Everything you need to know before you order.
I've had horses for 40 years. Is this book even for me?
Yes. You are the most common reader. The book is not beginner advice. It is a documented restoration of working cowboy horse husbandry that the industry replaced. Most experienced owners find two or three chapters that meaningfully change their approach. The fencing chapter, the farrier-cycle chapter, and the forage chapter are usually the surprise.
I just bought my first horse. Will I be lost?
No. Volume I is written so a first-time owner can apply it the day the horse comes home. The bonus First-Horse Buyer's Field Inspection Sheet (in the Field Edition only) is specifically designed for someone walking into a sale barn for the first time.
Does this apply to my climate?
The base methods work universally. A few are climate-dependent. Bonus 3, the Climate-Smart Horse Companion (Field Edition only) re-runs the whole book through 4 climate zones: Hot/Humid (Florida, Gulf Coast), Hot/Dry (Texas, Arizona), Wet/Mild (Pacific Northwest), and Cold (Canada, Upper Midwest). You will know exactly which methods apply to your land.
I don't have time to read three volumes. Will I get value from just Volume I?
Yes. Volume I is sixty to seventy pages, about an hour of reading. Every reader who has emailed us has reported their first concrete savings from material in Volume I alone. The farrier-cycle math. The supplement audit. The morning thirty-second horse-read.
I'm 65+ and doing this work alone. Is this realistic?
Yes. The Senior-Friendly Modifications section in Volume III addresses the program by physical limitation. Can't lift heavy. Can't climb a ladder. Working alone. Many of the highest-impact savings (farrier-visit questions, forage transition, vet-kit changes) require no physical labor at all.
What format are the books in? How do I access them?
All three volumes plus the bonuses are delivered as downloadable PDFs immediately after purchase. Read them on any device. Phone, tablet, computer. Print them for the barn. No monthly fees. No subscriptions. No app required. Once you have the files, they are yours forever.
Why $67, and why not a monthly subscription?
Because the entire point of this work is that horse ownership shouldn't be a subscription. The cowboys who kept horses sound for thirty years did not pay a monthly fee to anyone. Pay once. Own the files. No app. No renewal. No upsell.
What's the refund policy?
The Field Edition is a digital download. Once the files are on your computer, there is no putting them back. So there is no refund window.
What there is, is this:
If a file is corrupted, write to bigjim.support@gmail.com. We re-send it. Usually within an hour. If the wrong product was delivered, we fix it. Same day. If you were double-charged, we refund the duplicate. Same day.
If something else came up, write to us. The decision is at our discretion, but the discretion has so far been "yes" almost every time it's been asked.
Full policy on the Refund Policy page.
Who is Big Jim?
Big Jim's Ranch Secrets is a YouTube channel documenting traditional cowboy horse husbandry. It draws on primary historical sources, university extension publications, peer-reviewed equine veterinary research, and the documented vaquero and buckaroo tradition (Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Arnold Rojas, Charles Goodnight). The narrator's voice is the channel's voice. The methods are documented. The citations are in the book.
