The Old-School Horseman

A growing collection of modules built from Derek Sturniolo's recordings. Each one teaches a piece of how he thinks about a horse, and comes with the worksheets and trackers to do it yourself.

The modules

Start here

Know Your Horse

Build a written baseline of this horse's normal habits and behavior, so a change stands out the day it happens.

Covers
  • What "normal" looks like for one particular horse
  • Eating, drinking, manure and stall habits
  • Attitude, temperament and how he greets you
  • Keeping a baseline you can compare against
Tools inside
Baseline worksheet, weekly tracker, change log
Came from
Recorded conversations with Derek
See what's inside

Derek's nose-to-tail walk-through: what he looks at before a horse goes to work, and how knowing its normal gives you something to compare against.

Covers
  • A nose-to-tail look before work
  • Legs, feet and body
  • Behavior and reactions
  • Comparing today against the horse's normal
Tools inside
Nose-to-tail assessment sheet, pre-work check, comparison tracker
Came from
The Facebook Live with Moose
See what's inside

What a rider feels from the saddle: hands, reins, movement and reactions, and why every horse rides like an individual.

Covers
  • What your hands and the reins tell you
  • How this horse moves on a normal day
  • Reading reactions under saddle
  • Riding the individual, not the type
Tools inside
Ride log, "how did he feel today" notes sheet
Came from
Recorded conversations with Derek
See what's inside

Understand why everything in the feed bucket is there, write the program down, and build it around this horse instead of copying someone else's.

Covers
  • Why each thing is in the bucket
  • Writing down the program you actually feed
  • Building around the individual horse
  • Tracking changes and what they did
Tools inside
Feed program record, "why is it in the bucket" worksheet, change tracker
Came from
Recorded conversations with Derek
See what's inside

What's in every module

Every module follows the same pattern, so you always know what you're getting.

  • The guideDerek's method, written up from the recordings in plain language, with the reasons behind it.
  • WorksheetsFill-in pages that walk you through doing it yourself, with your own horse.
  • TrackersLogs for the days and weeks after, so a change has something to stand out against.
  • Where it came fromEach module tells you which conversation or session it was built from. Video lessons are on the way.

Where to start

Start with Know Your Horse. Every other module compares against the baseline you build there. If you haven't yet, grab the free 3-Minute Daily Horse Check first. It's the short version of the same idea.

The whole collection

All four current modules in one purchase.

Checkout opens soon. Leave your email and we'll tell you the day The complete Old-School Horseman is ready.

Who it's for

If you're responsible for a horse, these are for you. Derek's background is the racetrack, but the habit at the center of all of it, knowing what's normal for your horse, works in any barn.

  • Owners who want to catch problems early and talk to their vet with real notes in hand
  • Riders who want to understand what they're feeling from the saddle
  • Grooms, hotwalkers and barn help learning the job from someone who's done all of it
  • People new to horses who want a method instead of a pile of opinions
  • Racing people who want the old-school habits that never made it into a book

What should Derek teach next?

More modules are coming as we keep recording. Tell us which ones you want first.

  • Conditioning
  • Recovery after work
  • Legs and feet
  • Evaluating a new horse
  • Racehorse management
  • Training
Pick as many as you like