The Alchemical Horse

08/01/2021

Introducing a new blog that I think will be well worth following. The author is a friend of mine, someone I know well and whose training methods I respect. All these lessons apply to dogs AND horses. Keep an eye on this one!

https://crazystldogblog.blogspot.com/

I once earned a forty thousand dollar university degree which stressed that the introduction of any piece of writing is "supposed" to set the scene, but do it while gripping the reader's interest firmly with first few sentences. 

12/12/2020

Not obviously horse-related, this post is about relationships and trust. In that way, it's absolutely about horses. This experience reminds me so much of what Galahad and I have been working through over the years. Enjoy!

Our Maise is quite the dog. From what I’ve learned, Border collies (and especially the smooth-coated, prick-eared variety) were specifically bred to work independently at a pretty good distance fro…

14/08/2020

This is one of those posts where “nothing much happens.” (That’s a great podcast, BTW, for helping the listener fall asleep. Check it out.) Galahad was eager to leave the pasture,…

21/03/2019

I'd love to hear your comments and responses to this, either here or on the blog....

I had such an amazing experience with Galahad this afternoon—we were (as usual) hanging out at the back of my car. He had been munching his hay and looking at “stuff” going on around us…

17/01/2019

A message of hope and support....

A week or two ago, a friend messaged me about a troubling dream. I suggested we get together and talk about it at the barn, horses in hand. Horses are always helpful, if for no other reason than th…

25/10/2018

Sometimes the learning is SO HARD...even when it's just listening.....

The last year or so I’ve been working especially hard on my relationship with Galahad (with the help of the amazing Paulette Clark of Ribbleton Attunement). It’s become really clear to others, not …

23/08/2018

Surprise: A post, after months of silence! There's an explanation (in my blog post just before this one), but THIS is the important stuff. Life is simply amazing, isn't it?

Though I’ve been somewhat limited in what I can do the last seven or eight months, there’s still been plenty of horse time. Galahad and I have continued our adventures in relationship-b…

10/12/2017

Beautiful post from my friend Angela. So much truth here....

The Healing Power of Grief and Tears in the Loving Embrace of Horses 21 Jul 2013 | The Horse's Truth

06/12/2017

An important update.

I had a kind of revelation the other day, after posting “This is what we do at sunset.” Here’s what I originally wrote: I got to the barn today a few minutes after sundown. The light wa…

03/12/2017

Magic. Look closely.

I got to the barn today a few minutes after sundown. The light was fading but the sky was still bright when I reached the pasture. The herd was moving slowly, heads down, toward the east end of the…

07/11/2017

Galahad saves a hawk, and brings me a message.

Well, my morning last Sunday was way more exciting than expected: I went out to the barn around 9:30 to get Galahad out. He wasn’t enthusiastic about it, but he let me put his halter on. He was a l…

03/08/2017

Oh my....

About a month ago we noticed that Midders was spending time licking the ground at one particular spot in his paddock. That sounded like a mineral deficiency of some kind, so we put out a small pan …

26/07/2017

Whew! He's back in the pasture! (Click on the photo...Facebook is refusing to show the link to the blog post today.)

19/07/2017

Galahad refused to go back to the pasture last night....

Galahad’s in a stall for the next few days; he refused to go back into the pasture last night. His best friend Dancer’s owner put Dancer in the barn, unfortunately, because of the heat. It’s suppos…

13/07/2017

I credit the horses, always honest and in the moment, for helping me get to this point.

February 1996. I wake, sweating and breathing hard, from a dream where I must leap between dimensions or lives before the second part of a melody is played by a peculiar magical music box. Failure…

05/07/2017

Galahad and I have turned a corner, and just in time for all the commotion in the pasture. Here's the link:
https://alchemicalhorse.com/2017/07/05/attunement/

21/06/2017

The latest post. I'm loving this ongoing process.

I’m back to dancing these days, and very glad of it! We here in St. Louis enjoyed a dance weekend recently, and it included two mornings of waltzing. Once again I started out in a workshop to try t…

20/05/2017

Take a look at this! A new, FREE course from Paulette Evans at Ribbleton. Highly recommended by both me and Galahad!

Visit the post for more.

19/05/2017

The next step on our journey. And I thought it was going to be easy. Not so much.... Are we surprised?

Another stream-of-consciousness post, as I’m working on something that feels new: “Making” my horse do anything is no longer something I want to do, unless it’s absolutely necessary. So we’ve been …

12/05/2017

The horses, as always, are my teachers....

So much in the world seems to be getting more angry, more violent, and more hate-filled these days. It’s uncomfortable and worrisome. What on earth can a person do to counteract all that? Developin…

03/05/2017

Life's a funny place....

The Alchemical Horse is in transition. Looking back, it’s been happening for some months now, but I just wasn’t aware of it. Some time during the winter “vacation,” when the weather got too cold an…

17/03/2017

Nevada is gone. I can’t even imagine it, but Nevada is gone. We had to let her go—help her across the Rainbow Bridge—two weeks ago yesterday. The plain details: I found her in the pasture that Wedn…

23/12/2016

Old Mr. Midnight is still my teacher....

I arrived at the barn yesterday around noon. The main chore, other than feeding, was to take off Midnight’s parka and put on his rain jacket instead. The temperature was quite warm—in the upper 40s…

21/09/2016

Sometimes life hands you an opportunity to be a kid again....

I had such a wonderful day at the Ranch today! I nearly always enjoy myself, but today I met two very special mares. So very different, but both delightful. It will be great finding good forever ho…

16/09/2016

Things are moving again....

Yesterday afternoon I spent a wonderful hour in the pasture with Galahad. I told him that I was ready to change my way of being with him. I told him about my intention to be calm and present…

14/08/2016

Good article! More and more people are learning just how important horses can be to our well-being.

"If you are not a horse person, it might be hard to understand why some people love their horses so much," writes HuffPost blogger, bestselling author an...

01/07/2016

Trust is so precious, and so easily damaged. I'm hopeful, though, that I can make amends and repair my relationships. Horses are amazingly forgiving creatures.

It’s been a long-time dream of mine to learn dressage—just the basics, nothing fancy. I’ve had my eye on my mare Nevada, because she’s a natural athlete and has a wonderful way of moving. Now that …

24/05/2016

Here's a post from 2012 that follows up on the article cited in the previous post. Horses do understand pointing to things!

When I first got involved with horses a few years back, I remember thinking, “Gosh! How will I ever know what they’re thinking? They have no expression!” Seriously? Now I marvel d…

24/05/2016

Fascinating study demonstrating something we horse folks already knew--horses can point at things to signal what they want. Always good to see actual, scientific evidence to support things we know to be true.

A project led by Rachele Malavasi, SEE - School of Ethical Equitation, Moncigoli di Fivizzano, MS ITALY, in cooperation with Ludwig Huber, Messerli Research Institute