Originally posted on social media from Tik Maynard

“You ever seen a guy rope a filly, start a colt, tell a story, teach a lesson, drink tea (Earl Grey) and ponder the resilience that adversity brings all without removing a toothpick

from the corner of his mouth? I have, twice. This was my second year riding with Martin Black co-author of Evidence Based Horsemanship.

On the first day, while roping, Martin watched me miss twenty-six times in a row. “Throw a little earlier,” he said.

 

On the second day, while unrigging a western saddle, Martin showed me eleven times how to slip the needle of the buckle on the back cinch through the ring of the buckle on the front cinch, then hang them from a round piece of leather that looks like it was made for the job but that I don’t know what it’s called, then leaving the back cinch curved the correct direction, and not twisted the wrong direction.

One of the stories Martin told on the third day was about Gene Lewis. As a kid Gene was a talented bronc rider. “Some kids play baseball, we rode broncs…” said Martin. After high school Gene went to WWII, when he returned he settled in California and began competing in the jumpers. He would arrive at a show with thirty horses. This was before the days of specialized shows so he would enter the western classes and the English classes. I had heard the name Gene Lewis before. David O’Connor learned from Gene as well. One of the unique parts of the O’Connor Eventing program is training horses to jump without a rider. It gets the horses thinking, it gets them seeking the jump, if they leave early or long the rider doesn’t catch them in the mouth or land on their back.

Before leaving I asked Martin to recommend what I should be working on for the next two months. “Weight distribution,” he said. “It helps with turning, it helps with accelerating, it helps with the back up. You get out of their way.”

Martin has people of all backgrounds and all levels in his clinics. “I have no prejudice in discipline because there is good horsemanship and bad horsemanship in every discipline….” The toothpick bobbed. “I do get a kick out of people that refer to horsemanship as if it’s another discipline,” he added.

What horsemanship Was, was left unsaid.”