Episode 144: 3 ways riders block their physical awareness

Episode 144_ 3 ways riders block their physical awareness.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 144_ 3 ways riders block their physical awareness.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Announcer:
Podcasting from a little cabin on a hill, this is the Stacy Westfall podcast, Stacy's goal is simple: to teach you to understand why horses do what they do, as well as the action steps for creating clear, confident communication with your horses.

Stacy Westfall:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall, and I'm here to teach you how to understand, enjoy, and successfully train your own horses. In this season of the podcast, I'm going to talk about some of the common challenges that I see when teaching riders today. I'm going to be talking about listening to your body. I think one of the most interesting things about working with horses is that it's very physical by nature, and this makes working with horses great for increasing your physical awareness. When I was preparing for this, I was looking around and I was looking up different articles on why horses are used for therapy. And some of the things that were listed were muscle tone, strength, range of motion, endurance, balance, and I think that beyond the physical benefits that I just listed, I think one of the most amazing things is the feedback loop that can be created when you're working with horses that will increase your awareness of your physical presence, not just your muscle tone. Here are two ways that I see this happening. I see people working with horses that are put in situations that require them to use the power of their physical presence. And I also see that the person has a feedback loop, the horse reacts to that physical presence or that physical emotion or that physical energy that you're radiating or they don't react to it, which is also feedback. And I think it's really interesting when I've been coaching lots of riders that I've noticed that when I look at people talking to people, for sure we use this thing that I'm talking about. But the next time you're talking like spend two or three days looking at your interactions with people and people often use tone of voice and facial expressions to convey a lot of their messages when they're speaking. And when I work with horses, one thing I notice is that I experience the communication as deeper or bigger. A more physical presence is kind of the way that I would describe it. And again, this is something that you do with people, but it is interesting to see how we will get a little more quiet in that part of our body and maybe use a lot more facial expressions. So then it won't be that physical presence radiating from like our chest or our whole being. And so it's just an interesting thing. If you think about a person who really radiates confidence, who really radiates confidence, then you're going to feel it more than just from their tone of voice and their facial expression. You're going to get it kind of radiating out from their core. And the same thing is true. If you think about somebody who's really angry, if you've ever been around someone who is really angry, you could just feel that radiating from their core. And so sometimes it's easiest to see this if you look at the really big emotions. And you definitely see this represented in movies if you want to look there, too.

Stacy Westfall:
What's interesting is that when I'm working with horses, I'm aware that I want to be able to use that form of energy, that radiating out. But it doesn't have to be with only the "big emotions" like anger. It can be with all kinds of different emotions as long as it's broadcasting loud enough to actually be read by the horse. And so I know for sure that I use a bigger or stronger presence to help move a horse and then I'll get more quiet or still. And both of those are giving the horse feedback. So I was preparing for this and I thought, let me see if I can break this into categories so that people might be able to identify this a little bit more. So here are three ways that I've seen riders blocking their access to this powerful tool of physical communication. One way that I see riders blocking it is they are actually denying or not listening to their bodies. The body is this huge awareness tool and sometimes I see riders that appear very blocked. One great example is if I see somebody who's holding their breath, they're really tight. They're trying not to make any movements that would alarm the horse. And what's interesting is, as I watch a rider who's doing this, I also notice that in trying not to alarm the horse. so they're kind of holding their breath, they're tight, they actually block a lot of the other feelings from their body. And interestingly, when I watch the horses that–a lot of times the horses are reporting that it's hard to read the person. And the way that looks is that the horse looks a little disconnected. They're not that interested because the rider's holding their breath and they're not really giving any feedback to the horse. So blocked is kind of one of the things that I see as a category where people will kind of shut down physically and it happens for multiple reasons. Another thing that I see would be I would label it guilty. I see riders who feel discomfort and automatically think something must be wrong. And sometimes they think it must be wrong, they're doing something wrong and sometimes they think it must be wrong like something's going wrong with the horse. And just to give you an example, a lot of times this happens when a rider is wanting to do a little bit more work with the horse, maybe longer work sessions or they want to learn to get comfortable loping the horse, which is going to require longer periods of loping and that's more physical work. And then this a lot of times will open up this idea of this guilt. And then I see that guilt blocking their ability to read the situation accurately because they're automatically looking for things that might be going wrong. And then the final one I see, which is I think really fascinating, is I'm going to label it blocking feel. And feel is that elusive thing that you'll hear people talk about. That rider has a lot of feel with the horse. That rider has really good hands because they have a lot of feel. And I see a lot of riders who are blocking the feel that I can see they have. And here's how they actually don't consider that their body is telling them something that they're not aware of. And the way that I see this often show up is that the rider will be, you know, doing something and we'll be watching a video together and they'll be like, I don't know why I'm bracing my legs off right there, but if I start quizzing them a little bit more, it's actually a form of muscle memory that's giving them feedback about what is going on in the situation. But because they're in the moment of criticizing themselves, they're actually blocking the feel that their body has that they're reporting. So before I go any further into these in detail, which I'm going to do in just a minute with a few more examples. I want to give you an exercise right away that you can identify how you might be holding yourself back in one of these areas. And what I'm going to say is that while–while coaching people, I've started to talk about like body scanning and basically just scanning your body. At some point or multiple points, while you're working your horse, this is it's a two-step process. And what I want you to think about is basically that you're getting familiar with listening to what your body's reporting to you and then deciding what it means. So step one is listening to your body and then step two is deciding what it means. So that would mean that if you're–you know, if you if we go back to that guilty example, you can actually just listen to what your body's reporting to you and then decide what it means. And that's how you're going to break out of that guilty cycle and be able to identify it. If you get familiar with listening to your body, you're going to start to see how this is all dancing together.

Stacy Westfall:
So the number one thing to remember that I recommend for body scanning is this. It works best when you physically separate from your horse. So this is one of the reasons why I think groundwork is so good is because you're physically at a distance from the horse. So I think it's easier to body scan and feel you as a separate individual from the horse. But this also works with riding. And so I'm just going to give you a number so that you can have an answer to that question that's floating in your head. How about you stand 10 feet away from your horse and take 60 seconds to just breathe and feel what's going on in your body? This includes if you're out there riding. Step off, step away, ground your horse, hold the horse at the end of the reins and just stand there for 60 seconds, 10 feet away from your horse. Take a deep breath and feel what's going on in your body. This is something that I always recommend to people when they have a new horse, or especially like I do it a lot myself personally, when I'm doing colt starting, because it's a great place for me to stop and check-in with my body. So when I'm colt starting, for example, I'll get on and off a lot, and one of the reasons I dismount is because when I step back on the ground, it's easier for me to do that body scan and feel if I'm holding any tension anywhere. Because a lot of times if you're blocking like that first–first category I gave you, it's hard to identify blocking when you're blocked. So what I've noticed is that when I am 10 feet away from the horse and I take 60 seconds to just take a deep breath, all of a sudden, if I've been blocking, I can feel something shift in my body and I can feel something my body is trying to report to me. So interesting for you to think about this while I go back and describe these three categories a little bit more, and I'll give you this other pro tip, get good at body scanning outside of your horse work. So do it when you're driving. See if you're holding any tension about whatever you're thinking about. Do it at work and see what's going on there. You know, get to know your–your thoughts and your–your mind and what's going on with you at work and where that shows up in your body, because those habits are going to also be there with your horse. We tend to have familiar habits. So now I want to go back and kind of talk a little bit more about those three different categories I just gave you of blocked and guilty and then that blocking your own feel.

Stacy Westfall:
So now that you know how to do this body scan, I want you to think about a rider that is really blocking a lot of things that they're–that are going on, the feedback from their body. Let me tell you, one of the biggest places I see this happening is if people feel fear or danger and they don't want to admit it. So they block that feeling. So they might like have this moment where they're a little bit afraid. They're doing groundwork. They're a little bit afraid that the horse might, you know, run into them, run over them or something like that. And rather than actually looking at the scenario and addressing that fear directly, they often will block it with a thought like, my horse would never do that. This horse would never do that. Now, what's really interesting about it is that if you've got that fear in your body and you just try to cover it up with a different thought, like, I'm sure you wouldn't do that, then what you do when you're blocking that is you actually block answering the question, which would then give you the tools and then you would actually maybe be able to get rid of that fear. So here's how it goes. Let's say you're out working with the horse. It's really amped up and energetic that day because the wind is blowing and–and whatever's going on. The horse has been in the stall for a few days and you have this moment of fear that you block as quickly as possible. Well, if that moment of fear was telling you something like, I'm afraid I might get run over, the actual question I'd rather have you ask yourself when you feel that fear is, oh, I just felt fear, like I'm afraid he might run me over. How am I going to answer that if he gets too close to me? So the–what I'm having to do there is basically ask yourself, do you have the tools to prevent whatever it is you're fearing? So that's a very useful way to check in with your body, but if you get in the habit of blocking yourself because you don't want to admit that you have this fear that the horse might run you over while you're doing groundwork, then you don't ever get to ask the question, do I have the tools to prevent that? And you might find that the answer is no, I don't have the tools. And then you could actually go find the tools and techniques you find how you would prevent yourself from being run over that would then actually give you the power to no longer be afraid of being run over because you have the tools. And you wouldn't be practicing blocking your body's feedback. So this is one way that I see riders that are not physically utilizing their power, their communication, and their presence as well as they could be because they're practicing blocking.

Stacy Westfall:
Now, the other one that I brought up, I labeled guilt, and that is when I see the riders who they feel uncomfortable and automatically start thinking something must be going wrong. This one often holds riders back because they often fear that they're asking too much of the horse and this heightened fear or this heightened awareness can start changing the way that the rider reads the horse, which is really interesting because a lot of times it will then trigger the horse to react differently to the rider. So, for example, they let's say that the–that the rider's working with the horse and they want to get comfortable working the horse up to a lope, but they're not really fit and the horse isn't really fit. So that change that's required to increase the fitness level of both the horse and the rider is going to require stretching the physical comfort zones. And that's going to mean that the horse might get sweatier than normal and the horse might breathe heavier than normal. And so if the rider is feeling guilt, it changes the way that they show up to coach that horse through that. So imagine this, imagine that you go to the gym because you want to get more physically fit and the fitness trainer there is feeling guilty about having you get sweaty or breathe hard. That's going to change your experience of getting fit. And so this is a super common thing that I see, and I think one of the reasons why it comes up a lot is because people are legitimately afraid that they're doing something wrong to the horse. So first of all, if you feel like you are in this category and you're feeling guilty about having the horse do physical activity, absolutely consider having your horse checked out by a vet to help you answer any questions that you might have. I think it's great if you videotape your sessions because then if you see something and you're concerned that it might be a physical issue, then a lot of times vets are interested in seeing videos of things that you see because maybe you're not able to recreate it, but it will help you be more clear in communicating if you feel like you legitimately don't have enough information. But even that will help you shift away from guilt. Just being proactive in taking a video and having a professional or a vet or somebody else review it with you will actually help you break out of that cycle because there is some discomfort in exercise. And here's a really interesting thing that I've seen. I've seen riders who have some guilt and then when they feel the horse doing something different, they assume it's wrong. But there have been many examples where when I've been helping somebody review a video, the thing that they felt was wrong or different was actually the horse rounding up and moving in more collection. And when it's on video and I can point it out to them, they can actually see the change and they can then identify that as like, oh my gosh, I'm just not used to riding a horse that's moving in around collected frame. And I've even had riders say to me, it's funny because I kind of thought the horse was going to buck, which I've said in other podcasts, is a great awareness because when a horse gets ready to buck, they tend to be very round and collected. And so it's so interesting to watch how these different things dance together that you could actually feel guilty and feel something that is something you're working for, which is collection, but could label it as something wrong just because it feels different. Now in this category of guilt a lot of times one thing that I've noticed is it really comes up a lot around the physicalness of the exercise that we tend to do with horses. And so for me, I have found it very useful to exercise and have an exercise routine on my own. So the physical fitness that I work on, on my own, and I'll use the example of running, jogging, is that what that has done for me is it's given me a place to analyze my own thoughts and the physical sensations that go through my body when I work. So because I exercise, I went through recognizing my own resistance to exercising. It's kind of interesting to be the one that signed up to exercise and then also be resistant to exercise. I totally had that experience taking up running and because I understand the physical and mental challenge of exercising and I also understand that I'm choosing exercise for the benefits that it offers me it's very fascinating to do running on my own and then being able to apply that over to the way that I view working my horses because it makes me more empathetic when I see a horse that is, you know, physically not fit and is building up. So I'm actually more compassionate because I've been in that situation myself. And I'm also aware that there are benefits to exercising so when there is the discomfort I already had to work through that. So I remember many years ago just taking up and doing like the Couch to 5K app and working my way up to being somewhat consistent with running, and then a few years ago I actually set the goal to run a 5K and I ran three 5Ks that year and really had to do a lot of work on my views of exercise, my resistance to exercise, the physical feeling of exercise, and all of these different things. And because I did that, I know it made me a better rider from the physical standpoint, because it made me stronger, but hugely from the awareness standpoint, because of everything I had to work through on my own. And it's been really interesting because I went from running the 5K and then one of my goals this year that's not related to horses so I haven't talked about it that much has been to run a 10K and in training for the 10K, I experienced exactly the same stuff that I experienced when running the 5K, which is just interesting because you'd kind of think it would have disappeared because I dealt with it nut turns out, no. And that's exactly why I know it's going to help anybody who's feeling this guilt about exercising and working horses. If you work through it on your own, it will help you deal with it with your horse because I absolutely have had that experience. The other thing that's been interesting about–I'll just close up the exercise loop here–the other thing that's been really interesting about it is the exercise away from the horses has helped me identify that met that mental and that physical back and forth that I've been doing. But it also helped me identify that my right hip is really tight and it shows me how to stretch my–my hip, which is interesting because when I take dressage lessons, they're always yelling to me about my right leg. Well now I know where it's coming from and I can actually stretch and work myself in a way that actually helps my riding in a physical way. So interesting how this is all tied together.

Stacy Westfall:
Now, again, I brought this up earlier and I'm going to bring it up here, I think this could be the most interesting one of all. One thing that I have noticed repetitively as I've been doing video coaching with riders is I see riders who don't consider that their body is telling them something useful. So I'm going to label this blocking their own feel, and when I point this out, riders look a little bit shocked that this could be a thing. It's totally a thing. Let me explain it. So let's say that you've been riding for a while. This is–I am definitely–I'm seeing it in riders who've been riding for a few years. So they've got some experience and they've been doing some things. I do see it and riders way earlier than that. And I think you're going to understand why in just a minute. But let's just picture that somebody has been riding and they've got some experience and then they're riding a new horse and they're riding a new horse and it's a different horse than the normal. And they noticed that their legs are braced off. So a lot of times these riders will notice that their legs are braced off and we'll be looking at a video together and they'll be like, I just don't know why my legs are braced off. And I'll be like, well, tell me why you actually think your legs are braced off. And they'll be like, well, I guess the horse was actually going, you know, it was kind of going a little bit fast. So I'm–and, you know, it was really not wanting to kind of slow down that day. So I guess that's why my legs were braced off. And I'm like, then it actually does sound like, you know, why your legs are braced off. So what's really interesting is in these little, tiny ways the body, a lot of times the rider's body, is telling you about your experience or something you're experiencing with the horse. And what happens if you just jump to criticizing, if you just jump to criticizing, why in the world am I keeping my legs off? I've never had that problem before. You actually don't slow down enough to actually ask your legs why they're not being used. And so in the example of, you know, you get on a different horse, it's feeling a little bit hot or zippier than normal. You look at the video, you're like, geez, why am I riding so sloppy? Why are my legs off? Instead of criticizing yourself about, geez, why am I riding sloppy and my legs are off, just legitimately ask yourself, ask your legs, why weren't you being used the way you normally are? And interestingly, a lot of times your legs will be able to report back to you via your brain. The horse was feeling a little bit hot, so I didn't think it was a good idea to keep my legs closed. That is a much more interesting way to do it than in example number one where I was using the term "blocking" and saying like the rider was holding their breath. So it's really interesting to me because I think those two are very related. I think that when riders get in the habit of blocking they're themselves early on or they're just critical of themselves, they start to lose that ability to realize that their body is reporting something.

Stacy Westfall:
So, again, this goes back to the body scanning idea where the first thing I want you to do is scan and see what you're feeling and notice, OK, in this example, you notice your legs are braced off and then decide what you're going to make it mean. Try to not just jump to criticizing yourself for not, "using your legs correctly." Because you could argue that if the horse was feeling really hot that day, that maybe there was a reason that your legs were going that way. But if you can actually get to the root cause of why your legs were doing that, you can then decide what you want to do with it in that day and in future rides. Now. I can already hear somebody out there because I was doing it myself when I was writing these notes, but what if my body's not always accurate? Well, that's absolutely going to be true. That's why in the body scan, first you're going to observe and then you're going to decide what to make it mean. So, for example, for me, I have got a lot more of a foundation history in riding reining horses, riding Western. And the way that I sit and the way that I cue for some of those things is different than what I'm showing in traditional or classical dressage. So there are times that I will notice something in my body that is muscle memory and I will then be able to recognize is it useful or isn't it useful? So there's some times it's not useful. Sometimes I will come down the center line at the end of a dressage test and I will cue the horse incorrectly for dressage by kind of doing a sliding stop type cue. So the horse will kind of trot and do this little slide to a stop from a trot thing which the judges don't like. They write unbalanced, loss of balance. But the interesting thing is I can identify why it's happening. I can identify even if it's after the fact that the muscle memory was coming from relaxing into the stop and–and riding the stop from a previous old useful muscle memory. What's interesting about this is that instead of judging myself about it, I can identify why it's happening and the deeper reason why it's happening is I'm trotting down centerline and I'm really relieved that I'm almost done with this test that I was working on. And I'm now on my final movement. And so that relaxation is where I'm kind of dropping into an old muscle memory habit. So if I slow down and instead of criticizing and blocking and judging, if I slow down and I listen to that body and I go, why would I do that? Why would I make that "mistake?" Why would I do that? Oh, I would do that because I was actually relieved after I made that final turn and was coming down the centerline. So I lost my concentration, gave up my concentration just a little bit earlier. Therefore, I've identified why it's happening now on my next test. I can just stay a little more present after I make that final turn all the way through. So instead of blocking and criticizing and then riding even tighter because I'm just in the habit of criticizing, I'm actually letting my body tell me why it was happening and then I can make a new plan going on to the future. So I think it's really interesting. The next time you ride and you wonder why do I keep whatever it is you're doing, so it might be the way that you're using your hands, it might be the way that you're using your legs, it might be the way that you're looking when you're riding, actually answer that question like there could be a good reason that you're doing it. And from there, then you can find some movement in changing it.

Stacy Westfall:
Now, as I was going over these, you might have noticed that there is some overlap between these, for example, riding with your legs braced off because your body is telling you something useful. I already said it kind of is related to that blocking, I think the reason why some people don't notice that their bodies actually reporting something when they're in this example, bracing their legs off, I think the reason they don't do that is they don't assume their body could be telling them something. So the habit of blocking those–those like in the first example that I call blocking fears or blocking mistakes–like if I hold my breath that I really don't–if–if I try to be really perfect here, maybe the horse won't make the mistake or maybe I won't make a mistake. Those are–those blocking things are coming from a fear, which I think is really interesting, that if you practice a lot of that, that you'll–a lot of riders will end up blocking their feel which is something we're all so interested in having more of, but that means you're going to have to interrupt that cycle. And do some body scanning to increase your awareness. I hope this gives you an interesting way to look at your next ride. Go ahead and try the body scanning, especially in the middle of a ride when you're at one of those rest points, stop, dismount, stand 10 feet away from your horse. That's kind of like the end of the length of the rein, or maybe a little bit more or something like that. Stand there, take a deep breath, feel what's going on in your body, and see how you're showing up and whether it's the way that you're going to need to show up to get those results that you're after. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.

Announcer:
If you enjoy listening to Stacy's podcast, please visit stacywestfall.com For articles, videos, and tips to help you and your horse succeed.

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