Horseman’s Corner Radio

"Yes sir, what I'm looking for in a saddle of course, you hit the nail right on the head and I want to find a top quality saddle made by a very reputable and very top quality saddle manufacturer. And the reason why is that they're generally going to work a little bit harder with the saddle tree manufacturers to make sure that all points of that saddle to be even."

"In other words, it's like everything else and you've got to start with a great foundation. That saddle tree is the absolute most important thing there. After that we want to make sure we're using top quality materials. The best leather possible, those are things I look for. But really what I'm looking for outside of those things, I'm looking for something that fits my task. I really have to ask myself, what am I going to be doing in my horse the most? If all I do is race, barrels and the barrel racer, then it might just pay for me to go find me a barrel race in the saddle as opposed to a cut and saddle. So I want to match the saddle to the task that suits my need."

"Would you consider yourself a good risk manager? I think about that every time that I work with a horse at any level. I don't care if I'm just tying one up to the hitching rail or if I'm putting one on the horse walker, if I'm about to step up in the saddle for the first time. Any time that I do anything with a horse in my mind, I'm managing risk.

A few years ago, I was asked, you know, what was one of the most proudest moments of my Horsemanship career. When I was asked that question, I thought for a moment and I thought, yeah, I went 43 years without a time loss injury. And what I mean by that is, oh, I've been bucked off. I've been stepped on, all that stuff, but nothing really stopped me from doing my job. And so everybody said, well, what led to that? I can only answer good risk management. In other words, I always thought about what I was doing. I was very deliberate, very intentional. I'm very aware of the horse being bigger, stronger than faster than me. And I just mainly just took precaution. And I don't mean I was scared, paranoid or worried. I just took precaution. In other words, I managed my risk. I thought about what I was doing, made sure it was safe for me and then made sure it was safe for my horse. And as a result, 43 years without a time loss injury. Ask yourself, are you a good risk manager?"

"For years I've earned a reputation of getting horses to be good stoppers at a fairly young age and people have always asked, well how do you get those little young horses to stop so big? And number one, I don't really work on it in particular, I just work on the basic fundamentals. Number one, I want every horse to understand first and foremost why they're going. It's less of all, you used to say all the time, you make them going and let them whoa. So I don't really force a horse or ask a horse to stop, I just simply let them. And number two, I really believe in what I refer to as my three steps to stopping, which is number one, quit making them go. Number two, the magic word, whoa. And then lastly, we support with our hands to reinforce what the first two things indicated. And then every time I back a horse up, I actually say whoa, and then I draw them backwards. Whoa, and then I draw them backwards. After about 30 rides or so, what whoa means to the horses back up. So now let's move forward to say you're loping them out. And then you say the magic word, whoa. Now what is a horse thinking? Not whoa, not stop, but they're thinking back up. But what have they got to do before they back up? They've got to stop. So to me, just working a lot of backing a horse up, working a lot on getting a horse very come about backing, both on the ground and in the saddle, and then reinforcing the word whoa when we go to back them up. And they stop thinking about what it is we're asking to do next, which is in this case, to back. Appreciate you guys. Until next time, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship."