Federico Grisone, Riding Master: The Renaissance Return of Riding Schools Aug 18, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables In 1550, a Neapolitan nobleman published a book about riding horses, and Europe could not get enough of it. Federico Grisone, the riding master whose name now anchors the story of modern equitation, c... History of Horsemanship The Old Masters & Classical Tradition Read more
Teaching a Horse to Pick Up Its Feet Without a Fight Aug 17, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Ask a horse for its foot and look at the deal from its side of the exchange. A flight animal is being asked to stand on three legs, surrender its escape plan, and hold still while a predator-shaped cr... Grooming & Handling The Leyden Method Read more
If the Horse Pulls Back When Tied Aug 16, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables It starts small. A tied horse shifts its weight, feels the halter check its head, and something old in it says trapped. The head flies up, the hindquarters drop, and a thousand pounds slams backward a... Problem Solving The Leyden Method Read more
Teaching Feel in Horsemanship: Can It Be Taught at All? Aug 15, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables A student backs her horse down the rail, and for one stride everything changes. The poll softens, the rope goes light, a hind foot lands quieter than the one before it. Then the moment passes, unrewar... Leadership Through Horsemanship Teaching & Mentorship Read more
Horses in North America: The History of a Long Round Trip Aug 14, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Dig in the right hillside in Wyoming or Nebraska and you can hold the tooth of a horse that died tens of millions of years before any human saw one. The horse is not an import to this continent. It is... History of Horsemanship Horses & Human History Read more
Soft Hands in Riding: Reins That Never Balance on the Mouth Aug 13, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Watch a rider lose their balance at the trot, and watch the horse’s head fly up in the same instant. From the rail it looks like two events. From the horse’s side it is one: a hand just landed on its ... Riding The Leyden Method Read more
The Horse Respect Training Myth: What Horsemen Actually Mean Aug 11, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Somewhere right now a horse is dancing at the end of a lead rope while somebody in the arena says he has no respect for you. The word does a lot of work in barns. Most of it is bad work. This is a fir... Field Notes First Principles Read more
Feel, Timing, and Balance in Horsemanship: The Three Pillars of the Leyden Method Aug 10, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Every craft keeps a short list of words that hold the whole thing. Carpenters get plumb, level, and square. Horsemen inherited feel, timing, and balance. We did not coin the trio; it came down through... Foundations & Philosophy The Leyden Method Read more
Bill Dorrance and True Horsemanship Through Feel Aug 9, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Bill Dorrance was still roping cattle in his nineties, on his ranch in the hills outside Salinas, California. He put his only book into the world in 1999, the last year of his life. Most people would ... History of Horsemanship The Natural Horsemanship Movement Read more
Clarity Is Kindness at Work: Clear Communication as Leadership Aug 8, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Somewhere today, an employee is leaving a one-on-one believing it went fine, while the manager leaves the same meeting believing a serious warning was delivered. Months from now that gap becomes a bad... Leadership Through Horsemanship Leading People Read more
How to Lead a Horse Correctly: Position, Pace, and Personal Space Aug 7, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables Twenty yards of barn aisle will tell you nearly everything about a partnership. One pair drifts along, rope tight, horse’s shoulder crowding the human’s elbow, both of them steering each other by acci... Groundwork The Leyden Method Read more
The History of the Stirrup: A Small Invention With Large Consequences Aug 6, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Ocean View Stables For most of the time humans have been on horseback, there was nothing under the rider’s feet. Alexander’s cavalry broke infantry lines with their legs hanging. Scythian archers shot from the gallop, R... Cavalry & Working Horses History of Horsemanship Read more
