A twelve-week western program that takes you from the round pen to the trail — with a check at the end of every week, so you always know whether it's working.
I've been riding the same gelding for four years and never really felt sure about heading out past the fence line on my own. The groundwork weeks changed that. He waits for me now, and I trust what I built from the ground up. First trail ride this fall I didn't have knots in my stomach.
Bought a well-trained gelding last spring and he ignored about half of what I asked. Turned out I wasn't asking the way his previous owner did. The book walked me through resetting the pressure and release from the ground up. He responds to me now, not just to whoever trained him.
I train alone, no trainer down the road, and I never really knew if I was making progress or just going through the motions. The weekly checks are the whole thing for me. Either I can tick the three boxes at the end of the week or I can't. No guessing, no wondering.
Been in the saddle since I was six. Wasn't expecting to learn much from a written program. I was wrong. The soft feel section and the way the neck reining transition is laid out taught me things I'd been getting away with for twenty years. It reads clean, no filler, no fluff.
I came off a green horse two summers ago and hadn't been the same rider since. Starting on the ground for four full weeks felt slow at first. Then I got back on and everything felt different. The mare was calmer because I was calmer. That's what I needed.
I show ranch riding at the amateur level and the pattern section is what sold me. Sixty patterns, sorted by discipline and level, with the diagrams big enough to actually take to the arena. The common faults for each one saved me a lot of guesswork before shows.
You start in the round pen, building a horse that respects your space. You finish out the gate, on ground nobody set up for you. Everything you want in the saddle, you build on the ground first.
Trust, respect and control before the saddle. This is where the next eight weeks are decided.
Seat, hands, and the one-handed rein — in the order that actually holds up.
The horse you can take anywhere — and a plan for the twelve months after this one.
Not a hundred patterns in a pile. Four disciplines, three levels, five patterns each — so you always know which one comes next.
Showmanship · Horsemanship · Trail · Ranch Riding
Not filler. Each one answers something western riders deal with constantly — and none of it is buried inside the main modules.
For the evening something looks wrong and you need to know whether to wait or call the vet.
Daily care, feet, teeth, feed and water. Seasonal routines and what changes on the trail and at the ranch. Recognising colic, choke, laminitis, wounds, lameness and heat stress — and what to do while you wait for the vet, not instead of calling.
For the question every rider training alone asks: am I actually getting better?
Twelve weeks of ride logs, one page per session. The check for every week, printed and ready to tick. Goals, what worked, what didn't, what to repeat — plus farrier, vet and tack schedules. Designed to be printed and written on.
He's telling you something right now. Here's how to read it.
Ears, eye, muzzle, head and neck, tail, muscle tension and weight distribution — as annotated diagrams, not descriptions. With decision trees: what you see, what it usually means, what to do next. And the four misreadings that get riders hurt.
I've been riding the same gelding for four years and never really felt sure about heading out past the fence line on my own. The groundwork weeks changed that. He waits for me now, and I trust what I built from the ground up. First trail ride this fall I didn't have knots in my stomach.
Bought a well-trained gelding last spring and he ignored about half of what I asked. Turned out I wasn't asking the way his previous owner did. The book walked me through resetting the pressure and release from the ground up. He responds to me now, not just to whoever trained him.
I train alone, no trainer down the road, and I never really knew if I was making progress or just going through the motions. The weekly checks are the whole thing for me. Either I can tick the three boxes at the end of the week or I can't. No guessing, no wondering.
Been in the saddle since I was six. Wasn't expecting to learn much from a written program. I was wrong. The soft feel section and the way the neck reining transition is laid out taught me things I'd been getting away with for twenty years. It reads clean, no filler, no fluff.
I came off a green horse two summers ago and hadn't been the same rider since. Starting on the ground for four full weeks felt slow at first. Then I got back on and everything felt different. The mare was calmer because I was calmer. That's what I needed.
I show ranch riding at the amateur level and the pattern section is what sold me. Sixty patterns, sorted by discipline and level, with the diagrams big enough to actually take to the arena. The common faults for each one saved me a lot of guesswork before shows.
Immediately. The moment payment goes through you get every file — all three volumes, the 60 patterns, the twelve-week program and the three bonuses. Nothing ships, nothing arrives later, there's no waiting period.
That's most of the people it was written for. The patterns are there if you want them, but the program is built around a horse that stops, turns, stands and goes out on the trail without a fight. Nine of the twelve weeks have nothing to do with a show pen.
Start at week five if the groundwork is genuinely solid. Most riders who tell us that find something in weeks one to four anyway, usually in the yielding work. The checks will tell you honestly — that's what they're for.
Volumes I and II will read as a structured refresher. The value for you is in Module 5, Module 6 and the 60 patterns — collection and the soft feel, real ground outside the arena, and patterns graded by level. If you've been riding twenty years without a written plan, the twelve weeks is the part that's new.
A round pen helps in weeks one to four but isn't required — every exercise has an alternative for a flat, fenced space. Weeks nine to twelve are deliberately built for open ground, not an arena.
That's the whole premise. Every session tells you what to watch for, and every week ends in a check written so you can judge your own work. It doesn't replace a good trainer. It replaces guessing.
This one if you ride in a western saddle. The Complete Horse Mastery System if you ride English. The groundwork overlaps; everything from the saddle up does not. Buying one is enough.
You can teach from it and print the pages you need for your own lessons. What you can't do is redistribute or resell the files. A licensed edition for riding programmes is coming; this isn't it yet.
All of it. It's laid out A4 and designed for it — the patterns, the ride log and the quick-reference sheets are meant to be printed and taken to the barn. Every diagram still reads in black and white.
