🥰Love can be soft, hard, strong, fierce and bold.

Your horse has priorities. These are like rungs on a ladder, and when you skip one, things don’t work well.

Many empathetic riders accidentally skip the second rung.

They want their horse to feel safe and secure, but they make the mistake of trying to create safety with ‘soft’ love.

Love is amazing, but it also appears in various ways.

Love can be a kind hug, a good brushing, an extra scratch.

Love can be cleaning a stall or doctoring a wound.

Love can be getting some exercise, or cutting back on pasture time to prevent obesity and founder.

Love can be soft, hard, strong, fierce and bold.

Many times when we look at our horses, we want love to be soft, warm, and sweet… like a muzzle.🥰

And we forget that they are looking back at us, wondering what we are made of.

In the quiet moments, all seems well.

💥But when a loud noise cracks, or another horse bolts, or an unexpected event happens, they aren’t searching for soft. They are looking for strong.

And they will either find it from you, or they will look elsewhere. To a herd mate, or to their own decision; to bolt, to balk, to leave.

When your horse tests you, he is looking for safety. If you can handle him, you can probably handle that ‘thing’ too.

❤️ Love him stronger in those moments.

The love that a teacher has for a student when they challenge her to do more.

The love a coach shows when they ask an athlete for ‘just one more’, revealing to the athlete that they had one more in them.

Love that is fierce, strong and bold is what creates safety for your horse.
They are not repelled by this energy, they are drawn to it.

Fierce doesn’t mean forceful, strong doesn’t mean harsh, bold doesn’t mean crude… not when they are delivered with love.

Your horse can handle strong. In fact, he’s looking for it.

Don’t skip creating safety for your horse. Show up stronger for him, and you.

You’ll be amazed at how horses are drawn to this kind of love.

Ride with Faith,

Stacy Westfall