Heritage Horsemanship LLC

11/20/2024

Per the International Museum of the Horse, in honor of Native American Heritage Month:

Traditional Native American horse markings meant many different things. A lot of markings were used for good luck or protection when riding into battle. This graphic shows some of the most common markings, their meanings, and their locations. Paints were made with ground or squeezed pigment from red and white clays, barks, berries, eggshells, charcoal, flower petals, plants, moss, root juice, ashes, and more.

11/19/2024

Some really good points in here. Mustangs are NOT for everyone.

🖐Five Biggest Mistakes New Mustang Owners Make

Don’t fall into these traps that can sabotage your success and even get you hurt🤕

We see it all the time and it breaks our 💔heart. If people only knew these simple things they would have so much less heartache and so much more success in their dream of owning, training and developing that magical bond with a wild horse 🐎.

1️⃣Not having adequate pens or training areas .

They don’t say six foot fence height for nothing. Even yearlings can clear that height. You don't want to be that person blasted all over social media with your horse that escaped. Also, we often see people attempting to train in a huge pen which just makes the job harder than it needs to be. On the other hand if you train in a pen too small you greatly increase the likelihood of getting hurt. In our experience, 6’ tall and 24’x24’ pen is ideal.

2️⃣Leaving the drag line or halter on too long 🐴.

We do not leave drag lines on longer than 3 days. If the horse is bouncing off the walls terrified of the drag line and is not settling, it comes off right away. Leaving the drag line on too long makes the horse dull to pressure and will cause them to have rubs and sores. Leaving the halter on too long increases the risk of injury plus causes rubs and sores as well. Halters we try to get off within a couple of weeks.

3️⃣Thinking you have time 🕐.

The time flies by and before you know it your horse is on skies and you still haven’t picked up their hooves yet or worse, they need a vet and you can't even touch them. Even a small amount of time spent almost everyday is better than trying to do a ton in one day. Schedule 20 minutes a day and your mustang will become trained. Training is NOT sitting next to their pen reading a book either, 15-20min of ACTIVE training is all it takes to get the job done.

4️⃣Picking the wrong horse for your goals and skill level 😞.

Selecting mustangs from videos, photos, an adoption event or the corrals truly is an art and skill. Be very realistic with yourself on your budget for training, your skill level and the purpose you are wanting a mustang for. Try not to be dazzled by flashy colors. If you are not skilled at this I highly recommend paying a professional to help you. It will save you a ton of money and grief in the long run to be matched well to your dream mustang.

5️⃣Asking for training advice from social media😬

Don’t get me wrong, social media can be great. You wouldn’t be reading this without it. But you cannot really know who is on the other end sounding all confident giving horrific advice. I can’t tell you how many times I see people I know personally who have a thimble full of experience or have never actually trained a mustang well, giving advice on social media. The professionals really don’t have time to scroll social media trying to help people for free. Good things to ask on social media though are “recommend any good trainers or online programs to train mustangs?” Then be discerning and do your research on the recommendations.

We have been there 🤷‍♀️, we made all the mistakes so you don’t have to. We want to help as many people become successful with their mustangs as possible. So we developed many different programs to fit any budget and need level.

👉To start, go check out our YouTube🖥 Channel and subscribe. It’s free, what can it hurt to explore and see what we are all about? Link in comments 🙂

Unless you really need to learn the hard way, then by all means, don’t let us stop you and best of luck!🍀

11/14/2024

I see I have quite a few new page likes/followers! 👋

What kind of content are you all interested in? Western saddle fit/info? Training?
More videos or photos with descriptions?

Thanks for following!
Photo of cutie Nova, my Fish Creek, NV Mustang pony for attention.

11/13/2024

***Fitting the “downhill”, or “croup high” horse!***

Sometimes people think that shimming or padding up the front of a saddle is the answer.
But it is not.
Shimming or padding up the front of a western saddle can have detrimental effects to the entire fit of the tree. It effects the twist, can cause bridging as well as significant pressure digging into the loins.
What you want, is a tree/saddle to follow the horses body shape; you want to fit the tree to the horse the same as any other horse. That there are no high pressure points, the angles are following the horse shoulder to loin, etc.
But yes, it will pitch downward! It will be especially noticeable on a bare tree.
Padding (without shimming)- will naturally lift about 30% more in the front to help. The thicker the pad, the more obvious this will be.

Now, how do you as a rider stay level in a saddle on a downhill horse?
This is where your saddle maker comes in!
You want to make sure you have a high enough seat rise in the front that you will stay centered in the saddle. Any good saddle maker will take a look at some photos of you, your horse, and maybe even you on your horse to get an idea of how much rise to put in that seat.
These photos are an example of a very downhill horse with a curvy back, and some big shoulders (mostly from saddle damage before his new owner).
As you can see the saddle without a pad does follow his downhill shape. With the pad it’s lifted up almost even. And the high seat rise will keep that rider nice and center, without much pitching forward.
Also to add, depending upon horse conformation and type of riding a breeching can help the saddle from sliding forward on a downhill horse. Because, gravity does what it does.
(I know these little level sticks aren't in the exact same spots-trying to do it on a tiny Iphone screen is hard. But hopefully you get the idea. Trying to align croup to points of tree marks on concho spots for reference)

11/11/2024

Today was a beautiful fall Monday! 🍂☀️I worked with Vega on some refinement and a few things I learned at Equine Affaire over the weekend. Looks a little boring because it’s mostly at a walk but we did some really cool stuff:Me being more aware of my seat and balance and her and I’s balance in relation to that. Narrowing up my “bridle box”, along with more neck rein cues. Combination yeilds: shoulder and hind. Starting some counter bends, shoulders in, and haunches in *without overbending*. Working on our stop and back with seat. All of this is tried to be done with quality and lightness, suppleness throughout her poll and in a halter in preparation for her custom made bosal that’s coming in soon! Hard to believe she’s got less than a year under saddle, and was wild and untouched a year ago. She’s my heart and soul. ♥️♥️♥️

11/10/2024

Today I met Ben Longwell with True West Horsemanship !
He is an incredible horseman who has been one of the biggest influences in my personal horsemanship and training journey for years.
This was his first time in New England, and I was lucky enough to experience his insight and knowledge in person.
Thank you Ben, for the chat. Hopefully one day I’d be able to pick your brain more than 5 minutes-but grateful for the time nonetheless!
I hope you return to New England soon, and can actually enjoy more than just the smell of Springfield, MA.

Signed
- A fellow student of the horse.

11/05/2024

Unless you are working within one particular tree company, angles and gullet width means absolutely nothing to me.
You cannot say "oh my horse needs a 90° angle on a 6 1/2 gullet", and expect me to name a bunch of saddle brands that will work without doing a tree fitting.

For example: This horse I fit over the weekend is very wide from shoulder to loin, grade mare. Likely a draft X.
These trees are from two different tree makers.
One of them is the makers "105° front angle", which is one of the widest angles they make.
The other tree is this makers "92° front angle".
They almost fit identical (though, one of them has excess flare which I am not a huge fan of, but this mare can support it.)

THIS IS WHY TREE FITTING IS THE GOLD STANDARD.

10/24/2024

Its official. Vega is mine in full ❤️❤️❤️
I don’t even know what life was like before her; she’s like a part of me that was always missing.
Happy day.

10/20/2024

As some of you may know, Maya has been struggling with being off going to the left at the trot, and struggling to pick up her left lead and cross cantering. She’s had most of the year off trying to figure out why, and if it’s causing her pain.
Come to find out she has limb length disparity. Aka one of her legs is shorter than the other. It causes a total body imbalance, and might always be a “thing” we have to work on forever. She is now getting regular body work, chiro, and is on a shorter trim cycle. We’ve ruled out it hurting her but some maneuvers and overbending do cause discomfort and feeling wonky.
Well today, we did a private lesson with JR Robles at Downeast Performance Horses LLC. He helped me figure out my body position, hand position, and what I need to do to help support Maya in keeping her in more square lines and to keep lighter on that front end. By the end of the lesson she picked up her leads on both sides and was traveling exactly how we wanted her to. This was her first time off property by herself, her first time in an indoor, and first lesson. She was so good and I’m so proud of her. I can’t thank JR enough for helping me with both my girls (Nova last year), and Lyndsey for making it happen. Videos to come!

10/20/2024

Got my fit trees from Steadfast Saddlery!!! They’re absolutely gorgeous 😍
And yep, those are Dennis Lane profiling cards to go with them.
I am so excited to be able to have a custom tree maker to work with based on back profilings. Absolute game changer!

10/16/2024

"When a lot of folks can't get a horse to operate on a feel, in a snaffle, what most are going to tell you "hell, get a little more bridle, get a little more shank on it, get a chain on it" and then when he's really wanting to flip over then "tie his head down". If he really runs into the tie down then "get a bicycle chain over his nose".............I mean it DOESN'T STOP, IT BECOMES MEDIEVAL WHAT THEY DO.
But when you get a horse to where he's operating on a feel; it doesn't make much difference what you have.
Whereas a lot of people leave the snaffle bit because they flunked out, they failed...............and then they go and get another bit.
Of course these tack salesmen love that. They go and get another bit and then they flunk out in it, ruin their horse. Then they ruin them in that, then get another bit and then pretty soon they've got a whole wall full of bits and they still can't operate the damn thing.
All that money they've wasted on bits; they could've probably bought a decent saddle for the horse so he didn't have to put up with the junk they were riding in. Now that would have been something that would have been worthwhile.
So if you don't get it done in the snaffle (the basics that a horse needs, the fundamental movements that all horses need to do for whatever you have in mind for them) before moving on to something else, well............you're not going to get it."" - Buck Brannaman.