Things worth knowing, whether or not you ever book a lesson.
Horse owners get sold a lot. These are written to the same standard as the training: say the true thing plainly, show the reasoning, and be honest about what nobody actually knows.
Start here if you are still deciding
Buying your first horse
What a horse actually costs in a year, what to ask a seller, what to do when you go and see one, and what a pre purchase exam will and will not tell you.
Includes the advice nobody wants to hear: buy the older, boring, been there horse.
Horsemanship in plain English
What trainers mean by feel, timing, release, the try, soft feel, disengage and brace. Every term credited to whoever coined it.
Also the handful of phrases worth dropping, and what to say instead.
Keeping a horse well
Supplements and conditions
Start with the problem you are trying to solve. What usually causes it, what to change in management first, which ingredients have real evidence, and which are marketing.
Includes what western Montana forage tends to be short on.
Hoof care and the trim cycle
Why a late trim changes how the whole limb loads, how often is often enough, thrush and white line and abscesses, and the honest answer on barefoot versus shod.
Winter in the Flathead
Water and impaction colic, feeding for cold, the blanketing argument settled, ice balls and frozen footing, and mud season.
Written for this valley rather than for the internet.
Hauling horses
The trailer checks nobody does often enough, teaching a horse to load, driving with a live load, Montana paperwork and weed free forage, and what to do when something goes wrong on the road.
Saddle and tack fit
A ten minute saddle check you can run yourself, how to read a sweat pattern, what bar angle and gullet width actually mean, and how to think about pads, cinches and bits.
One to print, one to read once
When to call the vet
The emergency red flags, what to do while you wait, normal vitals, and what to have ready when you make the call. There is space to write in your vet and farrier numbers.
Designed to print and tape inside a tack room door.
The horsemen behind the method
The twelve people this horsemanship comes from, who they were, what each contributed, and links straight to their own sites so you can study them yourself.
Plus how Lazy K actually connects to that line, which is documented rather than claimed.
Looking for the trail map?
That lives under Tools, along with anything else you use rather than read. These pages are for reading once; those are for coming back to.
A note on why these are free
An owner who understands why their horse does what it does is a better client, a safer rider and a kinder owner, and the horse gets a better life either way. If these save you from buying something you did not need, they did their job.
Questions these do not answer?
Bring them to a session, or call and ask.