The Horse Doesn't Know Your Rank: Why Horses Treat Everyone the Same Sep 21, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden You could sew every patch you ever earned onto one jacket and wear it into the round pen. The horse would sniff the sleeve, maybe rub an itchy forehead on it, and then go back to reading the only reco... Leadership Through Horsemanship Veterans & Resilience Read more
Baselines in Horse Training: Know Normal Before You Change Anything Sep 20, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden The most common mistake in horse training is not technical. It is starting the experiment before taking the measurement. A new exercise, a new bit, a new turnout schedule, and two weeks later somebody... Field Notes The Scientific Method in the Saddle Read more
Stance and Weight: What a Horse's Posture Means Sep 19, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Stand at the paddock rail for five minutes before you halter anything, and read. Every horse in view is publishing its current plan in the set of its legs and the placement of its weight, free of char... Reading the Horse The Leyden Method Read more
Think Harmony With Horses: The Ideas in Ray Hunt's Book Sep 18, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden It fits in a coat pocket. Think Harmony With Horses , first published in 1978, runs shorter than most tack catalogs, and working horsemen have been rereading it for going on fifty years. It is Ray Hun... History of Horsemanship The Natural Horsemanship Movement Read more
The Release Teaches People Too: Effective Feedback Timing Sep 17, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Ask a horse to step over, and the moment its weight shifts, the pressure has to vanish. Three seconds late and you have paid for something else entirely, usually the bracing that followed the try. Hor... Leadership Through Horsemanship Leading People Read more
How to Saddle a Horse Calmly: Step by Step From Blanket to Cinch Sep 16, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden A saddle should arrive on a horse’s back the way furniture is set down in a house where someone is sleeping. Learning how to saddle a horse calmly is mostly learning to slow down at three moments: the... Grooming & Handling The Leyden Method Read more
Light Cavalry: A Short History of the Fast Half of Mounted Warfare Sep 15, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden The paintings all show the charge: big horses, massed knee to knee, sabers out, everything decided in one thunderous minute. But for every mounted soldier who ever rode in a charge, far more spent the... Cavalry & Working Horses History of Horsemanship Read more
If the Horse Is Barn Sour: How to Fix It Without a Fight Sep 14, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden The horse that walked to the arena brightly all morning turns to lead when you point it up the trail. Fifty feet past the gate the walk dies, the feet get sticky, and every circle ends aimed at home. ... Problem Solving The Leyden Method Read more
Perfectionism in Riding: When Being Hard on Yourself Makes You Hard on the Horse Sep 13, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden You miss the transition. Nobody saw it but you, and nobody is grading you, but the sentence starts anyway: you always do this. Your jaw sets. Your shoulders climb an inch. The next ask leaves your han... Leadership Through Horsemanship The Inner Rider Read more
The Hackamore: Starting Colts in the Jaquima Tradition Sep 12, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden A bosal looks almost too plain to matter: a braided rawhide loop, gently stiff, shaped like a teardrop, resting on a horse’s nose. No metal, no leverage, no mouthpiece. Yet for the California vaquero,... History of Horsemanship The Vaquero & Western Tradition Read more
Direct Rein vs Neck Rein: Two Languages Every Horse Should Know Sep 11, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden A green colt turns because a rein draws its nose to the side and the feet follow the nose. A finished ranch horse turns because a rein brushed its neck for half a second while its rider’s other hand h... Riding The Leyden Method Read more
What a Halter Actually Does: How a Halter Works on a Horse Sep 10, 2026 Leyden Horsemanship Journal Zachary Leyden Take a halter off its hook and look at it honestly: a pound of rope or nylon, a few knots, a buckle, nothing clever. Now look at the animal it is supposed to manage, which outweighs you several times ... Field Notes First Principles Read more
