Elko Favorites

When you come to your senses and put a winter Elko pilgrimage on your Must Do list, here are some favorite bits to pique your interest. Read more about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering here. Favorite Alternative Event to the NCPG: If the NCPG is […]

Why Elko and the NCPG?

Northern Nevada may be beautiful, but it is not lush. In the winter, it is windy and cold. One might even call it “unwelcoming.” So the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, hosted by the Western Folklife Center and held annually for the last 35 years, stands […]

Cowboys: Don’t Rush to Judge

Editor’s Note: Nicole Grady, together with her partner, Justin Reichert, put on the Outside Circle Show, a raucous, celebratory, two-day show of musically gifted, working cowboys at the Star Hotel in Elko. She wrote this opinion piece after getting some guff for the show’s shirt designs (in […]

Teacher asks: Can I Become Reduntant?

Editor’s Note: 2018 Best Horse Practices Summit presenter Katrin Silva grew up riding dressage in Germany before moving to the United States at age 19 to learn to ride Western. She’s been riding both disciplines for the last twenty years and is a regular guest columnist […]

Tim McGaffic on Training and the Clicker

In response to our article on Clicker Training, we hear from Tim McGaffic, a Colorado trainer. McGaffic was introduced to Ray Hunt during the 1980s while working with difficult horses. The experience changed his thinking about how to handle horses and set him on a […]

Learning to Learn, Not to Follow

In the horse world, as in others, there is a desire for people to group in to “camps” and follow someone whose teaching they like. There is nothing wrong with this until it becomes blind following. People get excited about the ideas of some teacher […]

You Should Be in Elko

It’s Day One of my annual attendance of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. So excited! Before the multitude of concerts, dances, and poetry recitations, the Gathering hosts several educational workshops, intimate one-, two-, or three-day classes led by experts. You can learn […]

Getting Out with the Right Gear

I reached a turning point about 10 years ago. After the good times of fort building and snowball fights and then introducing my sons to fort building and snowball fights, I’d come to disdain the coldest season. I’d complain through most of it and spend […]

Sensitivity Training

Katrin Silva grew up riding dressage in Germany before moving to the United States at age 19 to learn to ride Western. She’s been riding both disciplines for the last twenty years. Silva has competed successfully through fourth level dressage on quarter horses, Morgans, Arabians, […]

Nicker Review: Patagonia Silent Down Jacket

Amy Skinner lends a hand with this review of Patagonia’s Silent Down Jacket, made of stretchy recycled polyester shell and 100 percent recycled down. Check out our NickerReview page Check out our Holiday Gift Guide Skinner writes: Winter in North Carolina is supposed to be […]