This article originally appeared in Issue No.107 That’s not a new concept. But what does that mean? I guess it can mean different things to different people because I see many different applications of it. Quite often I see horses that overbend in the neck; in other words, if the outside rein is not there to […]
This article originally appeared in issue #75. Subscribe Today! Quite often questions come up related to the problems people have catching, haltering, bridling, saddling, mounting their horse and so on. When the person is asked to demonstrate the way that they go about getting the job done, what I see is the horse is being […]
This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.72 A lot of times people have trouble understanding cattle because the cattle are so simple minded. Their decisions are made for comfort, nutrition, or survival reasons. Unlike people, cattle are not driven by greed or humiliation and they don’t care who looks better or what others think […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.72 What are people talking about when they mention “a soft feel”? What I believe a soft feel is referring to is when the rider draws on the reins and the horse responds with out any resistance through the body down to the feet. […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.71 There is a lot of attention given to disengaging the hindquarters. Different terminology related to it, different purposes, objectives, and so on. Most of the hype though seems to center around getting control of the younger horses, at least in my travels, […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.70 What is important to me, and what I feel is important for a horse, is for him to feel the rhythm of our body and try to be in sync with it. If a horse is not responding to our body rhythm […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.69 For the most part, horses are relatively calm, quiet animals when they are left to maintain themselves. Free roaming grazers spend the biggest percent of their time relaxed and quiet, but when confined and fed high-energy feed they can develop physical and […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.68 What makes some horses bad to bridle and some are eager to take it? There are lots of reasons to be bad. Some horses may have one reason; others may have several reasons. The horses that are good have obviously had better […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.66 It is always interesting to me when working with riders to see what they demonstrate when asked to stop their horse. Some may trot or lope out and perform a nice, soft, straight stop with the horse using his hindquarters, supple from […]
Written by Martin Black This article originally appeared in Eclectic Horseman Issue No.65 I was watching a rodeo recently and they had a calf scramble with about 30 kids ages 8-12 and the same number of calves weighing about 400 lbs. The kids were in a marked off area in the center of the arena that […]