful Place

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Do you recognize your horse’s happy face? A horse’s expression can be hard to read. We humans are clued into smiles. That’s why we like dolphins so much – even though they’re not actually grinning. It’s why it’s common to think that birds don’t have emotions – because their beaks […]

Your Horse’s Happy Face

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On Saturday I trailered Tonka to Turtle Hill. He’s been here enough to get comfortable with being near a body of water. In the past, riding near ponds and rivers put Tonka on high alert. No longer. Tonka is also at ease being on his own. So, we had a […]

Tonka the Explorer

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Tonka usually goes right onto the trailer. The other day I led him from his big paddock to the rig.   Almost at the trailer, Tonka stopped and planted his hooves. I tried to get him to shift his weight and move on. I gave a little tug on the […]

Trailering Disobedience?

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Years ago I read a sci-fi short story about an astronaut who lands on an uncharted planet. He knows nothing about what he is seeing. In the distance there are mountains and huge trees. Or are they hillocks and small bushes? How would you be able to judge near from […]

Be the Sentinel

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