Groundwork For Safety Sake

Ron Knodel on Halter Breaking

You've tuned in just in time to catch the late Howard Hale with the great Ron Knodel.   Let's check in on that question that Howard asked about halter breaking.    Nebraska horseman Ron Knodel is with us today. Ron, let's assume that I bring you a horse to halter break. What's the process? How do you go about it?    "Well, what I do is, and it wouldn't matter if it's a Mustang or a Shetland Pony, and I've even worked a miniature donkey that was running off. But what I do, and it works on all horses, and you don't have to, but I rope them, and especially the Mustangs, it gets things done a little quicker there, not that that's the big focus, but I rope the horses, and the first thing I do is I start introducing the feel to the block. I block front and move the hind quarters around. And why that block is so important is that's the start of the stop. And through the halter braking process, if you let them horses continue to lean and walk forward and push through that block, that carries on, on a lot of horses, that carries right on into your snaffle bits, your hackle moors, your vitals, whatever. So it's really important to me that they get halter broke and not running through that block. So I block the horse in the front and move the hind quarters around."   That was the late Howard Hale with the unknown horseman, Ron Knodel. Ron's not so much an unknown horseman anymore, he's become quite popular putting on clinics around the country.   More on Ron from Farm Progress... https://www.farmprogress.com/husker-harvest-days/horse-training-expert-returns-to-hhd-for-20th-year

Halterless Halter Training

"When halter training, the last thing I want to do is put a halter on." - Van Hargis, Van Hargis Horsemanship

How Bit Size Matters

Craig Cameron with the late Howard Hale on the size of bits he prefers.

Steve Sward on John Israel Bits

Listen is as the late Howard Hale interviewed Steve Sward on his use of John Israel bits.

Your Horse is Screamin'

Now, here's more with Buster McLaury.    "I don't know anything about it. I don't know what a horse whisperer is. But he said, I do know the horse is screaming all the time. Nobody's listening."   That's an interesting way of putting it, and I think you're absolutely right.    "Yeah, the horse tells us, you know, how he feels about things. And they have the same emotions we do. They get sure and unsure and sick and well and hot and cold and brave and afraid. So if we just learn to read the horse through his body language, you kind of tell us what he's all right with or not or where he needs some help and when he understands and when he doesn't. It's pretty obvious once you kind of learn to look. You know, each horse is an individual. But how you get there, there's got to be just a little difference on each one of them. And that's the interesting part."   Buster McLaury with the late Howard Hale on Horseman's Corner Radio.