Bob Wood Horses For Life

09/05/2026

Could this be one of the last Labor Day weekends in America? Yesterday in Austin Texas a completely autonomous taxi was introduced and giving rides. No driver, no steering wheel, no pedals or mirrors. An Uber ride that cost $16 cost $6 in a robo taxi. No more labor required from taxi drivers.

AI has eliminated the job of Radiologist and robots cook french fries at fast food restaurants. Jobs ranging from medical school graduates to high school kids working at McDonalds are over and there is much more to come. It won't be long until the nostalgic celebration of human labor on Labor Day weekend fades into obscurity. Enjoy your Labor Day picnic while you can.

But my job is safe. I can train horses and teach riding and I'm good at it. I don't think AI or robots can replace me because every horse is different and horse training is 90% evaluation on a physical, emotional and intellectual level involving all the senses. What I do would overheat a robot's computer.

I am posting this as a question, mostly to younger people and parents. If you had a choice between college and apprenticing with some great horse trainers and instructors, which offers you the greatest job security? For me, I am glad I am not a Radiologist.

09/04/2026

People don't realize how dangerous training horses can be. Twenty six years ago, when I was 53, I had an accident training a young horse. I got strapped to one of those plastic boards and carried into a hospital like they do with all back injury patients. It's scary.

Long story short, the orthopedic surgeon said I'd never ride again. Months of rehab followed. Basically, your whole world gets flipped upside down and you worry constantly while you are unable to do almost everything for a year or more. Eventually, I did start to ride again and train horses and am thankful I still can. But there are mornings when its a challenge to put my boots on.

A friend of seriously injured horse trainer messaged me about a young trainer Bryan Kirby who recently was seriously injured while training a horse. This young man needs back surgery, and I want to help him out with what he needs by posting his fundraiser. I think I know how he feels and what's going through his head. It's life changing and you don't know how it ends. Very scary.

Here is a link to his family's fundraiser. I checked it out and it's for real.

Help Support Bryan, Katie & EllieOur horse community is coming together to support a very special family who could use our help right now.Bryan Kirby, owner of Redtail Ranch, western coach for the Appalachian State University equestrian team and NRHA trainer was recently seriously injured in a horse

09/03/2026

I put up a post about the fox hunting season starting last week. People quit the page as a result. These folks who know nothing about the sport think it is cruel, but modern fox hunting is not. It's really fox chasing.

I'm a traditionalist so I call it fox hunting because that is how it began, to protect farmers from losses from foxes eating their fowl, eggs and more. But that is no longer true and hunting has changed. After the widespread use of the chemical insecticide DDT in the 1950s killed ground nesting birds, a big source of food for the fox, the fox population was nearly wiped out. This changed the sport from hunting to fox chasing.

Hunt clubs stopped hunting foxes, and they started and continue to do everything possible to maintain the fox population. Now the fox is chased to ground (into a hole) and not killed so there will be a fox to chase next week. Hunt clubs today preserve fox habitat. They lease farmland to prevent trappers from decimating the fox population and take other measures to preserve the fox for future generations.

The fox hunting season is beginning now. First there is puppy walking, which is walking the new puppies along with mounted horses to introduce them to the sport. Some people call this roading but roading has other meanings. Then comes cubbing, which is introducing the puppies to the pack while having Hunt Staff riders keeping all the hounds together in a pack. Then finally hunting begins with an opening day.

The beginning of the season is when all the preparation are happening for the new season. Now is a good time to come out and ride with a hunt while everything is slow and educational. You will experience the hounds, meet the people and get your horse used to the process.

The chart is from the Fort Leavenworth Hunt established in 1926. They chase coyotes as many western hunts do. It shows how a hunt is organized while hunting.

Here is a link to Hunt Clubs in the US and Canada. Find one near you. They welcome new riders, so give it a try. It's the only horse sport where you don't know where you are going. www.mfha.com/hunt-map

09/02/2026

I have come to know David, founder of the UDJClub, to be an authentic highly trained horseman. He is building a new system based on education. The US Equestrian Federation, the Hunter Jumper Association, the Dressage Federation, and many other disciplines have become commercial businesses willing to ruin horsemanship in order to make a buck.

Please share this post to support the United Dressage and Jumping Club's very important positive changes in the American horse world. Share from here - www.facebook.com/reel/1071809208829198

UDJClub website www.udjc.org

09/02/2026

Cal Middleton will be in south central PA teaching and giving a clinic in October. Cal is the real deal. I met him a while back at one of his clinics and I was impressed with his knowledge and teaching style. I wrote a post about him. Here is a link to my observations about Cal's work -
www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid02XX2pWA4Q1nhsr1DzpWhEzqvVf4ur5w1LCKmSTbdXYHXa7StTYmGkRyNne2W5kYCnl

Thomasville and Aspers PA are both between an hour and an hour and a half from Baltimore, Lancaster PA and Harrisburg PA.

Cal is offering these opportunities to learn over the four days he will be in the area -

October 12-13 Aspers PA - classes available in Horsemanship, Stockmanship, Intro Ranch Roping

October 14 Thomasville PA - Individual lessons available

October 15 Thomasville - PA One day group clinic available

Auditors welcome all days

If you are a western rider a looking for quality instruction I recommend you attend one of his classes of clinics.

08/31/2026

Before Italian Cavalry Captain Fredirico Caprilli introduced the Forward Seat in the early 20th century horses were ridden in what many call the Chair Seat that harkened back to the Knights in shining armor.

Most people who have heard this history believe that Caprilli only changed how we jump horses, but what he really changed was how a rider balances on a horse under all circumstances.

When we compare the Chair Seat in a jump to Caprilli's "Forward Seat" jump the difference is most obvious. In the Chair seat the rider remains seated in the saddle over the jump. With the Caprilli Forward Seat the rider gets up out of the saddle over a jump. The Forward Seat permits riders to have their own independent balance when jumping that frees the horse to exercise their optimum balance over a jump.

However, this change in jumping position is only one element of Caprilli's entire innovation that was truly a very new way for riders to balance when riding as seen in the walk images. Caprilli completely changed how we balance both in and out of the saddle to a more centered balance riding method.

When we evaluate the red lines through the Chair Seat rider's bodies, we see a position that is static, not fluid like the Forward Seat. The legs are bent at the knee as they would be when sitting in a chair. Chair Seat riders remain in a fixed seated position in the saddle when riding or jumping, which does not allow the rider to move as effectively with their horse.

The pictured Forward Seat positions of US Cavalry Col. Kitts at the walk and Capt. Caprilli himself jumping shows us how Caprilli's balanced method centers the rider's body mass much more effectively in unity with the horse's balance and movement that results in a more secure ride or jump, which at the time was a huge advance in military riding on the battlefield. Cavalries around the world copied it soon after it became public.

08/30/2026

The fox hunting season is beginning. First puppy walking, then cubbing then hunting. The beginning of the season is a good time to come out and experience the hounds, meet the people and get your horses used to the process while it is slow and deliberate to teach the new young hounds how to work as a pack.

Here is a link to Hunt Clubs in the US and Canada. Find one near you and give it a try. It's the only horse sport where you don't know where you are going. www.mfha.com/hunt-map/

08/28/2026

There is a new and more interesting horse show series growing across the US from the United Dressage and Jumping Club. They will be offering two shows in Virginia, in September and October.

The UDJClub began in Texas and expanded in Florida and beyond. There are two levels of shows, Circuit shows, that are somewhat similar in skill level to "A" rated USHJA shows, and the Foundation shows are entry level shows. The Virginia shows are both Foundation level.

The UDJClub shows are less expensive than typical shows today. Most importantly the judges give individual feedback to each rider about their ride. These shows are educational. The judge's feedback is based on small "d" dressage principles.

You might say that you don't do dressage but if you ride well, you are doing some dressage when you cue your horse. Dressage translated means training. What most people today think is Dressage, is large "D" commercial modern dressage. UDJC dressage is small "d" authentic dressage that is the basis of all correct training and riding, including western riding.

I believe the UDJClub shows and process is the most positive new direction in American riding. They could be the organization that finally reverses the decline of American horsemanship.

Their national website is www.udjc.org and to keep up on the latest information you can follow their page. UDJClub.

Contact Gammon Castellvi to sign up for these shows. You won't regret it.

IF YOU ARE IN THE VIRGINIA AREA PLEASE SHARE THIS POST. Thank you

08/27/2026

I have a social media page with over 46K+ followers and more than a million views a month. One result is that I get constant disrespectful comments and insults. I accept this because trolls are part of the social media experience.

However, in day to day life I am far less tolerant of disrespect and insults from people who know very little about horses. This is a growing problem as more people with money enter the horse world as a lifestyle. For them owning a horse is like having a swimming pool or tennis court. It is one more entertainment option they have that shows off their wealth.

For example, I had a teenage student years ago who I coached to number 1 in east coast Pony Club Eventing and to number 2 at Pony Club Eventing Nationals. I regularly rode this student's very expensive horse that daddy bought her to tune him up for competitions. Nonetheless, in a lesson following her national success, this princess teen insulted me with a most ungrateful act.

In a lesson I asked her to dismount because her horse was acting up and needed schooling, as I had done many times before, and this student couldn't provide it. I was going to hop on her horse to fix it so we could continue her lesson. It was then this rider told me I wasn't allowed to ride her horse.

The boundless arrogance of unconscious teenagers allowed her to insult me in this way. I told her to dismount, return to the barn, load up her horse and leave. She was no longer welcome at my farm. Her dad called me later to offer me more money to take her back and I said no.

I also had a similar experience with a money entitled adult student. Because she had paid a lot for her horse, she said no one but her, including me, was allowed to ride her horse because she wanted to "protect her investment in the horse's training". If I was asked to make a list of riders who would untrain her valuable horse, she would top that list.

I think we all need to be more proactive against this kind of disrespect. Not only am I tired of it, but I also think we all need to stand up for true professionals' skills and understanding as this disrespect from entitled newbies grows. Otherwise, I think people with real skills and experience will stop teaching.

These insulting people are not about improving horses. They are about projecting their financial entitlement and their social status. The ability to pay should not be an entitlement to insult professionals in the horse world. We need to hold real professionals in high regard in order to protect horses from these posers who are not interested in being a part of the horse community.

08/26/2026

From left to right we see a weanling, a yearling and a 2 year old. There are basic training requirements for each age that I will explain. The problem is that many breeders today who breed the high status horses are not doing this required training. I know because I have been asked to train several of them late in their lives. Foals are born and then warehoused. If this training isn't done at each stage of development, it becomes so much more difficult later on. I keep seeing young horses like this that have had their early training neglected by breeders.

These untrained horses at 3 and 4 years old have no boundaries, can't balance well enough on three legs to clean their feet, will not let you control their head and are uncontrollable for necessary medical treatments. People who don't know very much or anything about horse training who are ill equipped to get these horses up to date on their training are buying these horses and doing little or nothing to make them safe.

The ranch where I had my first paid horse training job in the 1960s had forty mares and forty foals every year. The ranch was not far from Neil Young's ranch up in the Santa Cruz mountains. The head trainer, Chris Heinrich, had ties to the entertainment world back when Arabians were extremely popular with stars like William Shatner and Wayne Newton. Celebrities would come to the ranch to buy horses from weanlings to 4 year olds.

A woman up in the barns did the first stage training until they were weaned. She handled each one to the point that when I got them as weanlings to start, they were quite controllable. They would single tie, you could control their head, and you could easily lead them. Today I see 3 year olds with none of this training.

Once weaned, the horses in training were kept in large paddocks separated by age. My job was to catch certain horses each day, teach them voice commands and to lunge, and eventually to be ponied off one of the good old ranch horses. Chris had each trainer's daily list of horses to work and what to do with each one in the tack room on a huge chalkboard.

Some days I lunged eight to ten horses in the round pen. Other days it would be a mix of round penning some and ponying some. By the time they were yearlings they had great manners, lunged well with voice commands and respected boundaries. Chris sold very manageable young horses, and the older ones were very rideable. I didn't do any riding training. The cowboys did that.

Having been taught the appropriate training standards for each age horse, I can't believe how so many of today's breeders do none of this. Horses are born and grow up with little handling and almost no training until they are sold. Many of the buyers keep them as pets and eventually quite a few drug them as they get older and become dangerously unmanageable. How things have changed.