Jessie Haas
Award-winning Children's Author

Okay, here's a challenge for clicker trainers. I've been a bad blogger--look how long it's been. Do I call myself a bad blogger, or do I give myself a tiny treat for getting back into the saddle?
A few excuses; extensive barn renovations, followed by winter, Christmas, more winter...naah, no excuses. Robin is (more…)

Thanks so much for posting a comment, Jane. Fortunately there are a lot of good horse books for your daughter to read, and my pony books have many times been a reluctant reader's gateway into reading.
Send me an email with your address, and I'll send your daughter a homemade Horse Crazy! pin just (more…)

The first three people to post comments on this blog will receive hand-made and autographed Horse Crazy! pins. Why? It's a training exercise. I'm trying to train myself to blog more frequently, plus I want a good reason to play with glue and scissors. I need feedback and reinforcement, and I want to hear (more…)

You write books to learn things. (Though sometimes you fool yourself into thinking you write them to teach.) One of the best things I learned writing Horse Crazy! is how much fun it is to play with decoupage. I use Mod-Podge; you can use other products, or mix white glue and water half and (more…)

The first signing for Horse Crazy! was at the Book Cellar in Brattleboro, Vt, and it was very successful, thanks to the efforts of Kati Knapp at the store, and to my beloved eighth grade teacher, Winnie Vogt, who sent a couple of nice people my way. Everyone went home with their own personal (more…)

I sat on Robin! Three or four times now, for between one and three seconds. It's a big thrill for me. I've had her for a little over a year, and have not been on a horse in about two years. So far so good. I have not asked Robin to take a single (more…)

I recently read the new book by Karen Pryor, the queen of clicker training. It's called Reaching the Animal Mind, and it gives an overview of clicker training, with the clearest writing on teaching a cue that I've ever seen. It also includes great training stories, and a look at Karen's fascinating and unorthodox (more…)

The other day I set out to make a book bag to carry Horse Crazy! around in.
I used a product called Quick Fuse Inkjet Fabric Sheets, made by the june tailor company. They come in cream and white. I had cream, and got a cream canvas bag from Michael's to match. Set my (more…)

I bought Robin a bag of peppermint candies yesterday, and already it's changed our lives.
She adores them! We are working on bridling, which up to now involved her weaving her head around and nipping. Today she knew peppermints were a possibility. After some typical behavior, suddenly she started shoving her nose into the (more…)

This is the blog post I wrote for Storey Publishing's website--and paging through my own new book to find the reference page numbers was so much fun. I keep finding all these cool things I discovered for the book--and with nonfiction, it feels easy to tell people about it. This isn't me--it's stuff I (more…)