relationship building

Tonka is a laid-back guy and he travels well. Some horses kick, fidget and work up a sweat when on the road. Not Tonka. He arrives at the destination looking as if he’s only just stepped onto the trailer. While I get things organized, Tonka, bright-eyed, looks around.   Sometimes […]

The Nose Knows

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The work that I do with animals uses, what I call, the clicker perspective. It’s not, however, always clicker training per se. Much of the time I don’t use the – a sharp sound that marks the moment the animal has done the right thing, which is then followed by a reward. That’s […]

Starting From a Safe Place

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In the 1980s I owned a chestnut thoroughbred mare named Gnomer. Those of you who know horses know that having a (1) chestnut (2) thoroughbred (3) mare is like “winning” the trifecta, if winning means having a temperamental diva in your life. I used to joke that Gnomer was a […]

Horses Use Tools

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I didn’t get Lily to be a farm dog, but that’s what she told me that she is. I thought that I’d do agility with her, but she let me know that her job was to stay home and be aware. Predators were kept off of the property, the Portuguese […]

The Old Farm Dog Sleeps

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Yes, horses do sleep lying down. In fact, in order to get the REM sleep that they need to stay healthy, they need to be down for between thirty minutes and an hour a day. When out in a herd, one horse will act as a sentinel, scanning for danger, […]

Horses Sleep Lying Down

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Years ago there was a nasty person in my life. She would call to harangue my husband and leave vitriolic messages for me. This was in the days before iPhones, when the telephone was mounted on the wall of the kitchen. I’d hear the ring, or pass by and see that […]

The Ring. Conditioned Punisher?

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The type of riding that I compete in, dressage, is rather formal. What one wears is dictated by show rules and tradition. Garb is muted and includes dark jackets, white shirts and breeches, and tall and polished black boots. None of that I mind so much, in fact I like how it looks, […]

Braids

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Some people meditate. I graze horses.   There’s something about a horse eating grass that is calming and centering to me, which is ironic because a horse has huge teeth that he uses to rip and tear. It’s noisy and there’s nothing dainty about it.     At Tonka’s barn […]

Hand Grazing Zen

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The first thing that a new rider wants to learn, once they get up on this big, powerful animal, is how to stop it. (Well, there’s always one in a bunch who wants to gallop off, but not long after that they wish they’d learned where the brakes are!)   At […]

“Ho” on the Trail

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