Vaquero Style Horsemanship:

Ron has been teaching vaquero style horsemanship in both hackamore and full bridles for over ten years. His clinics have taken him as far as Egypt and England where he helped trainers, riders and all around horse lovers bring their horses out of the bit and into the hackamore. Ron demonstrates that horses can do anything - from reining, roping to high level dressage - in the hackamore, with lightness. No more pulling on metal bits in the mouth! Instead, there is an almost spiritual connection between rider and horse in the hands of a trained hackamore practitioner. As in the French classical tradition, which began alongside the Spanish vaquero riders over 400 years ago, Ron communicates with the horse through light bumps and constant release of the reins, where the horse can move in lightness off the rider's legs and shift in body weight, which is much more important than the use of reins.

Beginning with ground work, Ron teaches horse owners how to begin the process of lightness in the saddle. This method of riding requires the rider to work on his/her own centered movement in balance first, as in the martial arts. From there the rider learns to read the horse with such precision that the skills can be transferred to the saddle. Right from the start, the rider learns to move in the rhythm of the horse, and vice versa, enabling the horse to work in a freer and more enjoyable way. Gymnastics through classical dressage is the key to clear communication and the building of the horse's body is the result. Proper bascule, or rounding of the horse's back and bending of the ribcage allows the horse to carry the weight of the rider without discomfort or pain from constant pressure points. Likewise, the rider learns to sit a very light, well balanced seat so that the training is not only effective and enjoyable, but enlightening. Although this method of riding existed back in the sands of Arabia to the hills of Granada, it has been steadily eroded in favor of quick, expedient training methods for competition. As in his martial arts training, Ron is not interested in competition. Instead, he believes that competition does not benefit the horse, but creates tremendous amounts of undue stress, which is detrimental to the horse. Therefore, as much as possible, Ron tries to make the "unnatural" experience of allowing a rider on its back, a positive one for the horse. When this occurs, there is nothing to compare the experience to on the rider's side either - no medal or trophy can match it. This, for Ron, should be the goal of all good horsemanship.

Yabusame - Japanese archery: Ron has been training in Kyudo and has begun working with his horses in the ancient art of Yabusame. Much as the early samurai, Ron uses his knowledge in martial arts under saddle. The difference between Ron's Yabusame and what is practiced in Japan is the difference between working in bits vs. hackamores.

Because Ron's horses are already classically trained to lightness in the hackamore, he can easily transfer those skills to Yabusame as easily as his horses learned vaquero style roping. Archery off horseback is a very fast growing sport/art in the US, but very few, if any, are working in the Japanese style, with the Yumi bow and Ya (arrows) and the specific drawing technique of Kyudo and Kyujutsu. This kind of archery/horsemanship does not include the rituals of Kyudo, but the mechanics. However, what he brings to the table is his vast experience with horse training, which is often missing in Japanese Yabusame as the emphasis in Japan is on the archery and not as much the horsemanship. Ron's goal is to mesh the two. In this way, he also practices Western archery off the horse as well, but admits that the two types of archery are almost night and day in terms of technique and ritual.

This past summer Ron's martial arts students got involved with this new experience of Yabusame and they were so excited that Ron will be holding a Yabusame/martial arts summer camp in 2012.