Advice

Mindful management can extend the career of your senior performance horse.

Kids and horses make the perfect pair for valuable life lessons.

Fires, floods, and hurricanes are just a few of the natural disasters that strike fear in every horse owner’s heart. Develop your evacuation plan to put your mind at ease.

How-To

In today’s world, horses may be one of the best tools ever for fostering healthy, well-adjusted children.

How-To

Whether you dream of seeing the country from horseback or excelling in competition, you can do it! These four riders reveal what it took to achieve their horse-related goals.

How-To

What’s new and exciting for riders and their horses this year? Here are a few things on our radar to keep an eye on.

Credit: Photo by Jennifer Paulson To conjure a more confident frame of mind in the moment: smile, breathe deeply, relax tense muscles,and recall a happy memory.

How-To

When you feel uneasy on your horse, these strategies will help you ‘fake it ’til you make it.’

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

Rider Fitness

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

western tack

Gain insight into three common problem bits with the potential to pinch, poke, or otherwise make your horse wince. Plus learn how your bit works on your horse’s mouth for a happier ride.

Western Horse Training Tips

Use good old-fashioned horsemanship to minimize the need for medication and help keep your horse healthy.

Credit: Photos by Barry Denton Have someone check as you try to tell, using only feel, when each of your horse’s legs is moving forward (top). Then practice riding over a pole, controlling which of your horse’s legs goes first.

Horsemanship

These exercises will help you develop that near-magical ability known as feel.

Schooling at horse shows has increased dramatically—and that’s fine. But remember to respect the judge, the spectators, and your trainer’s program by keeping a professional appearance.

Horsemanship

Schooling is one thing. Disrespecting the judge and the spectators is another.

How-To

Have a perpetual shoe-puller? Here’s a solution.

How-To

Horse trainers say the darnedest things. Here are 18 of our favorite things we heard them say this year.

Western Riding Apparel

Buy your next pair of chaps with confidence using the advice from four experts, plus get fit tips from a chaps maker.

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.

western tack

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

Use down time to your advantage—studying patterns and prepping your horse—rather than wasting time. I’ll offer eight tips for better time management at horse shows.

How-To

Make the most of the horse-show “hurry-up-and-wait” with these competition-tested do’s and don’ts.

Buckle Up for Blanket Season promo image

Horseware

2016’s best blankets.

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 tack

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

Gallop Poll: Color vis–à–vis Disposition? promo image

How-To

Build confidence

These riders don’t mount up without head protection. Read their stories, so you can decide if a helmet might be right for you.

If you’re a green rider on a green horse, a key success strategy will be working under the guidance of an expert.

Western Horse Training Tips

It’s the ‘forbidden’ match—a green rider on a green horse. If you ever find yourself in this situation, follow these strategies to up the odds that you’ll wind up safe and successful.