/journal
Journal
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October 5, 2026
How to Desensitize a Horse
Sensitising moves the feet. Desensitising teaches a horse to stand still and think. You need both.
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October 5, 2026
Your Horse’s Three Buttons
Shoulders, ribcage, hind — the three movements everything more advanced is built from.
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October 5, 2026
How to Back a Horse Up from the Ground
There is no better sign of respect than a horse backing softly out of your space.
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October 5, 2026
Yielding the Forequarters from the Ground
Control of the front end, a pre-ride check I never skip, and the groundwork behind a spin.
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October 5, 2026
How to Disengage the Hindquarters
Shut down the motor and a horse cannot buck, bolt or kick. The exercise that prevents wrecks.
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October 5, 2026
When a Horse Won’t Move in the Round Pen
A reader’s mustang has worked out that standing still makes the work stop. What to do about it.
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October 5, 2026
How to Round Pen a Horse
The first exercise I teach, and why: safety, leadership, and the draw that follows from both.
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October 5, 2026
What Is a Snaffle Bit?
A snaffle has no leverage — the rein reaches the horse 1:1. Which is why a “shanked snaffle” is an oxymoron.
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September 21, 2026
How to Halter a Horse for Respect
Every interaction is training. How the head comes down, unasked, before the halter goes on — and why the release matters as much.
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September 21, 2026
Saddle Fit: An Eight-Point Check
White marks, cinchiness, walking off at the block — and the eight things to check before you blame the horse.
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September 21, 2026
Why I Ride With Very Loose Reins
Steady pressure is the noise in the room. The less of it there is, the softer the cue that gets through.
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September 8, 2026
How to Care for Leather Tack
Clean, condition, maintain — and the one ingredient that quietly ruins leather.
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September 8, 2026
When to Use a Hackamore
Three horses that went better without a bit — a trail string, a dressage horse hiding behind the vertical, and a mare with a broken jaw.
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September 8, 2026
How to Spot Discomfort in Your Horse
A horse is always a horse. What the loud signals and the quiet ones mean, and when the tack is the cause.
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September 8, 2026
Rope Halters vs Flat Halters
Why riders keep moving off nylon web halters and onto hardware-less rope — and what a halter cannot do for you.
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September 8, 2026
Loop Reins or Mecate Reins
The difference is length — and what the extra twelve feet lets you do on the ground and under saddle.
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September 7, 2026
Pressure Points of the Horse's Head
The poll, the palate, the bars, the tongue, the lips and the nasal bone — what every bit and halter is actually pressing on, and how a horse tells you it is wrong.
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September 7, 2026
The Hidden Dangers of an All Copper Snaffle Bit
Copper earns its place in a bit. As the whole mouthpiece it is the wrong metal in the wrong place — and inlay solves it.
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September 3, 2026
Bit Types: Mouthpieces and Cheek Pieces
Single jointed, dog bone, Dr. Bristol, mullen, wire, ported, rollers and twists — and the cheek pieces that carry them.
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September 3, 2026
How a Horse Bit Works
What a bit actually touches — the equine skull, the poll, the tongue, the interdental space — and why the mouthpiece matters more than the cheek piece.
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