Second Wynd Leatherworks

03/20/2026

Had a lot of fun making this bag for a client......she loved it which made my day. Thank you for picking Second Wynd Leatherworks .

01/16/2025

Happy New Year everyone. First custom project for 2025. Beaver mitts with removable liners of deer hide and shearling
Super warm to approximately -50. Turned out beautifully and customer very happy. Thanks Cody Shane for picking Second Wynd Leatherworks !

03/03/2023

Energy starts in the hindquarters (the back) and travels along the topline to the contact (the front), hence riding from back to front.

02/24/2023

“Feeling” a 10-meter circle.

From our article, How to (and Why) Ride Correct 10-Meter Circles - https://howtodressage.com/dressage-movements/ride-10-meter-circle/

02/23/2023

Hello Everyone. I hope life is being good to each of you. It has been a long time since I posted on here. 2 years going by the last entry!
I am still in business as alot of you know.
I will be taking a sabbatical starting March 1st til April 15th.
I look forward to coming back, refreshed and ready to hit the ground running on your projects, and will touch base with you after I return. Thank you for your understanding.

02/09/2023

Truth is…. you’ll never be ready.
Sign up anyways.
You know how you get a horse used to shows?
…Showing.
You know how you get the motivation to ride on days that are not ideal?
…You have a date on the calendar that’s rapidly approaching.
You know how you become proficient at doing the things?
…You do the things.
Whatever it is you want to do…
Sign up.
You’ll figure it out.
(Picture of Alison because I think she should just sign up for something. 😂❤️)

02/09/2023

Beware of fangirling

I love my teachers. I think they’re the best in the business, and I’m hooked on their every word. I think they hung the moon and stars, and I take every opportunity to soak up their wisdom.

But they are not infallible, and treating their word as gospel without critical thinking, because I’m excited about them, is dangerous.

When we get excited about a teacher, we start to love the ”brand” and community and badge over the information. It’s easy to do- we all have done or currently do it. It’s human nature. Take a brief look at the pitfalls people get into with religion and politics, and see how that can be applied anywhere in life.

The problem with fangirling is we overlook fault, and rationalize away anything potentially harmful. We rally into little camps and rush to defend the honor of a teacher before thinking how it might apply to us. We lose the ability to think for ourselves and begin following blindly, proudly displaying our merchandise and gear and forgetting the purpose of the work. Even good information blindly applied can be damaging, so don’t shut off your eyes and ears.

It doesn’t mean your teacher is not wonderful- but don’t forget to think, don’t forget your teacher is a human being, with their own problems in life and their own pitfalls. They are capable of bias; of wanting to be admired and seeking approval, they are prone to getting their feelings hurt like anyone else. They do not belong on a pedastal.

Some horsemanship teachers have higher celebrity status than others, which tends to attract more fangirling behavior and less rational thought from fans,
some are more skilled, some are more helpful than others. It’s great to get excited about someone with information that could change your life for the better. But they, and I, and any of us, are simply human beings, experimenting, making mistakes, and learning, in the public eye. We, they, and I, are not perfect, and should never be treated as such.

02/09/2023

Take a lesson with Spanish medal winner, Rafael Soto:
Can we talk a little about contact and the length of the neck?
"All riders shorten the neck. This is why it is important for me, to stretch the horse after you have done a little work in your training session. Work, collection, then stretching and when you stretch the neck do a little two-track work, like shoulder in with long reins. It's very good with long reins, because the horse learns to be together, to be engaged behind but it still has a long neck. This is very good, because normally what we see so often is a short neck."
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2018/01/rafael-soto-there-are-only-two-types-of-dressage/

02/09/2023

02/09/2023

John Winnett was first educated in the French School in the 1930s and 1940s, then studied under the German Masters – Klimke, Stecken and Rehbein. “Shoulder-in is the single most important lateral exercise in academic equitation. It brings about freedom of the horse’s shoulders, obedience to the rider’s hands – resulting in lightness of the forehand, suppleness of the horse’s haunches, obedience to the rider’s legs, and engagement of the hindquarters. It promotes longitudinal suppleness, which brings about harmonious accord between the horse’s shoulders and haunches, and creates improved balance.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2022/04/dressage-as-art-in-competition/

02/09/2023

What is self carriage? It’s not just for the horse, it’s for the rider too, Dr Andrew McLean explains:
“How much contact is too much? To explore this we need to see it from the horse’s point of view. Mouths are very sensitive organs, and even more so for a discriminative grazer such as the horse.
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/09/self-carriage-is-essential-for-all-riders-and-horses/

02/09/2023