Welcome to Episode 13 of Season Two and thank you so much for listening.

As I talk into the mic from my Colorado home office, we’re about a week away from the kickoff of the Best Horse Practices Summit in Lexington, Kentucky.  It’s exciting and the days are chock full of tending to details: airport transportation for presenters, coffee for the Airbnb’s for the presenters. Audio-video fine points. Table linens. Dietary restrictions for certain attendees. Power point reviews. Trade show set up.

Suffice to say,  when it comes to skill sets, this is not my usual fare. It helps, though, that I have done it before and that I have people around me – volunteers, board members, and presenters – that I know and trust. It’s a crazy time, but for the most part, I feel safe.

That all has something to do with this episode. I couldn’t be more pleased to produce this show which centers on Lynn Acton and investigative behavior as well as her new book, What Horses Really Want.

I think you might agree that raising healthy, confident horses is a bit like raising healthy confident kids: Give them freedom and space to discover and experiment. Help them feel safe in new environments. Great interview!

We thank Lucerne Farms and Pharm Aloe Equine for their sustaining sponsorship. Lucerne is a forage company based in Northern Maine. Forage is chopped hay. It’s decidedly not grain and has been shown to be an excellent option when you can’t have your horse on pasture.

Pharm Aloe offers aloe pellets and gel and other products to support horses’ GI health, immune system, and other processes. They have profiles of the quality of their products online.

We would like thank Redmond Equine, Kate’s Real Food (which, by the way, was recently voted number one among energy bars by Outdoor Gear Lab) and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support. WorkWear has a new ranch jacket. It’s made of the same hemp-polyester blend as the popular barn coat, but is cropped short and is unlined. Jec and I have been trying it out and here are some features we love: it has a big zipper that you can use without taking off your gloves. It has lots of pockets that are baling twine and cell phone friendly. It is cut trimly and because of the hemp/poly blend, it’s soft and requires no break in.  Check it out here.