Forward Motion Bodywork & Coaching

We love hearing from readers whose relationships with their horses are transformed by 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒.

Thank you to Brenda McKoy and Sierra Nevada Hounds for featuring the book in their October newsletter!

"𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲." — 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗠𝗰𝗞𝗼𝘆

𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒 offers proven tools for building deep, mindful partnership—on the ground and in the saddle.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞? 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬!

Ready to deepen your connection with your horse? 👇👇👇

✨ 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞?

That’s exactly when McKoy of Sierra Nevada Hounds discovered 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒 — at 2:30 am, after a challenging day with her horse, Cisco.

She shared:

𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆? 𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘. 𝐼𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑦 𝑜𝑤𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠, 𝐶𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔.

Stories like Brenda’s remind me why I wrote this book: to support horsewomen in finding calm, clarity, and connection when it matters most. 💜🐴

Her full interview will be published in the October Sierra Nevada Hounds newsletter — I’ll share it when it’s live!

I’ll pop the book info just below ⬇️

💫 I’m so excited to co-create the Wild & Wise Women’s Retreat with Boo Martin at the beautiful Stepping Stones Farm & Retreat Center.

I know what it’s like to long for space to breathe — space to pause, listen to your heart, and remember who you are beneath all the “shoulds.”

For me, that healing has always come through horses, nature, and those quiet, soul-filling moments in between.

If you’re longing for that too, this is your invitation. ✨
I’d be honored to have you join us.💜

📅 July 23–27, 2025
📍 Stepping Stones Farm, Temple NH

➡ I’ll drop the details link in the first comment!

For every horse owner & barn staff - be prepared.!
A few spots available on June 1
Touchstone Farm, Lyndeborough, NH

Send a message to learn more

It's going to be yet another a rainy Saturday🌧

Why not spend 2 hours to learn how to create an emergency plan for your barn and/or 2 hours learn more about safe hauling❓

✅Take one or both, either course will help you to ensure the safety of your horse.

There are just a few seats open!!

“Be Ready. Stay Safe. Choose One or Take Both!”

⏳ Last Chance to Register! 🚨

Are you ready for emergencies—on the road and at the barn?

🧯 In the Disaster Planning & Emergency Preparedness course, you'll learn what to do when minutes matter—before, during, and after a crisis.
🚛 In the Safe Hauling course, you'll gain the knowledge to confidently tow your horses, avoid overload mistakes, and prevent accidents.

👉 You can sign up for just one course OR make a full day of it and take both!
Either way, your horses (and your peace of mind) will thank you. 🐴💙

📆 Date: Saturday, April 12th
📍 Location: Stepping Stones Farm & Event Center
📝 Register here:
🔗 https://bit.ly/BarnSafeHaul 

🎯 Spots are limited—don’t wait

Don't wait until it's too late...

Send a message to learn more

This post is worth reading if you stable horses or any sort of livestock.

Hey friends, farm owners, and fellow animal lovers—this is something I never thought I’d be posting, but here we are.

After owning and managing my farm for over 50 years, I realized something:
I’ve never really had a plan for what I’d do if disaster struck.

🔥 A forest fire next door?
❄️ An ice storm knocks out power for a week?
🌊 A sudden flood?
🏚️ A barn roof collapsing under the weight of snow?

Honestly... I wouldn’t know what to do. I’ve ignored it for years and just hoped nothing bad would happen. But with the way things are changing—even here in New England—I finally said:
“I owe it to my animals to be better prepared.”

So I’m inviting YOU to join me for a 2-hour Emergency Preparedness Workshop with Bettyann Cernese, a nationally certified Equi-First Aid USA instructor who truly knows her stuff.

📝 We’ll cover what to do in case of fire, flood, power loss, and more
📘 You'll get a workbook to start your farm’s emergency plan
🐴 It’s great for anyone who cares for horses, goats, chickens, sheep—you name it
💡 We’ll learn and brainstorm together

If you’re like me and have been putting this off for years—let this be your moment to take that first step.

🚨 Emergency Preparedness for Any Disaster
📅 Saturday, April 12th | Stepping Stones Farm, Temple, NH

📞 Reach out to Bettyann at (978) 302-9030 for more info or to save your spot!

Or Register now - spots are limited!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1360239231969761 

Let’s get prepared—because our animals are counting on us. ❤️

Are you prepared for the unexpected?
This owner and group of trail riders were!

You can be too: https://www.facebook.com/share/152hBqAET5N/

Send a message to learn more

Attention Horse Owners - interesting read.

🔬Breaking Down New Recommendations for Equine Deworming 🪱

Deworming horses is a practice that seems to constantly evolve – the more we learn, the more recommendations change to ensure we are making the best decisions for our horses and the industry as a whole, and sometimes it can feel hard to keep up! We used to recommend rotating dewormers every 2 to 3 months to combat parasites, however, I hope by now, the only thing you rotate are your pastures (sorry – a little equine science humor). Rather, you should be utilizing targeted deworming for your mature horses. This means you are performing f***l egg counts to (1) identify your high shedders and (2) performing f***l egg count reduction tests on your herd to determine which dewormers are still effective. So let’s dive into how targeted deworming would work with your horses.

I want to make sure everyone is aware that through deworming, you will NEVER get rid of all the parasites – and that is not one of the goals of deworming. Rather, we want to minimize the risk of parasitic disease and delay further development of anthelmintic (dewormer) resistance. To accomplish these goals, we want to target parasites that are often associated with parasitic disease (primarily strongyles and tapeworms), provide more frequent dewormings to high shedders which contribute to environmental contamination, and only use dewormers that are effective for our herd.

However, not all horses are created equal and some variables can impact deworming recommendations such as age (see my previous post about deworming young horses), geographical region/climate, shedding level, and access to green grass. This is because many of our concerning parasites are transmitted when horses are on pasture, and we want to target them during periods of high transmission when they are more readily spread.

All horses should receive one to two baseline treatments of a macrocyclic lactone (ivermectin or moxidectin). Current recommendations are to deworm in the spring and once horses are removed from pasture going into winter. If you do not remove your horse from pasture, you can just time these for the spring and fall.

For high strongyle shedders (>500 eggs per gram), additional dewormings can be done during periods of higher transmission. This varies by geographical region and a study predicted the successful development of strongyles eggs for six different locations (Leathwick et al., 2015). This model suggests colder northern climates have a short window of transmission during the summer months. This window becomes larger as we move south to warmer climates until we reach southern states where transmission can be observed throughout the entire year. An exception here is arid states in the southwest (which I will discuss in a moment). If you want to see the graphs detailing these transmission windows, take a look at the 2024 AAEP Internal Parasite Guidelines.

Based on these findings, I would choose to deworm high shedders in colder climates during the summer months when transmission is observed. In comparison, high shedders in southern states may also benefit from an additional deworming in the winter when it is more mild. These recommendations could change based on the weather conditions observed each year.

I do want to specifically address arid regions of the United States (primarily in the southwest (including Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico). When horses are located here and are not kept on green pastures, small strongyles and tapeworms are unlikely to require the primary attention in parasite control programs. As a result, the current recommendation for horses without pasture residing in these regions is to perform regular f***l egg counts to determine the necessary level of anthelmintic intervention required (Ramey and Nielsen, 2019).

So hopefully these recommendations help clear things up as to how to deworm! I still continuously see inaccurate and outdated information on this topic so it is important to stay educated for the sake of our horses!

Cheers!
Dr. DeBoer

Leathwick DM, Donecker JM, Nielsen MK. A model for the dynamics of the free-living stages of equine cyathostomins. Veterinary Parasitology. 2015 Apr 30;209(3-4):210-20.

Ramey DW, Nielsen MK. Limited strongyle parasite occurrence in horses kept in an arid environment. Equine Veterinary Education. 2020 Aug;32:37-40.