Bud Lyon breaks down how he evaluates and transitions a young horse into the ranch classes, using a three-year-old filly that landed in his barn just days earlier.
She comes from a reining background. Her owner wanted to find out if she'd make a better ranch prospect than a reining one, and Lyon ...

Bud Lyon continues his first ride on the three-year-old reining filly, working her through the trot, lope, turnaround, and backup to see what he's really got.

Bud Lyon goes back to work on the two things he flagged on his first ride of the three-year-old reining filly: her steering and her transitions. He shows the drills that help with both.

Bud Lyon takes on a maneuver the three-year-old reining filly has almost certainly never done: the extended trot. He works through the problem every rider hits here, when posting to lengthen the stride tips a green horse into the lope, and shows two ways to fix it. She picks up the concept quickl...

Bud Lyon test drives the flying lead change on the three-year-old reining filly to see what he's working with, since he'd rather save the simple change for emergencies. What he finds surprises him: the right-to-left change is the sticky one, where she wants to cheat through her body instead of li...

Bud Lyon introduces the three-year-old reining filly to the logs for what's almost certainly the first time in her life, starting with a single log at the walk before working up to trotting and a set of four in a row. She surprises him, careful and deliberate about where she places her feet but n...

Bud Lyon explains why he never takes a green horse to its first show expecting to win, only to learn. He talks through finding a horse's mental and physical limits at home so nothing surprises you in the pen, why some horses need more preparation than others, and how a horse that feels dialed in ...

Bud Lyon rides a three-year-old filly that's been in his program five months, far enough along that he can start stringing maneuvers together the way a ranch riding pattern demands. He runs his checklist first, then works the extended walk, transitions, side passes, turns, lead changes, and logs ...

Bud Lyon swings a leg over a seven-year-old gelding his wife bought the week before, an NRHA money earner with no ranch trail experience, and introduces him to the obstacles for the first time. He works through the logs, the bridge, the gate, and the log drag, reading how the horse handles each o...

Bud Lyon breaks down the imaginary box, the standard he uses to measure whether a horse is truly responsive. Picture a tight window from the base of the neck to the top of the saddle horn and about two inches either side of the mane. If Lyon can steer, rate speed, and get collection with his hand...

Bud Lyon runs his staircase drill on the seven-year-old reiner, climbing from walk to extended walk, trot, extended trot, lope, and extended lope, then backing down the same steps. He uses it to get a daily baseline on a green horse and read where the work is, and today it tells him plenty: this ...