Soft Hands in Riding: Reins That Never Balance on the Mouth Aug 13, 2026 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
Reading a Horse's Eye: Soft, Hard, and Worried Aug 5, 2026 Ocean View Stables Stand at the shoulder and ask for one step back. Before the feet answer, the eye already has. Reading a horse’s eye is the fastest read you will ever get on the mind behind it. A prey animal built to ... Reading the Horse The Leyden Method Read more
Riding Again After a Fall: A Working Plan for Coming Back Aug 4, 2026 Ocean View Stables The fall takes about a second. The story about the fall can run for months. Those are two different injuries, and they heal on two different schedules. Riding again after a fall is not a test of coura... Leadership Through Horsemanship The Inner Rider Read more
Mission Horses: How Spanish California Got Its Herds Aug 3, 2026 Ocean View Stables In the fall of 1769, scouts from Gaspar de Portolá’s overland expedition climbed a ridge a few miles south of what is now Daly City and became the first Europeans to look down on San Francisco Bay. Th... History of Horsemanship The Vaquero & Western Tradition Read more
A Horse Grooming Routine That Reads the Horse While It Cleans Aug 2, 2026 Ocean View Stables Halfway down the ribs, the ear pins. Most people brush straight through it and never notice. That ear may have been the most useful thing the horse said all morning, and the currycomb is how you asked... Grooming & Handling The Leyden Method Read more
Do Horses Like Being Ridden? An Honest Answer Aug 1, 2026 Ocean View Stables Students ask this one carefully, almost apologetically, because they are afraid of the answer. Do horses like being ridden? They want a yes. The honest reply is not a clean yes or a clean no. It is co... Field Notes Questions Students Ask Read more
