Articles by Al Dunning

Precise halter fit enhances a horse’s features and improves your handle in a showmanship, performance halter, or halter class.

Stay in Shape

Adjust your show halter properly for an eye-appealing look and precise function in the competitive arena.

A running martingale has a single adjustment point: the strap that runs between the horse’s legs and snaps to the cinch. Be sure to adjust your running martingale for each horse, depending on his build and size.

Tack & Gear

Are you using your running martingale correctly? Check your habits against my hints.

The German martingale draws a horse into a more favorable working position, with a flexed poll. Rings on the reins allow for gradual adjustment.

Western Horse Training Tips

Get to know this training tool that’s been part of my program since I was a youth rider.

The chin strap attaches at the top ring on each side of the bit. Per most associations’ rules, the leather or chain must be at least a half-inch wide.

Tack & Gear

Find the right chin strap depending on your event, your horse’s age, and the type of signal you need to communicate.

Credit: Photo by Jennifer Paulson Hook the metal clips that run along the rope to each side of the bottom rings of a shank bit, or behind the curb strap of a snaffle. Attach the end clips to each side of your saddle’s cinch dee rings, as shown. Don’t run the rope between your horse’s legs. That pulls his head down rather than level and toward his chest. For a horse that carries his head too low, hook the end snaps to a higher dee ring on your saddle to bring his head up, while still flexed.

Horsemanship

Draw reins improve your horse’s collection for better self-carriage and handle.

Store pads upside down on a tack rack to dry completely between each use. Though these pads are used, they’re well cared for and maintained, which enhances their longevity.

Tack & Gear

Think you know everything there’s to know about saddle pads? Think again! Brush up on your knowledge for a happier, more comfortable horse.

How-To

Hone your horse-headgear knowledge, and learn the ins and outs of the traditional hackamore.

A well-adjusted cavesson is a training tool that allows you to communicate with your horse by teaching him to be respectful of your cues and the bit.

How-To

Use this headgear to up your training game and get your horse honed in on your cues.

Credit: Photo by Jennifer Paulson This leather back cinch is fitted properly—not too loose nor too tight. It fastens to the rear billet midway up the horse’s side with room for adjustment up or down. The connecting hobble is tightened to keep the cinch slightly forward of vertical and away from the flanks.

Tack & Gear

For safety’s sake, select, use, and clean your saddle’s back cinch with care.

This double-braided training hackamore has a leather hanger and brow band, thick nylon-rope reins tied in a fiador knot under the horse’s jaw to keep the noseband squarely on his nose, and an adjustable nylon throatlatch.

How-To

Improve your horse’s feel on the trail or in the arena by learning to use, fit, and care for a training hackamore.

A leather breast collar with rawhide braiding and a center-style ring is a sturdy, versatile piece of tack that’ll secure your saddle during working maneuvers. You might prefer wider shoulder straps for additional security.

Tack & Gear

Learn the ins and outs of breast collars to become a specialist on this popular piece of riding equipment.

Reining/Cow Horse

Use this exercise to keep your horse alert and focused when boxing a cow.

Tack & Gear

Brush up on your front cinch know-how to help ensure that every ride is a fun and safe experience.

NEW VIEW: When you ask a horse to move his front end in one direction, his hind end naturally wants to go the opposite way (note how my horse’s left hind leg is stepping left as his head goes right). This bilateral tendency is something you must account for in all your riding.

Western Horse Training Tips

Learn how your horse's body naturally moves, front and back, to overcome many of riding's most vexing problems.

Reining/Cow Horse

Gain precision and control with this maneuver, and feel your horse’s turnarounds flow.

Horsemanship

Learn to see and feel a stop in your mind, so you are better prepared to ask for the maneuver when horseback.

Credit: Left photo by Robert Dawson; right photo by Cappy Jackson Note the similarities here—my traditional Western seat and my colleague Lynn Palm’s classical dressage seat are nearly identical. We’re sitting deep and balanced in the center of our saddles and following our horses’ motion at the lope/canter. Ease and harmony describe our horses: They’re moving in a balanced frame, with lightly flexed polls and faces vertical (perpendicular to the ground).

Horsemanship

Classical horsemanship is the foundation of all riding. Let it help improve you and your horse.

Horsemanship

Use this tried-and-true exercise before every ride to identify problem areas and encourage softness.

Reining/Cow Horse

Al Dunning gives a Horse & Rider magazine reader the ins and outs on what it takes to get into the sport of cutting--and how to do it without breaking the bank.

Al Dunning

Best Show-Halter Fit

Running Martingale

German Martingale

Chin Straps

Reel Him In

Saddle Pads Made Simple

Get a Handle on Hackamores

Cued in With a Cavesson

Western Back Cinches: Key Facts

Training Hackamores for Finer Feel

Breast-Collar Buff

Driving the Cow

It’s a Cinch!

Fix Your Horse's Bilateral Drift

Counter-Bend Drill

Steps to the Stop

Western Dressage

Warm Up Right

Getting Started in Cutting