What Earns a Spot Here

Owning a horse doesn't make you a horseman.

Neither does doing it for fifty years. You can do something wrong for fifty years — that doesn't make it right; it makes it a habit. And if someone is doing the exact same things today that they were doing three decades ago, that tells you something about what they've learned since.

So we don't vet on titles, tenure, or follower count.

We look for four things: fundamentals with a traceable lineage.

The principles we turn to run back through Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance — feel, timing, balance, pressure, and release. Not because old is automatically good, but because those fundamentals have been tested by tens of thousands of people on tens of thousands of horses and they still hold up.

Also, evidence that folks have changed their mind. Anyone still teaching exactly what they taught twenty years ago either got it perfect the first time or stopped paying attention. We'll take the horseman who says "I used to do it this way, and here's why I don't anymore" every time.

They explain the why, not just the what.

A technique you can copy helps you with one horse on one day. The principle underneath it helps you for the rest of your life.

If someone can't tell you why it works, they may not know.

It holds up on an ordinary horse, on an ordinary day. Not in an arena, not with a camera running, not on a horse that's already been prepped…

Real conditions, honest results.

What Doesn't Earn a Spot

1. Just because someone has a big following or some method with a trademark on it. (It doesn’t mean either of those are an automatic disqualifier either.)

2. Confidence in place of competence. "Because I said so."

3. Anyone whose answer to a horse's question is more pressure, harder.

Origin Story

After growing up working on his family's farm in the Midwest, life brought David to Missoula, MT.

Little did he know that a 12-year-old Mustang named Dart would be his inspiration to start Aspiring Horseman.

Dart is a horse initially purchased by his father-in-law from a local facility that trains untouched mustangs and finds them homes. 

After months of training, Dart arrived at his new home. Received some attention, but life got in the way. 

The work with him stopped. 

If you know anything about mustangs, they are unlike your typical domestic horse. 

They aren’t a “set it and forget it” proposition. They need to be continually worked with, or (especially for a horse that spent 11 years in the wild), they can regress.

That is precisely what happened to Dart.

He went from being able to ride, pack, and cross water to struggling to get a halter on him.

The truth is, this was no fault of his own.

As winter rolled around, David started hearing negative comments about Dart and about the possibility of getting rid of him.

That struck a chord.

Dart’s current state was not his fault. It was clear he could be a fantastic horse (he had already demonstrated that); but, he needed someone willing to take the time to work with him.

David felt called to action.

He felt like this was an opportunity to prove to people that they should never judge people (or horses) by their current state. Instead, to look at what they could be and to help them reach their potential.