Organization and Horsemanship | RES 076

Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship and Personal Growth with Van Hargis

This episode wrangles with a topic brought up on Facebook by a great friend of mine, Steve Stevens up in North Texas. Now Steve asked over Facebook if his followers thought that organization played a role in their horsemanship. The way they hang up bridles and saddles and lead ropes, could that at all impact their horsemanship. A lot of people said no. They drag their ropes, leave stuff on the ground till the next day, and so on and so forth. But professionals chimed in and said that this kind of organization was a key component of their horsemanship. I agree with this. Organization can definitely play a role in how you approach your horsemanship, and this episode dives right into why that is.

Key Takeaways

So what’s the connection between how you hang your tack and your horsemanship? For one, I use organization as a teaching tool. When I know exactly where everything is in my barn, I can say ‘Hey Laura, go grab me a Snapple bit – the second one on the left.” Now Laura may not know what a snapple bit is, but because my organization is tight I can still lead her right to that bit and she can start learning more about it.

One of the main benefits of organizing tack is the overflow into our thoughts—when we organize our gear we are also organizing what we’re thinking about. I believe everyone should have a plan for their horse each day, but not be attached to that plan. Horses can change what you need to do in a heartbeat, as well as what you need. Organizing your gear can help you preemptively plan for diversions in your day and help keep an even flow when plans change on the fly.

Of course, if you are still having a blast with your tack looking like a tornado organized it—don’t feel like you have to change just because I told you to! Everyone’s path through horsemanship is different. As long as your organization method keeps you motivated to ride and lets you spend more time with your horse, I’m all on board.

We also want to give a big thanks to Equi-racks who’ve been helping us out with the podcast and we’ve been using all their products on our new facilities on the ranch.

****Also, if you’re a fan of the show please take time to head over and leave us an Itunes Review to give Laura and myself a glimpse of how we’ve helped you or what we could do better to help you ride every stride.