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In the old California way, a horse moving from the hackamore to the bridle spends a season carrying both. That stage is called the two rein: the old and the new in the same pair of hands. This is a history of horsemanship told the same way, from the first teachers on record to the people riding now.

Each topic below lists its articles in the order they were published, so you can read a topic from the beginning.

Origins

From the first riders and the first manuals to the riding masters and horse tamers: the good, the bad and the ugly of how people have handled horses.

  1. The Hard School: Grisone, the Riding Academies and the Long Argument About Force
  2. The First Teachers on Record: Kikkuli, Simon and Xenophon
  3. John Rarey, the Ohio Horse Tamer Who Performed for a Queen

Vaqueros and Buckaroos

The stock horse tradition of Spain, Mexico, California and the Great Basin: hackamore, two rein and bridle.

  1. Hackamore, Two Rein, Bridle: How the Vaqueros Made a Horse

Dorrance and Hunt

Tom Dorrance, Bill Dorrance and Ray Hunt: their lives, their books and what they changed.

  1. Bill Dorrance: Rawhide, a Reata and a Book at Ninety-Three
  2. Ray Hunt and a Horse Named Hondo
  3. Tom Dorrance: The Quiet Man at the Start of It

The Clinicians

The horsemen and horsewomen who came after Dorrance and Hunt, and the ones teaching now.

  1. Where the Words Natural Horsemanship Came From
  2. Buck Brannaman: The Line Carried Forward

Cow Horse, Reining and Cutting

The arenas that grew out of ranch work, and the riders who shaped them.

  1. Four Arenas, One Root: Cutting, Reining, Cow Horse and Rodeo