The Horse Comes First: A Welfare-First Training Principle That Settles Arguments Oct 24, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Every day at a barn produces small courtroom scenes. You planned to school transitions, but the horse came in from turnout moving carefully behind. You hauled forty minutes to ride, and the wind is do... Foundations & Philosophy The Leyden Method Read more
Anger Has No Place in the Barn: Controlling Anger Around Horses Oct 23, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden There is a particular feeling every honest horseman can describe: the third failed attempt at something simple, the heat rising up the neck, the grip tightening on the lead, and a voice in your head e... Leadership Through Horsemanship The Inner Rider Read more
Spade Bit History: The Most Misunderstood Bit in the West Oct 22, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Show a photograph of a spade bit to someone outside the vaquero tradition and watch the reaction. The tall port rising like a spoon, the braces, the roller, the sheer amount of metal: it reads as an i... History of Horsemanship The Vaquero & Western Tradition Read more
Lateral Flexion From the Ground: The First Give in Horse Groundwork Oct 21, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Somewhere early in every horse’s education with us, there is a moment when a light feel on the halter asks the head to come around toward the shoulder, and the horse, instead of leaning or leaving, so... Groundwork The Leyden Method Read more
Confirmation Bias in Horse Training: The Evidence We Choose to See Oct 20, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden A rider tries a new bit. On the next ride the circles feel rounder, and by dinner the bit has been declared a success. Left out of the story: the braced stop in the corner, the head toss at the trot d... Field Notes The Scientific Method in the Saddle Read more
The Worry Signs Riders Miss: Early Signs of Stress in Horses Oct 19, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Ask someone to describe a stressed horse and they will describe the end of the story: the spook, the bolt, the rear, the explosion that “came out of nowhere.” It never came out of nowhere. The early s... Reading the Horse The Leyden Method Read more
Sentinel Behavior in Horse Herds: Shared Vigilance and the Trust It Builds Oct 18, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Walk past a pasture on a warm afternoon and you may catch a sight that stops people who have never thought about horses: three of them flat out on their sides in the grass, dead to the world, while a ... Leadership Through Horsemanship Lessons from the Herd Read more
La Guérinière and École de Cavalerie: The Textbook That Never Went Out of Print Oct 17, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Most training books die with their fashions. One from the 1730s did not. When riders talk about La Guérinière and École de Cavalerie, they are talking about the rare book that classical schools still ... History of Horsemanship The Old Masters & Classical Tradition Read more
How to Halter a Horse Properly: The First Ask of the Day Oct 16, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Before the grooming, before the saddle, before any of the work you actually planned, there is a strap of rope or nylon and a question: will you put your head in this? Haltering is the first ask of the... Grooming & Handling The Leyden Method Read more
If the Horse Jigs on the Trail Home: Quiet Ways to Dissolve It Oct 15, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden The ride out was lovely. Then you turned for home, and the walk dissolved: a bouncing, sideways half-trot, head tossing, the horse’s back tight as a drumhead, you holding two firm reins and getting no... Problem Solving The Leyden Method Read more
Rewarding Student Effort: Coaching With the Instructor's Release Oct 14, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden In horse training we say the release teaches, not the pressure, and we build our whole method on timing that release to the smallest honest try. Stand at the rail of a good lesson and you will see the... Leadership Through Horsemanship Teaching & Mentorship Read more
Black Beauty: The Novel That Changed Horse Welfare History Oct 13, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Victorian London ran on horses the way modern cities run on electricity. Cabs, omnibuses, delivery vans, coal carts: hundreds of thousands of working horses moved the city, and most Londoners looked s... History of Horsemanship Horses & Human History Read more
