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Wednesday I saw a tornado.  Up close, while trapped in my car on an elevated stretch of highway in Springfield, Mass. Scary!  Funny what a random lethal event does to your head.  It’s clarifying. 

My sister, a fellow agnostic, asked me if I prayed.  The question took me off guard, and its answer surprised me a bit: I didn’t.  I’d wondered if this was “it”, and then thought, why not?  I don’t live in the area, just happened to be there at that moment as I traveled to Vermont for…

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Inspired by the "Road to the Horse 2011" on DVD which arrived last week, I've decided to implement an intensive training program to get Brody ready to be ridden.  Brody's been with us almost one year now, and he came to us with a suspensory injury.  But the vet came last week for Brody's vaccinations, and gave the go ahead to climb on and ride. Woohoo!

 

Brody may be physically ready to be ridden, but mentally and emotionally he is not.  (And, of course, there is the…

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"Respect is appropriate response to pressure."  I heard Pat Parelli say this once, and the ring of its truth is undeniable.  Whether working on the ground or in the saddle, a horse's appropriate response to pressure is essential to any activity.  Brody definitely needs (re)education on this!

 

Maybe lack of cooperation is his passive-aggressive platform for establishing dominance, or maybe I haven't been consistent enough in establishing my expectations and requiring him to…

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I really want to focus on strengthening my leadership, so that eventually I can safely ride Brody and take him out on the road.  Here's how I worked to establish my physical space with Brody this week.

 

First, Brody did not want to be haltered, especially once he caught sight of the rope and stick.  So I swung the halter towards his hindquarters and got him moving off whenever he started stepping away from me.  When Brody wheeled to face me, I turned my back to him and stand…

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So good to be back after a very long winter!  I've been freshening up my groundwork skills, reviewing Parelli and catching up on all the Downunder Horsemanship (Clinton Anderson) episodes I recorded from RFD-TV.  Yesterday I decided to get back in the paddock for a first session, and I was amazed at how much Brody remembered, particularly changing direction on a circle.  We seemed to have just about picked up where we left off.  I decided to keep it short and vary the exercises a…

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Hello All

 

Please take a moment to view the two attached links regarding the travesty that happened last weekend at the Festival of the Horse when…

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In December 2009, I moved Shadow to his new home. Unfortunately at the time, he was suffering from an infection in his hoof, which we have been treating with the help of hot poultices, aloe vera, onion water, and some flower remedies.



While his hoof was bad, I did some gentle ground work with him, following the advice of a wwoofer* who has many years of experience with horses and is a stringent Parelli-ite (my name for anyone who follows Parelli’s every word). She taught me some… Continue