Getting a Horse to Work WITH her Massage Therapist

By Heather Davis I am a certified equine “massage” therapist, applying principles of touch to encourage horses to release old neuromuscular strain patterns and relearn how to exist without previously held pain and resistance. Much of my work is informed by...

Building a Change One Tiny Step at a Time

Recently my husband and I decided it was time to get rid of the burn pile. We have a small excavation project coming up that requires we finally burn the darn thing. The burn pile consisted mainly of small cherry trees we had to remove when we decided to bring the...

On the value of saying Thank-You

The other day I was behind this woman in line at Walmart. She had a little 3 yr old boy with her who was working quite hard to get her attention. And it was working although it was mostly her saying “Now quit that,” and “Stop it,” and...

A Better Way to Deal with Bad Behavior

Recently, on the Yahoo Classical Dressage group talk has turned to how to deal with ‘bad’ behavior such as biting and kicking. Absolutely all agree that this is not something that we ‘wee humans’ can really tolerate since our bodies are pretty...

Lifelong learning

Sometimes people write to me privately, via email. It might be to ask a question they aren’t comfortable asking on one of the public forums I participate in. Or, it could be that they read my book and want to say that they found it helpful. I’ll admit that...

What’s reinforcing THAT?

Recently I wrote about horses who drag owners to eat grass. In response, Nell made a deceptively simple comment, “So what if your horse has a fit? – does this work both ways?” I’d replied, “Sure, if her ‘fits’ get your attention!”...