Lampman Ranch Horses, LLC

04/30/2025

Just a few thoughts for all the owners out there that send their c**ts away to a professional to get started:
C**t starting is a massive challenge. It’s dangerous, hard work, even on the good days. Even with the good horses. It’s a long process and it’s one that so many trainers, myself included, take very seriously and put a great deal of time, care, and thought into.
There’s a reason I have a 90 day minimum on all c**t starts, because 30 or even 60 days simply isn’t enough time for that youngster to form good solid habits under saddle, to understand what is expected of them, and to be able to begin to fill in for their owner and take care of them.
Those first 90 days are so vital. It’s so important that they go well, that the horse has as few bad experiences as possible, and that I as the trainer get to help them through all of their struggles of learning how to be a solid citizen and keep their people safe for the rest of their lives.
It can feel like a long time to an owner that’s excited to take their horse home and ride, but at the end of the day, 3 months at “school” is a drop in the bucket compared to 20+ years of riding once that horse goes home. It’s worth it to put in the time and money, trust your trainers judgement, and understand that everything they do, they do because they care about you and your horse and want you to be safe together and enjoy each other for years to come.
So owners, listen to your trainers. Trust their judgement, and respect their process. That’s why you are paying them after all, because they are experienced, they’re educated, and they truly want to help you and your horse succeed.

04/27/2024

Myah Weidow with 3B Photography does amazing work, and she’s a pleasure to work with! Get ahold of her if you’re interested in a spring photo shoot!

Spring time sale photos!
PM me to book!

04/26/2024

‼️Immediate Availability for Training ‼️
CORVALLIS, MT

I just had a last-minute spot open up for May!

Don’t miss a chance to get your horse in for:
☀️C**t Starting (90 day minimum)
☀️Finish work
☀️Tune-Ups/Fat Camp

All training packages will include: arena and outside miles, groundwork, and riding 5-6 days a week. Also included is hay/board at a top rate facility, and 2 free lessons with me before your horse goes home. I specialize in natural horsemanship and am an experienced c**t starter, have years of experience tuning up horses and putting tons of outside miles on them, and can put the fancy buttons on one in the arena. I’ve worked with just about any breed you can think of, and have dipped my toe in many different disciplines.

If you are interested in sending me a horse, drop off date is May 1st. Please PM me for rates and if you have any questions!

04/11/2024

CONFIDENCE & COMPETENCE
I first heard this phrase a couple of years ago, from a woman that was a guest on the guest ranch where I worked. She was talking about her husband — he was one of those guests that you might call “a handful” — he wanted to have fun on horseback, but because he was a beginner rider, us wranglers were working double time trying to keep him from getting hurt during his shenanigans. At one point, while he was bouncing through the woods on his gentle dude horse, his wife shook her head and said, a little exasperated, “he has high confidence, low competence.”
That stuck with me. Mostly because it was funny — the other wranglers and I used that line whenever we had a guest like that. Any guest that had ridden a horse once on a beach in Mexico and thought that it made them “experienced” got referred to as “high confidence, low competence” that week.
But as the years have gone by, and I’ve had more experiences myself, the meaning of confidence and competence and changed somewhat for me.
We’ve all seen the “high confidence, low competence” people. We know what they’re like. But what about the people that are “high competence, low confidence?” Can you even be competent when you aren’t confident in your abilities?
I know that over the years, my confidence to competence ratio has fluctuated. I’ve been the “high confidence, low competence” person, and looking back, I cringe because I think of what a fool I must have been. But I’ve also been around people who, through their words and actions, destroy my confidence. They make me feel less competent than I am, and less confident in my abilities, and then my competence suffers because I’m afraid to try and get the answer wrong.
The longer I think about it, the more I realize that confidence and competence are not at war at each other. They need to be in balance if we are going to be the best versions of ourselves. We need to confidently know what we know, and we need to confidently know what we don’t know. That is true competence.
So how does our confidence and competence affect our horsemanship? I think the “high confidence, low competence” horsemen are the ones that blame their horses for their shortcomings. They’re the ones that will write a horse off as “bad” or “dumb” or “trying to get away with it” when really, they just can’t make sense to the horse. In the other hand, someone with “high confidence, low competence” can’t be a great horseman, because while they might know what to do in their mind, they don’t have the confidence to put it into action. They don’t trust themselves enough to have good timing and good feel.
So I’m striving every day to strike the balance between my confidence and my competence. I want to know what I know, and know what I don’t. I want to know when I need to ask for help, or when I need to just perservere on my own to build my confidence that I can deal with problems when they arise. I want to be the horseman that never blames their horse or themselves for a bad day, and simply says to their horse, “How can I get more competent so that I make sense to you? What can I do better so that you can be better?”
I think that when I reach the day that my confidence and competence are balanced and equal, one never ahead of the other, I’ll be well on my way to being the kind of horseman I want to be.

03/28/2024

Stetson is a talented gelding! This big handsome gray isn’t just safe and fun on the trails and the arena, he’s a tried and true skijoring horse too! He’ll be at the Salmon Select Sale, in Salmon Idaho April 12-14th. Come down and see him. He’s a great horse for the whole family to enjoy!

03/11/2024

CORVALLIS, MT
It’s looking like I have one training spot left open for May. If you’re interested in booking a tune-up, c**t start, or seasoning and finishing work on a riding horse, shoot me a Pm. Looking to take one more horse in May, then booking for June onward.

03/05/2024

Groundwork takes so many forms, and can mean so many things to so many people. So what is “good” groundwork, and how do you know if you’re doing it right?
My groundwork philosophy is based almost entirely on the c**t starting courses I took in college. Our methods were natural horsemanship based, and rooted in Ray Hunt’s teachings. And we had two simple purposes with groundwork.
1) Engage the horse’s mind so it is ready to focus and go to work
2) Prepare it to ride
Everything I do on the ground comes back to those two simple rules. I don’t lunge horses to get them tired. If I’m working a horse around me in a circle, it’s to teach the horse to flex through its ribcage, engage or disengage it’s hip or shoulders, or change direction on cue, all things I will expect it to do under saddle.
With all the thousands of ways to do groundwork, and all the thousands of things you can do on the ground with your horse, if you get confused or overwhelmed by groundwork, come back and ask yourself those two questions: am I engaging my horse’s brain? Am I preparing it to be better under saddle? If your groundwork does either of those two things, you’re on the right track.

02/15/2024

Sneak peek of Stetson! This 9 year old grade appendix gelding will be in Mid-March for a one month tune up before heading to the Salmon Select Sale April 14th! I’m very excited to continue this nice gelding’s education and take him to the sale. So grateful to his connections for getting him this far and giving me the opportunity to show him off and give him a great new home.
If you have any questions about Stetson, please feel free to reach out.

02/14/2024

Mistakes are not fatal,
Failure is not final,
And it is the courage to continue that counts.

02/06/2024

Take life one day at a time, never forgetting where the days will lead you.