Horseman’s Corner Radio

"When halter training, the last thing I want to do is put a halter on." - Van Hargis, Van Hargis Horsemanship

Craig Cameron with the late Howard Hale on the size of bits he prefers.

Listen is as the late Howard Hale interviewed Steve Sward on his use of John Israel bits.

Now, here's more with Buster McLaury.    "I don't know anything about it. I don't know what a horse whisperer is. But he said, I do know the horse is screaming all the time. Nobody's listening."   That's an interesting way of putting it, and I think you're absolutely right.    "Yeah, the horse tells us, you know, how he feels about things. And they have the same emotions we do. They get sure and unsure and sick and well and hot and cold and brave and afraid. So if we just learn to read the horse through his body language, you kind of tell us what he's all right with or not or where he needs some help and when he understands and when he doesn't. It's pretty obvious once you kind of learn to look. You know, each horse is an individual. But how you get there, there's got to be just a little difference on each one of them. And that's the interesting part."   Buster McLaury with the late Howard Hale on Horseman's Corner Radio.

New Mexico Horsewoman and trainer Tray Pelster on how she likes to start horses.   "I like to do a lot of ground work so I don't have to deal with as much crap on top of them. I have the time to spend with them when I was training horses under people. You have 30 days so you spend across the board from a lot of my trainers on average about a week, week and a half in the round pin and then you just get on them. You learn how to take shortcuts and you learn how to do it quickly and I would rather start them on the ground for about a month and just see where they're at. I was raised on hand cocks and that's slow, start them on the ground thing. They don't look near as hard. It's mostly a scared thing or a fight. I don't trust you situation and the majority of the time I've found that hand cocks that get a bad rap for things because they're smart and they're smarter than most people. But if you can teach them that this is not a fight or fight situation and that you can trust me and they won't want to try anything when you're on their back. So I've had great success with starting them slow on the ground and just covering all your bases and moving with the horse. See my dad, he's a firm believer in starting them three or four. I am like 125 pounds. So for learning from horse trainers, honestly I like to start them at two. Some horses with exception just because they're not mentally ready or they're not physically ready."   New Mexico horsewoman, Tray Pelster.

Mark Bolender, a pioneer of Extreme and Mountain Trail riding, builds training around equine instincts, patience, and mutual trust. His core philosophy emphasizes allowing horses to think independently rather than relying blindly on the rider resulting in a bold and confident partnership.   Years ago, the late Howard Hale asked Washington horse trainer Mark Bolender what his number one rules are when it comes to training horses. Let's listen in to that answer. It still applies today.    Rule number one that we train under in their world, there are no equals. You're either above or below it, but they don't understand equality. Not only do they not understand it, it confuses them.   Rule number two is if you watch the alpha mare move from one part of the pasture to another or from one pasture to another, all the horses follow. Or you're on a trail ride, the first horse on the trail is pretty alert and bright. The rest of them are halfway sleeping because they know that if Cougar gets number one, then they have to wake up, but until then, they relax. They naturally like to follow. That's just part of their ingrained nature.   Rule 3 is if a horse sees you as a leader or sees the alpha mare as worthy of leadership, then they try to please that horse or that human.   Rule number 4 that I train under is instinct.   Instinct drives one, two, and three. Instinct is not right, wrong, good, or bad. It just is, but it's a sign of a different type or greater type of intelligence than what human beings possess.   Washington horse trainer Mark Bolender on today's Horseman's Corner. Our longer extended interviews can be found on horsemanscorner.com. Along with those extended interviews, you will also see that we have been offering website design services for over 25 years. If you need help, give us a call.   The numbers are on our website at horsemanscorner.com or our main website at halebroadcasting.com. That's going to do it for today's program. 

Another golden gem from the archives of the late Howard Hale, this one on safety.   Christy Landwehr is the CEO of the Certified Horsemanship Association.   There's a program to get people who are working with people and horses as professionals certified. What are some of the problems you run into there?   "I would say some of the biggest things is we get very, very comfortable around horses when we've owned them for a long time. So sometimes we slip as professionals in the safety area, and that's our primary goal in certifying. We don't say that there's a CHA way to teach. We say is the lesson safe? Is the lesson effective? Did that lesson actually have an impact on that student? And finally, is it fun? You can't be hollering at your students. They have to have a level of fun for them to want to return. So with that safe, effective, and fun concept in mind, if you've been around horses a really long time, you start doing things like ducking under the lead rope when the horse is tied. You start doing things like forgetting to put your helmet on when you're going to go ride, let's say, especially if you're going to go jump or what have you. And if you are not a good role model and a good mentor, regardless of if your student is a child or an adult, then how are you going to convince that person to do those safety things as well?"   Christy Landwehr, the CEO of the Certified Horsemanship Association.

Now here's the late Howard Hale with Cal Middleton asking him a question on safety around horses.   Cal Middleton is a horseman and clinician from Missouri. What do you need to do to be safe around a horse, Cal?   "The truth is if we want to be safe on a horse or around a horse, our first goal needs to be to make the horse feel safe. Because when the horse feels safe, we're on the right track. It doesn't mean that we just pet him and feed him cookies all the time. There's a lot of things we have to do. We have to be a little more firm when necessary, but we have to be as light as possible, and we have to care about the horse. And if we don't care about the horse, then we're better off to get a four-wheeler. That's kind of where it's got to start for me. Talk about some of the steps you need to take to make that horse feel safe, will you? Number one, it's the way we approach him, and that's physically and mentally. It's the way we approach him literally, and the way we approach him in a philosophical sense. The way we grab a hold of that lead rope, the way we put the halter on him, the way we put the bridle on him, and the way that we pick up the reins, you know, the way we saddle him. All those things come into play. It's something that I enjoy teaching to people, but it's not something that I can just explain to them real quick."   "Sometimes people will send me a question on an email like, my horse is doing this, what do I do? And I say, well, make him feel safer, and here's a few steps how, but it's something that you can't just pick up on a little weekend course or a little book, or a DVD."

Here's Ron Knodle and the late Howard Hale.    What are some of the differences you run into, though, with the Mustangs that you might not see with a domestic horse?    "About the only difference, Howard, is the first few days, or the first few workings that you're around the Mustang. They're brought in out of the wild, and they're not used to seeing a human, but maybe for a mile or two miles away, and they're gone."   "You're just working with a lot more alertness and wildness, per se, compared to the domestic horse. Even if you're just walking through a pen when they're young, or even if they're born and brought in, just walking through them, then the Mustangs don't have that opportunity to be that close to a human, so that's about the main difference on the Mustangs. They may be a little more alert at first, but after a few workings, then they're the same as any other horse."   "I think it was about 20 years ago, over in western Nebraska, I was working for a fellow working horses and riding them without anything on their heads and all and whatnot, but growing up and I always wanted to be a cowboy, and working on ranches, and of course all the ranches need horses started, and they kind of reserve that for the people that's good enough to start with those young horses, not get them bothered and turn them into a bunch of bronc. Your reputation is about all you have in life, and it precedes you, so from ranch to ranch, and people asking for references, they say, hey, get this guy to start your colt, and once you get started on the colt, it's kind of tough to get away from them."   Mr. Ron Knodle on today's Horseman's Corner.  

Now here's an archived interview with the late Howard Hale and Brian Neubert, Altruist, California horseman and trainer. Howard had just asked him about what he learned from working with Mustangs.   "Thinking about becoming more efficient all the time so I can get more done with less effort. And, oh, they sent me all over the country and quite a bit to Texas and you went to Florida and all over the western states and Nebraska quite a few times. But they, you know, it was kind of fun to get paid to educate yourself and trying to think constantly how I can get more accomplished with less effort and anyway I had a lot of fun with that. And really kind of learned, with what I learned with those wild horses, apply to just anything you're doing. Loading one in the trailer or handling their feeder, getting them to change leads or anything. I had a lot of fun with that actually."   Is it more of a challenge to try to teach people or to teach those wild horses?    "It's always way tougher to teach people."   That was Altruist California trainer and horseman, Brian Neubert with the late Howard Hale. 

We're talking to Ramzi Hughes, Anchor Brand Ranch. I wanted to ask you about your philosophy of working with horses.   "What we do, I kind of narrow my favorite breeds down to the American Quarter Horse and a regular old Mustang. That's kind of a mixture of what we've got. Those Mustangs are tough and they go like crazy and the kids can break them and ride them and use them for ranch horses, but they are not the athlete that an American Quarter Horse is when it comes to the rodeo events and team roping that we like to do in the arenas."   "So everything's got its place, and we like our American Quarter Horse for our team roping and our rodeo events, and then for some of the ranch work, these kids sure have fun and do good on some of them hard-footed Mustangs. The Mustangs don't really stand up against the Quarter Horses. Not when it comes to athletic ability, speed, sliding, stopping, they just don't. They might walk faster, like out on the ranch, they walk faster and be a little more sure-footed in the rocks, but just to be honest and realistic, and we've tested it out, they just are not the athlete in the arena. They don't have the start and go and stop speed. Each has its place."   That was Ramzi Hughes from Anchor Brand Ranch with our co-host David Woodruff. 

Today, a special treat from the archives of the late Howard Hale.   Our guest today is Justin Dunn. He's a Colorado horseman (now training out of North Carolina). Give us some of your background and how you got started, will you, Justin?    "Started with training other people's horses and found that I had a knack for it. Got into taking people on trail rides down there in South Texas, and then decided to move to Colorado and start a trail ride business here. And on a shoestring budget, couldn't afford a lot of already trained horses. So I got a lot of buckers, biters, bolters, and kickers for free, and started training them and using them in my trail ride business. That just kind of kicked it off."   So you get some of those problem horses to the point where you could use them as trail riding horses for some of the folks?    "Yeah, I have a string of 14 horses, and all of them are either BLM Mustangs or rescue horses or, you know, rejected horses for whatever reason. I take them in, train them, put them in my trail ride business, and we also do a camp for children with cancer, and all my horses are in that too."   Are the Mustangs easier than the problem horses?    "They're probably the easiest horses I've ever trained. I have six of them myself, and I've trained probably 25, 30 other brand new Mustangs. So yeah, they're probably the easiest horse I've ever trained."   Justin Dunn on training Mustangs.    ---   Justin Dunn is a nationally recognized horse trainer and clinician who specializes in working with American Mustangs and rehabilitating horses with behavioral issues. Rather than focusing on traditional Quarter Horse training, his non-traditional approach is distinguished by training entirely without bits, spurs, whips, or horseshoes. American Mustang School: He is the founder of the American Mustang School, which focuses on gentle, natural horsemanship and educating owners on horse psychology. 

Is the saddle an important piece of the equation when it comes to overall horsemanship, Van?   "Yes sir, what I'm looking for in a saddle of course, you hit the nail right on the head and I want to find a top quality saddle made by a very reputable and very top quality saddle manufacturer. And the reason why is that they're generally going to work a little bit harder with the saddle tree manufacturers to make sure that all points of that saddle to be even. In other words, it's like everything else and you've got to start with a great foundation. That saddle tree is the absolute most important thing there. After that we want to make sure we're using top quality materials. The best leather possible, those are things I look for. But really what I'm looking for outside of those things, I'm looking for something that fits my task. I really have to ask myself, what am I going to be doing in my horse the most? If all I do is race, barrels and the barrel racer, then by God it might just pay for me to go find me a barrel race in the saddle as opposed to a cut and saddle. So I want to match the saddle to the task that suits my need."

Here's horse trainer Becky Amio on saddle fit.   "What I was finding is I was struggling with saddle fit, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I was having a hard time with saddles going up Colt's neck, and I was also having a problem with side-to-side slip, and then I was having a problem with the seat itself on the saddle that I had been using for many years was putting me in a position that was too wide, so the access point where I could get a good hold with my legs around the barrel of the horse, it wasn't conducive to be able to support myself and support the horse. I called several different saddle makers, and a lot of them honestly didn't give me good answers or didn't want to answer my questions, and I ended up finding a saddle pad designer that helped answer my questions discussing saddle fit, because she showed me how to shim the saddle or the saddle pad to fit the saddle properly."   "From there, she directed me to a man named Mark Jones out of Georgia, and Mark was the first person to listen to me when I discussed all of the problems that I was having. I would say 98% of the saddle manufacturers out there, their general average bar spread is 13 1⁄2 inches, and that is too wide for these young Colts. That's why I was having a problem going up their neck like I was."   More from Becky Amio on our longer version of the Horseman's Corner Extended Podcast, all on horsemanscorner.com. 

California horsewoman and barrel racing clinician Sharon Camarillo has designed a lot of saddles for years for the barrel racing industry.   What goes into designing a good barrel racing saddle?    "I never believe in just a saddle for barrel racing, even though, you know, we need a lighter weight saddle, but we still need a saddle that's a good tool that gives us good balance because barrel racing, as we know, is a high rate of speed event with three change of turns, and I'd like to ride two hands on my reins up into those turns and go to the horn on the back side. I want my feet underneath me, don't particularly like a real free swinging stirrup. I want my saddle, like I said, to be a tool to keep my feet underneath my pelvis so I can maintain balance, whether it's in a straight line approach or in the collection and position for the turn."   "Probably most important is that the saddle does that, I like a straighter swell so I don't get too far forward, and the cannel in today's world is a pretty stock four-inch cannel that helps you stay up when you leave those barrels, keeps your pelvis over that center of gravity, but that saddle's got to fit those horses."    California horsewoman Sharon Camarillo. 

Howard asked J.D. Wing in an interview years ago whether or not it was important to think about your horse's comfort when selecting your equipment.   "Absolutely."   "I was guilty of it as anyone when I was younger and didn't have a whole lot of money, and never really worried about how my saddle fit my horse or anything like that. And then I had all these issues coming up. My horse would quit stopping."   "My horse would get hot in the box. My horse would duck in the arena. And once I started really spending time to learn about what a proper fitting saddle was, what the correct bridle was, how to properly adjust my tie down, that fixed a lot of the problems I was having in horses."   "It wasn't a training issue, it was a comfort issue. How many times do we go to a U.S. roping and put $2,500 up in fees, and our horse ducks or breaks a barrier or gets mad and puts us in a bad situation where we don't have a chance to win? We're just throwing money out the door, going to a roping with an ill-fitting saddle. You invest that money into a good saddle or into a good bridle, and now you're investing in your future."   "When we have a chance to run at a quarter million dollars at Vegas, to me that's a good investment."    Horse trainer, J.D. Wing, in an interview with the late Howard Hale.    That's going to do it for today's Horseman's Corner.

Jeff Gollehon is with us. He has Grizzly Saddlery at Great Falls, Montana. It's a full service shop, but they also make custom saddles, and he finds a problem with saddle fit that's a little bit different and kind of interesting.   "One of the things that is, to me, that I have found over my career that is probably one of the most important things, the stirp slot on the tree, on the underside of the tree where your stirp leather goes up over the tree and back down, and that's the part that has the holes in it for your stirp leather adjustment, that piece of leather has to go up over the top of the tree and back down, and it sits under the tree between your sheepskin and the wooden tree. And that's actually what holds the weight of the person when that person is riding. And what we are seeing in a lot of trees, whether they're factory-made companies that we carry in the store, or even some of the custom trees that we see come through, that bar slot that has to be relieved for that stirp leather, from my experience, is usually not deep enough."

Join co-host Nelseena Lehmann as she asks our guest, Vaughn Knudsen about the keys to great horsemanship.

On this interview, the late Howard Hale had Ron Knodle, the unknown horseman, talking about his training methods. Let's check in on that conversation. Nebraska horseman Ron Knodle is our guest today.   Ron, give us some of your thoughts about how you ought to use your hands and your legs, particularly on that young horse that you're starting. The two-handed stuff, whether you're in a hackamore or a snaffle, the more that you keep pulling on one rein, the more that they fall to the outside, and you're not going to be able to, for example, make a reining horse when you need to push him through the turns. So one of the things that I've been doing really strong with most of my people that I've been working with in the later years is using almost equal pressure with your inside and outside rein and do more trying to push the horse through the turns than to pull him through the turns so that he was not as apt to fall out to the outside.   And what are your legs doing in that situation? I ride my horse as one-legged. For example, when I start a young horse, I open and close doors as a pre-signal. So if I'm riding a young horse along and I want to go to the ride, the first thing I do is my right leg comes off, the left leg comes on.   The right hand and the right leg work in unison. They come off of the horse and the left leg would come on if I was going to the right and vice versa. Trainer and clinician Ron Knodle with the late Howard Hale.

The timing of the release is everything.

We have horseman and clinician Brian Neubert on the program today.   After more than 20 years of training these colts, is there anything new that you've learned? Well, I don't know if it's something new, but more sensitive to the importance of observing, detecting the horse efforts toward what I want to accomplish. It's whole thing really amounts to encouraging thoughts and actions you want and discouraging thoughts and actions you don't want. And I suppose until I'm done working with horses, I'll probably get, hopefully, more sensitive on that aspect.   Relieving the pressure when the horse even has a thought in the direction that I want to go. And I don't guess I'll ever try to get more sensitive on that, but that's where the efficiency comes in and it makes it or breaks it. That's just very, very important.   Veteran horseman and clinician Brian Neubert on the Horseman's Corner. That's going to do it for today's program, but there's more on the web at horsemanscorner.com. And don't forget about that Facebook page, Horseman's Corner Radio and Podcast. Visit and follow today.

We asked Larry Reinhold from Lone Tree Ranch, what age of horses do you use there?    "I've said for years it takes about a seven year old horse because there's a lot of fellas, a lot of people can sure turn out a good broke horse, you know, and the horse is three or four years old. A good rider can get on them and keep them going the right direction. But, you know, when you're putting kids on them, and some of these kids might be good riders, but you've got a horse that you're putting three or four different riders on each day, it's pretty easy to mess up a young horse. And, you know, because they get so many, so many miscommunications from the different riders that it plays with their head and it seems kind of like the old adage, an old dog, new tricks. It's really pretty handy to have something that's been, you know, got some age on it. We like what would make just about any outfit a good ranch horse."   The Reinhold family lives on and operates the Lone Tree Ranch and Rainbow Bible Ranch, a well-known and well-loved summer ranch camp for kids and teenagers.    https://www.facebook.com/larryrobinreinhold/ https://www.lonetreeranch.net  

The same question today that we've been asking the rest of the horsemen this week, what age do you start your horses?    Today we're going to dig into the Howard Hale archives, and pull up an interview from Bruce Sandifer.    So how old do you like to start your horses, Bruce?    LISTEN IN!

Now let's check in with this archived interview with the late Howard Hale and Oregon trainer and horseman Mike Bridges. The same question today that we've been asking the rest of the horsemen this week. What age do you start your horses?   "When I was a kid and a young man, you didn't start horses till they were five, six years old. Sometimes four, but most horses were five or six when they were started because they had to go do a day's work. You rode every place. We didn't have trailers and you rode to your work and you rode back. So horses had to be older when they were started. They were much tougher to start because their mind was set. They already knew where they fit in the herd and they were more reluctant to step down."   "Today, we start these horses at two. You have to be careful not to ride them very much and to be cautious of them until they're four. But the mind is much more pliable when these horses are two-year-olds. They don't, they don't, they have no idea. They don't know where they fit in the herd yet. They're still trying to shake out their position and depending on their personality. So they're much easier to create the starting process of it."   Oregon horseman Mike Bridges.   Mike has a clinic going on this week. Find the information below!

The Horseman's Corner is an original production of Howard Hale Broadcasting, on the air since 1994 with over 7,000 episodes with people involved in the world of horses. I'm Howard's son, Brian, and we welcome you to The Horseman's Corner. The Horseman's Corner is brought to you by Mantz Creek Horses of Douglas, Wyoming.   On today's program, Craig Carr from Colorado. So Craig, when do you start your horses?    "Usually get mine going when they're late two-year-olds and ride them some as they're three. I don't really have deadlines on my horses.   We don't really have any age limits in this Rocky Mountain deal. We have a rookie class, a cowboy class. Cowboy class is like a $500 limited winnings, and then you'll go to a Snafflebit-Hackamore class, and there's no age limit on how old that horse will be, because some of these cowboys might have an eight, nine-year-old Hackamore horse, a horse that might not have got started until he's five, six years old.   I think part of the longevity in these horses is we ride them, we might do some ranch work on them, but we're not pounding them. They're not really being called on hard until they're about five years old. Instead, so many of these three-year-olds and four-year-olds are pretty much burnt up in the show world by the time they're five or six."   It's always great to hear from Craig Carr.    Hey everyone, this is Brian Hale. If you've heard this program before, you know I have been offering website help for many years.   In fact, we've been in the business for over 20, and we'd love to help you. For anything website-related, even if you just need some advice, it's free. Email [email protected] or call 940-224-6315.   Portfolio, pricing, and contacts, all on halemultimedia.com. That's going to do it for today's Horseman's Corner. There's more on the web at horsemanscorner.com.    Thanks again for listening, and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.    

You bring those babies in, you ween them off their mom. First thing we do is toss a little rope around their neck, their foot, but just toss them that rope on there, start and roll the hind quarters in the beginning and allow them all the horses to learn how to come off of the feel to understand that that rope can touch them and it's not the end of the world and just start that mind kind of coming your direction. Working off of pressure, understanding a release of pressure, starting to get them to hunt that release and start drawing that mind in the direction you want it to go. What age do you start working them? They're born in May and they start getting halter broke sometime in the November timeframe. We'll be done halter breaking hopefully end of the December timeframe, take a couple months. Once we go through that process, they get bumped out. We'll bring them back in as two-year-olds, they have a crew of guys that come in December. They'll start anywhere from right around 40 head of colts in December as twos, put a handful of rides on them, they get kicked out. So then the threes from the previous year come in at the same time and then from then on they really kind of get camped on as three-year-olds and they get ridden and more moving forward with them into the five and six-year-old mark. So as a three-year-old, three and a half-year-old, they're getting used more, we start introducing to the feed yard, start introducing them to the outside ranching and then really by the time they're five and six they're pretty mature and they're working full-time. Horse trainer Ricky Quinn with some great information. Find that full interview on Horsemanscorner.com.

On the program today, bitmaker Tom Balding is gonna walk us through how to make a good snaffle bit.    "Well, you start with some quality material."   "When I had my welding shop in California, I did a lot. I was certified and did a lot of welding on aircraft parts and did a lot of fabricating of government aircraft parts and actually a lot of race car and motorcycles. I bought a lot of my material from kind of a specialized distributor of steels out of Los Angeles, and it's all certified quality steel and different alloys."   "Whenever I can, use as much iron in the mouthpiece. I use a mild steel. So you select the 7 16th is the diameter of our standard snaffle mouthpiece, and you would cut it to length and you would grind a taper in it, and then you would machine little slots. We actually weld in the copper."    That was Tom Balding on the old snaffle bit. For more interviews like these and longer extended versions, visit our website at horsemanscorner.com.

Texas Horseman and clinician Craig Cameron is our guest today on an archived interview with the late Howard Hale.   You do a lot of clinics, Craig. See a lot of different people, and what are some of the things that they're doing with the bits that you think need to be maybe changed?   "I think they're trying to take that old shortcut there, you're going to try to get a bigger bit to try to make it happen, but most folks are asking for way too much, way too fast of not only the horse, but of themselves. I think an understanding of the bit, in other words, we're going through the mouth to try to get to the feet. So I'm not trying to see how much bit I can use, I'm trying to see how little."   "And as I go up in bits, see, it's not so I can pull harder, it's actually so I can be lighter with my horse. And again, that's the old Vaquero style right there, see how little it takes, not how much. If I could only have one bit in my barn to use on my horses, what would that be? If I only had one bit, I believe I'd just have to go with that old snaffle bit."   "I think that's the old true training bit, and I've known some great horsemen that never used a snaffle bit, but they were really good with their hands, they had the experience. But I think for a lot of great trainers, and anything from intermediate to advanced to beginning riders, that snaffle bit, when you learn how to use it."   Craig Cameron with the late Howard Hale on today's Horseman's Corner.

Bill Oliver celebrated a birthday yesterday, and he has been a frequent guest on the Horseman's Corner Radio program sharing over 45 years of experience on horsemanship, education, covering the psychology and natural language of horses. Let's listen into an interview that Howard Hale did with them years ago, but still applies today.   Howard asked Bill what kind of bits he prefers.   "As far as bits go and all that, we ride all of our young colts and stuff in a snaffle bit. It doesn't really matter to me if it's a D-ring or O-ring snaffle. And of course we're focused on direct pressure, a horse coming to direct pressure. And so everything's pretty much at that point in their training. A direct rein. You know, you're typically pulling the horse. And then as we transition to the training where the horse, you know, we'll work into, I write quite a bit with a bosal. Three different sides of bosals, but also ride my horses in a transition bit, which would be something like a short shank. An Argentine snaffle or a Tom Thumb or something comparable to that in the transition phase there. And of course at that point, we're starting to introduce a support rein and a support foot and some things like that. And so that's really where we start to push the horse a little bit rather than always just pulling on him."   Wyoming Horseman Bill Oliver.

Listen in for a few different perspectives on the old Snaffle Bit.

Good morning everybody, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship and welcome to the Ranch Road. "For years I've earned a reputation of getting horses to be good stoppers at a fairly young age and people have always asked, well how do you get those little young horses to stop so big? And number one, I don't really work on it in particular, I just work on the basic fundamentals. Number one, I want every horse to understand first and foremost why they're going. It's less of all, you used to say all the time, you make them going and let them whoa. So I don't really force a horse or ask a horse to stop, I just simply let them. And number two, I really believe in what I refer to as my three steps to stopping, which is number one, quit making them go. Number two, the magic word, whoa. And then lastly, we support with our hands to reinforce what the first two things indicated. And then every time I back a horse up, I actually say whoa, and then I draw them backwards. Whoa, and then I draw them backwards. After about 30 rides or so, what whoa means to the horses back up. So now let's move forward to say you're loping them out. And then you say the magic word, whoa. Now what is a horse thinking? Not whoa, not stop, but they're thinking back up. But what have they got to do before they back up? They've got to stop. So to me, just working a lot of backing a horse up, working a lot on getting a horse very come about backing, both on the ground and in the saddle, and then reinforcing the word whoa when we go to back them up. And they stop thinking about what it is we're asking to do next, which is in this case, to back. Appreciate you guys. Until next time, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship."   For more equine podcasts, visit Equine Podcast Search, made possible by Van Hargis Horsemanship.   www.equinepodcastsearch.com

It's time to check in with Van Hargis and Van Hargis Horsemanship in Victoria, Texas. Van has a program called The Ranch Road. Here's an example.   "Would you consider yourself a good risk manager? I think about that every time that I work with a horse at any level. I don't care if I'm just tying one up to the hitching rail or if I'm putting one on the horse walker, if I'm about to step up in the saddle for the first time. Any time that I do anything with a horse in my mind, I'm managing risk.   A few years ago, I was asked, you know, what was one of the most proudest moments of my Horsemanship career. When I was asked that question, I thought for a moment and I thought, yeah, I went 43 years without a time loss injury. And what I mean by that is, oh, I've been bucked off. I've been stepped on, all that stuff, but nothing really stopped me from doing my job. And so everybody said, well, what led to that? I can only answer good risk management. In other words, I always thought about what I was doing. I was very deliberate, very intentional. I'm very aware of the horse being bigger, stronger than faster than me. And I just mainly just took precaution. And I don't mean I was scared, paranoid or worried. I just took precaution. In other words, I managed my risk. I thought about what I was doing, made sure it was safe for me and then made sure it was safe for my horse. And as a result, 43 years without a time loss injury. Ask yourself, are you a good risk manager?"   Victoria, Texas Horseman, Van Hargis. For more great interviews and podcasts like this one, be sure to visit equinepodcastsearch.com made possible by Van Hargis Horsemanship.

The Horseman's Corner is brought to you by Mantz Creek Horses. That's M-A-N-T-Z Creek Horses . com.   More from that conversation with New Mexico custom cinch maker Tray Pelster.   Well, the custom cinch work that you're doing, is it unique? "I will say I've been to quite a few trade shows in my life.  I have not seen very many if at all custom cinch booths just that are strictly custom cinches, colored cinches. I have seen a few just generic cinches that people make on the loom in front of the trade show people, but they're very basic cinches. We've read ourselves in giving people what they want. They can go to the trade show and shop off the shelf for these wonderful, cool, colorful or just more classy cinches that are not what people have seen before. We get quite a bit of business because I have not seen people who do that kind of thing in a trade show. We are wild kyu cinches. Go to my website. It's just wildcayusecinches.com. Pick out color, your size, your buckles, your beads and pick out a design or message me with a design idea. Put it in the comments. Put it in the notes. I will get in contact with you. Confirm your order and we will get that made for you."   That website featuring Tray Pelster's work will be available soon at wildcayusecinches.com. Website by Hale Multimedia.   Find this interview as well as longer extended versions of our program on horsemanscorner.com.