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Welcome to Ride Every Stride with Van Hargis, a podcast about horsemanship . . . and more. Our goal is to educate, motivate, inspire, and entertain you through an exploration of everything horsemanship and the intersection of horsemanship and humanship. We want to give you practical tools that you can use in the arena or on the trail and teach you the principles of great horsemanship, while also inspiring you to apply those same principles to help your personal growth and success.
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In today's episode I want to pay tribute to some very influential men and mentors. Allen Gammill my grandfather. He taught me several lessons in loyalty. Boley Crawford assistant football coach at East Texas State University(now Texas A&M Commerce) who gave me an option between class or practice Dick Atwood owner of Atwood Hats Randy Snodgrass owne…
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In the most recent previous episodes we discussed The Path of Least Resistance, Forward Motion, The Control of Forward Motion and now it's time to discuss The Stopping Forward Motion. Let's face it. There are tons of ways to stop a horse. Heck, there are even different kinds of stops. The thing I focus on first is a true understanding between horse…
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Last episode we continued a new series titled Nothing Beyond the Basics and spoke about forward motion and the control of forward motion as we talked about establishing aworking relationship by working on speed control. Today we will focus on the control of forward movement by focusing on directional control. Directional Control- left and right and…
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Today we will focus on the control of forward movement. Directional Control- left and right and turns. Turns or change of directions using turns. Inside turns and outside turns. I personally prefer outside turns initially. Why? Preparing for what comes next and having faith that what in my opinion too many focus on. Hooking on or joining up, or wha…
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Today as we progress on the forward motion and obtaining it via the path of least resistance I'd like to address the use of the round pen for a moment. I'm certainly not gonna dog any other credible tools such as no pen at all or a square pen, rectangular pen, or any other shape. Yes, a tool can assist greatly if you know what project you're workin…
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Welcome back to Ride Every Stride. It's been quite a while since our last episode. Thank you all for your patience, continued encouragement and support. You all may have noticed a change in the voice on the introduction piece. Well, let me formally introduce the new Ride Every Stride co-host, my lovely wife Melanie Hargis. For those of you that vis…
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You’ve probably heard me say this before, “Horses aren’t people.” You may have also rolled your eyes at me, because it seems obvious. Doesn’t it? Yet you’d be surprised how often people misinterpret horse behavior as being the same as human behavior, with the same emotions and causes involved. But the truth of the matter is different. Horses are a …
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Don’t know what you can do unless you let go of comfort zone. It’s easy to hold onto what we know and stay in one spot, but unless you branch out, you’ll never know what is just beyond our reach. So there a lot of things that can hold us back in both our humanship and horsemanship. Most of these are in our mind—like a stake in the ground that keeps…
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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…
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As you all know, we love getting listener questions. By far the most common questions we get revolve around confidence, anxiety, and a slew of other mental barriers that get in the way of our horsemanship. Everyone experiences these kinds of roadblocks, even me. At every clinic I’m at I tell folks the only difference between them and me is that I’v…
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If you’ve been around a while you know I love it when we get listener questions in. Recently, I got a few of the same question back to back—which I how I know it’s time to talk about it on the show. The question that’s been coming in is “Do you use snaps on reins?” What they mean is the small metal snap loops to attach the reins to a bit. The short…
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It’s easy to get wrapped up in negative thinking, even if it doesn’t seem like that big a deal. We might complain about the weather, it being too hot or too cold. We might say, “Well my mare is in heat right now and you know how that goes.” We find it so easy to fall into negative thinking, and I think a lot of it has to do with the media we take i…
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The coming episodes are going to be tackling a trend I’ve seen lately from our listener questions and the clinics I’ve been hosting–and it has to do with the mental side of horsemanship. Often times our brain gets in the way of our ride more than the horse does. And one of the key parts of our brain to exercise is our imagination. When Laura first …
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As you should know, we love getting listener questions and feedback on the show. This episode is centered around one of those questions, and it has to do with the “It” factor—meaning greatness. Can greatness in our horses be taught, or do they have to be born with it? I find this to be a fascinating question that clearly straddles the overlap betwe…
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This week we are talking about setting your horse up for success, but really offering them a decision to make and being prepared for the result—be it what we wanted or not. I’m talking about the Controlled Wreck. This is a training tool that works a bit like a pop quiz for your horse, and often times the rider and trainer too. The Controlled Wreck …
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Horses and humans have a lot in common. For instance, aging. Just like we get old, slow down, have back pain, dietary problems, and need to adjust to keep our minds and bodies active—horses do too. They have a specific set of needs and issues that may arise as they enter old age, and we’ll be covering exactly when, why, and what to do when our hors…
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Welcome back to Ride Every Stride—Laura and I know that it has been a while since we stepped behind the microphone, but we’re glad to be back and at it. We’re coming back on this episode to talk about something that straddles the line between horsemanship and humanship. Are you a leader or an authority figure? What’s the difference? Well, for start…
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There comes a point in everyone’s life where they hit setbacks. Obstacles enter our path and sometimes they are easy to get around, and sometimes that can bring our lives to a halt. Likewise, some people seem to deal with obstacles better than others—somehow staying positive no matter the trauma or odds that stand against them. I was moved recently…
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97% of people involved with horses as of today are involved with them as a hobby. That means only 3% make their sole living off horsemanship. It’s something I wanted to touch on as I get asked all the time about recommendations for good trainers, or how to become a trainer. It often takes a lot longer to become a trainer than most aspiring professi…
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Getting your horse back from a trainer, or bringing a new horse home for the first time is an incredibly important transition. If you listened to episode 064 you heard Laura and myself talk about bonding with your horse. This episode touches on very practical applications of that bonding. There are ways to set your horse up for success by being att…
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I’ve been having some conversations lately around the nature of “bonding” with horses. I hear it all the time, “I can’t wait to get back home and bond with my horse.” Well, what exactly does that mean? When asked, most people say that they mean hanging out with their horse in the pasture. Doing some work, occasionally petting them, and just general…
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There is a student of mine who has been taking lessons from me for years, and before that, her grandparents plopped her down in a saddle at the age of six. She can ride well. She doesn’t bob around in the saddle and flail her arms. She has good posture as well. But something I noticed time and time again is that after riding a horse a few times, th…
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I always used to think that lunging was a great idea for the right reasons, but I have to admit, my attitude towards lunging has changed. It always seemed like a good warmup for the horse—or even a warm up for the rider’s courage before they hop in the saddle. However, over the years I see that lunging can be a great way to set the tone for the day…
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I had the privilege of spending a week with Mr. Dorrance, watching and learning how he practiced horsemanship. One night at dinner I said, “You know what? You’re worse than my grandad.” See, I couldn’t remember a single time growing up where my grandad gave me a straight answer to a question. He’d either ask another question or make a statement tha…
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We’re back with episode 60 of Ride Every Stride, our first show back in 2018. We want to thank all you listeners who’ve been nudging Laura and I about getting back to recording. After sorting through some technical issues and inclement weather, we’re both happy to be behind the microphone again and continue with the show. For this episode we’ll be …
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We travel around a lot to different expos and shows, and what I love most about traveling around is hearing stories from everyone I meet. Sometimes their stories are touching, sometimes they leave me laughing, and sometimes they leave me scratching my head. One kind of story I hear a lot starts with, “Well all of a sudden, and for no reason…” and a…
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Well, we’ve been roughing it through a South Texas winter – which is to say we practically have our bathing suits on in the near 90 degree weather. This week was Thanksgiving here in the states, and I hope you all got to spend some quality time with your families and horses, too. This week we’re going to talk about a question I’ve gotten a lot as o…
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I’m in high cotton this week, but the subject we’re bringing up gets me pretty upset. Last week we talked about Hurricane Harvey and evacuating. This week we are going to talk about people who pander to your heartstrings with their “displaced horses” to try and make money. These, quite frankly, scumbags will go to a horse sale and buy horses for ch…
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Welcome back to Ride Every Stride! We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus, if you haven’t noticed, but we’re good to jump back in the saddle now. So why have we been gone? We were way more fortunate than others after hurricane Harvey – we only lost power for ten days. However, getting an internet connection back up and running took a good bit longer. Ther…
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This week we’re answering questions from two different listeners. Both still had questions after listening to previous episodes, and Laura and I are here to clear the air. Key Takeaways First question - what to do with a horse that won’t respond to go forward cues. Well, it depends. First off, you want to make sure you are being deliberate with you…
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This episode is dedicated to that iconic symbol of all cowboys and cowgirls: the boot spur. Mine never come off my work boots. I check them in my luggage when traveling and as soon as I get to where I’m going they go right back on. They are a part of me and my culture. There are some mixed emotions about spurs and so today we will be going over man…
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Welcome back to Ride Every Stride – we’re in the thick of summer now and I thought it’d be good to have an episode about something you all have probably heard. “Oh, that horse just needs some wet saddle blankets. That’ll do them some good.” I get where this comes from, the idea of getting a horse busy to have them fall in line with the behaviors yo…
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I’m often approached by those who consider me a saddle expert. And yes, I have designed saddles with manufacturers that I’m extremely proud of. However, I’d hesitate to call myself a saddle expert. I spend my energy thinking about the horse and what they need far more than I think about what adjustments I need made to any given saddle. I like to ke…
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We have another listener question that will be the focal point for this week’s episode. While I like to respond to these personally, sometimes I like to bring them up for episode topics as well. This topic in particular is something many horse owners may have dealt with, and that’s aggressive horses. The question that came in was specifically about…
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There’s a story I’m reminded of just about every day. It’s one that comes to mind when I’m pushing myself and my horses to be the absolute best that we can. Back around when ranch horse versatility events were getting popular I started exercising my competition skills. I’d take clients horses and often win first, second, and third place with their …
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We’re back from the pacific northwest where we’ve had some excellent clinics and met some great people. I fielded a fair amount of questions on the trip and many of them had to do with bits. When I get asked, “What kind of bit do you use?” my favorite response is “Just use a bit of knowledge.” In all seriousness, what bit you use depends on a lot o…
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Some of my favorite questions are more philosophical in nature, and recently I’ve been asked an interesting one: How do you know if your horses are happy? Understanding this boils down to the main differences between horses and people. We tend to apply human emotions and characteristics to our horses that often don’t apply to them. But horses don’t…
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If you’re familiar with our show you’ve heard me talk about horse’s herd instinct. You may have wondered though if that instinct still survives in our domestic horses, and if so, how strong it actually is. Well, the answer is that yes, horses still very much seek out herd interactions with fellow horses. Us humans tend to be a bad replacement for a…
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We’re tackling a pretty in depth question this week from another one of our listeners: how do you know when you’re ready to buy a horse? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that horses are large animals. Much larger than any other pet. And with that increase in size also comes an increase in time, effort, money, and responsibility. I’m going to walk yo…
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We’ve been getting some great feedback about our show and some great questions have been flooding in. So this week we’ll be addressing a listener question that just came in: should we have different expectations when training mares vs. geldings. To answer this we need to first acknowledge that we expect a job of our horse. We want them to perform. …
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As some of you may know by now, I spent some time in New Zealand. While I was there I was fortunate enough to have Laurey McVicar take me under his wing. We worked side by side and I learned a great deal from him through our friendship. One such lesson came when we went to Lester Higgins’ ranch to help round up some cattle. We were pretty much just…
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When I was much younger my sole aspiration was to become a calf roper. The absolute best one I could be. At the end of the day, I’d go practice flanking and tying calves, well, really legging them since I was so young. And one of my heroes at the time was Ernie Taylor, a full rodeo champion. I remember one day he stopped by our arena and I got the …
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Many of the questions I get from people can be traced back to a common issue: developing a horse’s responsiveness and respect. Again, I’ll be using a quote I first heard while living in New Zealand. I was working with a horse and ended up pulling on them too hard and ended up apologizing. Right then I was told, “Firm hands make a light horse.” Jerk…
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Everyone has a tying your horse up story. I’ve heard quite a few recently through online conversations I’ve been having with folks, and some people have claimed things that I’m not sure I totally agree with. So, in this episode, I’ll be setting the record straight with where I stand on the topic. And for starters, we’ll dive right into what I see a…
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I get asked frequently why someone's horse does or doesn’t do something. I usually have to answer this the same way every time: “Well, it depends.” You see, the only absolute here is that there are no absolutes. So here come in a few keywords that are central to horsemanship. They are forgiveness; gratitude; confidence; courage; and faith. These th…
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Sometimes we can find ourselves either overwhelmed or underwhelmed with information and what to do with it. There’s so much advice available to us at the tips of our fingers that it’s easy to absorb lessons that don’t quite work for us. Or maybe there’s so much out there we shut down and stop ourselves from being receptive to good information. This…
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This week I’m using a little acronym to explore the different ways we go about charting our path through horsemanship, and life in general: MAP. Each letter addresses an aspect of one’s attitude. They can be used to self-reflect on where you are in your journey with your horse. Using them to see where you are, accept where you are, and see where yo…
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Laura and I explore a large intersection with horsemanship and humanship in this episode. It ties in with the idea of “New Year Resolutions.” You know, those things people talk about every January about how they will go to the gym more, or start eating healthy. But the main point of these resolutions is to drive you closer to one thing: success. Su…
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I hope you and your horses have had an excellent start to the new year. The holidays are behind us and I’m excited about what 2017 has in store for us. We’re going to start this year off by visiting a topic we’ve touched on before. I got a message from a listener through the website, asking about a horse that was very eager and impatient. This made…
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This week’s episode focuses on a topic some might find to be controversial. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we ask a lot of the horses we ride. Often times you’ll hear trainers yell to “bend” that horse or “flex” them. I had the opportunity to work alongside Jack Brainard years ago, who is a personal hero of mine. At one point I was telling so…
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