Episode 203: The Resourceful Rider

Episode 203_ The Resourceful Rider.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 203_ The Resourceful Rider.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Stacy Westfall:
Those are some really useful things to have in your pocket because you never know exactly what might pop up when you're out working with your horse.

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 help riders become resourceful. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you may have noticed that there was a change there. A single word, resourceful. In the over 200 podcasts that I've recorded, I've changed the intro a few different times. I've said things like, I'm here to teach you how to understand, enjoy, and successfully train your own horses. I've also said I help riders become confident, communicate clearly, and get better results with their horses. And all of those things are still true. But if I had to boil it down to one word, I have chosen resourceful. Webster's Dictionary says that resourceful is, "able to meet situations or capable of devising ways and means." That sounds exactly like the skill that you need when training horses. So I also Googled examples of being resourceful, and this list popped up and it has six different examples of resourcefulness. Here they are: Being strategic about how you leverage your resources. Not wasting time and money. Getting the best out of what you have. Being flexible and adaptable. Thinking outside the box. Being willing to learn new skills or develop existing ones when necessary. That's a pretty good list. Does it sound like you? And if not, is it something you aspire to? I consider myself to be resourceful. And when I am teaching, I see resourcefulness show up in one of two different ways in my students. Either I see people come in to the course and demonstrate their resourcefulness almost immediately, or I see riders that learn to become resourceful over time. The more that I watch and see the progress of the students who don't initially come in thinking of themselves as resourceful, what I can see is that the riders actually begin to trust themselves as part of the process that allows them to reveal their own resourcefulness.

Stacy Westfall:
So let's go back and take a look at those examples from a riding perspective so that we can reveal whether you currently are resourceful or whether you are becoming resourceful. The first example was being strategic about how you leverage your resources. I'm going to translate that into what you currently have. This means that when you look, you are seeing what you do have available to you and you're not as likely to focus on what you don't have. So, for example, a lot of people don't have an indoor arena. Some do, but a lot don't. So if you don't have an indoor arena, instead of focusing on what you don't have, you get creative about seeing what you do have. A lot of times when I'm coaching, I encourage people to look for nontraditional places to ride and train, even if they do have traditional places like an indoor or an outdoor arena, because there are different things that can be learned riding in the pasture or on a driveway, on a hill, on a local trail system, or hauling somewhere to ride. And so many times when riders stay focused on what they don't have, they limit themselves. But if you become more resourceful, you start to look at the mud puddle that showed up after a rain as a potential training opportunity instead of a problem. The next example is not wasting time and money. And this one really got me thinking because I think that oftentimes when people think about being resourceful, it's when they "need to be," because you might, in your mind, have it that if someone doesn't have something like not having an indoor arena, therefore they must make do with what they have, and that is resourcefulness. And don't get me wrong, I totally understand using that type of resourcefulness. That's how I grew up. I didn't even own a saddle when I first got my horse because we couldn't afford one. So I rode bareback because that was the only option available to me. But now, when I think about resourceful, I actually think of it a little bit more along the lines of a minimalist type of thinking. So in my childhood, I was a minimalist by circumstance, did not have the option. But now a days, I actually go out of my way to be more resourceful about where I ride and how I train. And even though I could buy lots of things, I might own fewer bits than you do. I would bet that I own fewer bridles than 80% of the people listening. That'd be an interesting survey to do. I don't have a lot of them because I tend to just have a handful that I use, and that's enough. So I value quality time over quantity time. I value quality items over a quantity of items. So to me, a twist on resourcefulness is not that you are resourceful because you are limited. It is actually another version of it to be able to limit yourself.

Stacy Westfall:
Another example from the list is getting the best out of what you have. And I think this is a really useful idea. Any time that you want to judge yourself for some kind of lack or your horse for some kind of lack, or your time as having some kind of lack or your facility, your equipment, whatever. If you are of the mindset that you are getting the best out of what you have, it automatically shifts you into looking at what is available and what the best you can do with that today, right now. Oh, I love resourceful. The next example, being flexible and adaptable. Yeah, I mean, when is that not an amazing skill to have around horses? It is the thing that makes you able to not only train, but also to enjoy the process. Because the process or the steps of training a horse from kindergarten all the way through college can be laid out in a very clear straight line. But the training won't go in that exact straight line. It is supposed to have ups and downs. You are supposed to have parts that you repeat. When you hear students talking about it being like layers of an onion or you hear me talking about it being in layers, well, part of that layering is also this circling back. So you touch upon a skill just like when you were in school and you learned a fact when you were in third grade and then you learned about that same fact when you were in high school, but you learned a lot more detail about it. And so there is this cycling back through that happens. And that's where the skill of being flexible and adaptable, or resourceful, comes in really handy because, yes, the process of a child, a human child going from kindergarten through college is laid out, and yet each one has their own unique journey. And that is so true when training horses. It's actually the part that I love the most about it.

Stacy Westfall:
Another example is thinking outside the box. And what I love about the phrasing thinking outside the box is that the box is whatever feels like a limit. So what has you feeling boxed in today, this week with your horse? Does it feel like there's a time limit? A physical energy limit? A facility limit? What feels like a box? What feels like a limit? Because if you can switch your mind to resourceful, you don't need to change the amount of time in a day or the amount of physical energy you have or the facility that you have available to you. You just have to change the way that you look at it. So here's an example of how you can be resourceful without changing the actual, "problem." The first time that I went from the United States to Australia to teach at a horse expo, the time change was brutal because I have a very strong internal clock that refused to change when we arrived over there. So basically all night I would be awake and all day I'd be, Oh my goodness, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day. And that just repeated over and over again. It's actually where I learned to drink coffee because my husband was saying, Drink this latte now, you're not making sense. So the second time that we went to go over to Australia, I knew I had an issue I needed to be creative about. I knew I needed to be resourceful. And I couldn't change the fact that Australia is at a different time zone. So what I did instead was I started changing the time zone I was living in three weeks before we left. So I started staying up an hour later and shifting my time zone that I was effectively living in for three weeks all the way until we got on the plane. It was really funny because at the time my youngest son, who just turned 21, was in high school and he worked at Taco Bell as a closer. And in that last week, before we left for Australia, he would come home from closing down the restaurant and he'd come in at like three, three-thirty in the morning and I would be sitting on the couch because I hadn't gone to bed yet. So that is an example of seeing all of the puzzle pieces and knowing which ones I did have control over, even though it's a really unique way to approach a time zone issue. To bring that into a bit more of a horsey example, there have been many years where I've gotten up before dawn to ride and there have been many years where I've ridden past midnight into the wee hours of the morning. It all has depended on the season of my life and all the other moving pieces, and I was willing to rearrange the pieces in whatever order that was. And if I go to a horse show, I might get to do both ride before dawn and be up past midnight.

Stacy Westfall:
The last example from the list was being willing to learn new skills or develop existing ones when necessary. In this one I actually think the learning new skills is the more popular one oftentimes, where the emphasis on developing existing skills–I'm going to translate that into this phrasing, "going back to the basics"–I think so often people want to look for the new thing. And there is something valuable in that. But when I think of it, I think of training horses like cooking. So imagine–it's getting cold now here so let's imagine that you're making soup. In your soup, you're going to need your base ingredients. So those base ingredients are going to be the majority of what's in your soup. Maybe it's potatoes, maybe it's carrots. Whatever it is that's in there, you're going to have your base ingredients and then you're going to have your spices and your seasonings. Training is a lot like that. Potatoes might not be the most exciting ingredient, but an entire soup that is made of only spice and seasoning is lacking substance. So a resourceful rider is willing to learn new skills or develop existing ones when necessary. The other thing that I find interesting about resourcefulness is that you can look at it from one angle where it impacts your actions, meaning getting the best out of what you have. That's kind of focusing on the time, the horse, the facility. So it takes into account the physical world we live in. Another angle you could view it from would also be a mindset because as a mindset or a way of thinking, it also creates a certain feeling for you. I believe that resourcefulness at the root of it is a combination of desire and a willingness to keep going. What resourceful feels like for me anyway, is not one of those emotions or feelings that's classically put on a pedestal. You know, things like happy or hopeful or optimistic or joyful. Those are those feelings that people put way high up on the scale of things we want to feel all the time. But what's interesting to me is that resourceful feels more like it's made up of things like committed, dedicated, sincere, persistent. And when I say those words and feel them, there's this digging deep or a willingness to look at things from a new perspective. And that sounds warm and fuzzy and a new perspective can be amazing, but more often in my experience, it's also uncomfortable because it means you have to look at what is currently comfortable for you and working–like maybe you like what time you get up in the morning. Maybe you really like your morning routine. But the only time you can think about riding when you have a day that looks like you really can't fit it in would be getting up 2 hours earlier and that would be really uncomfortable. So the willingness to look at things from a new perspective won't always have you in those warm, fuzzy, happy, optimistic, hopeful, joyful moments. But to me, that's what resourceful is good for.

Stacy Westfall:
When you hear me talking about training horses, I often talk about a direct effect that something has and the side effects. So a bit might have a direct effect and a side effect. It's also a lot like taking medicines. There's a direct effect, hopefully, a desired direct effect when you take a medicine and then there are side effects. What's interesting is that side effects can be negative, like when we think about side effects of medicine, but there can also be side effects that are positive in things too. And so resourceful as a way of thinking about yourself can be very useful, even though it's not one of those warm, fuzzy feelings. When I think about being committed, dedicated, sincere, persistent, those all make me want to take a deep breath and get started with whatever it is I'm aimed at. And that level of thinking has some pretty amazing side effects. I think some of the things that we want–like capable, the feeling of being capable, is a side effect of being resourceful. Other things that I think are side effects of being resourceful would be open, curious, aware. And those are some really useful things to have in your pocket because you never know exactly what might pop up when you're out working with your horse. One of my students, you might have heard me mention it in Episode 200 when I was sharing all the success stories. One of my students had a moose show up in her riding arena area. It was outside the arena, but it was close enough that the horse was aware of it. Other students are constantly having to adjust for weather or family issues or soundness issues with themselves or their horses. And the advantage that you have if you have been practicing a mindset of being resourceful, is that when these things do occur–because I don't know about you, but life keeps happening all around what I have for goals–when these things occur, you'll be more prepared to make decisions from the mindset of being resourceful.

Stacy Westfall:
When I think back to some of the most fun, wacky, crazy stories that have happened over the years of training horses, they almost always involve a level of resourcefulness. I just remember showing Roxy when she was a four-year-old. I was showing her in my wedding dress. And so if you go, you can find that all over on my YouTube channel. And I got real comfortable riding in my wedding dress. And the fifth time that I showed in it, I was at the NRHA futurity. And I'm getting ready to go in and everybody–everybody that was with me had already gone up into the stands. And I'm riding around in the warm-up arena and the zipper busted out of the back of my scooped-back dress. So we'll just call it a wardrobe malfunction. That is where being resourceful is very handy, because I had to make a very quick decision that although I do need to display a number on my horse, I actually don't need to have a number on both sides. So the pins that were holding my one number then became pins that were holding my clothing on for my ride. And then when I think about going on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, I remember asking the people at the barn if there would be any place to warm Roxy up when we got over to the studio in the morning to do the filming and they said, Yes, there's lots of room. I never even thought about the fact that these are not horse people and that they did not know what I needed for warm-up. So when I asked, I was assuming they knew what it took to warm up a horse. I have no idea why my brain did that to me. But when we arrived, we were in a giant parking lot. So to warm up for taking my horse onto a stage, I had a giant parking lot that was completely paved and a horse wearing sliders. So being resourceful was very necessary in that moment. And then when they said, okay, between filming, we have this small window of time when you can come in and check out where you're going to need to bring Roxy down through. We'd like to have you walk through here real quick. I walked in through and it's polished concrete floors that are way more slippery than the parking lot is and giant curtains that they pull back to reveal your brand new car. And my mind was just whirling with all the things that could go wrong and all the solutions, all the resourceful ways that we could solve these. So at the end of the day, Roxy not only had to walk between the immovable giant curtains that reveal the brand new car, but she had to do so going from office mat to office mat. I just picture somebody running around to every little cubicle in the show and grabbing all of the little mats out from underneath the desks because that's what Roxy walked in on was a line of those to get into the studio. And I took one look at the studio floor that did now have a carpet on it for Roxy's section and I'm thinking, what can go wrong here? Because part of being resourceful is not denial. It's actually full acceptance of what could go wrong here. And I'm thinking I'm going to ride in bareback and bridleless. I'm going to dismount, ask her to bow. What's the worst case that can happen? And my worst case was, oh, I guess she could end up out in the audience. So believe it or not, I had a baling twine in my back pocket because this was my takedown plan at the end of the day, because that was me being resourceful.

Stacy Westfall:
I did this deep dive on the word resourceful today because I have renamed and I am reinventing what used to be the riding bundle and it is now the resourceful rider. It is all the content that I had in the riding bundle, plus a whole lot more. If you would like to join a community of resourceful horse people who are all working on understanding, enjoying, and successfully training their own horses, check it out. Listen to what Sheila, one of my students, had to say. She also works for the U.S. Forest Service, so she rides as part of her job. She said: When I first started your courses back in January, I had no idea what you meant by shaping the horse. Now, I can't imagine riding without being conscious of my horse's shape and influencing that shape as I ride. That simple awareness, combined with the education and exercises to work on shape, has forever changed me as a rider. Over the last week, I've ridden my horses three times in the arena, working on the four-leaf clover using balanced reins. I've been videoing a lot and reviewing my rides as I do them. I've experienced some success, but quite a bit of frustration too, mostly with myself. Then yesterday I rode Rooster ten miles in the backcountry for work, and 90% of the time I rode him one-handed. He felt like the horse I'd been dreaming to ride since I started his training. I never could have gotten to this place without your help. It's been a mental and physical journey for both the horses and me. I can't thank you enough for continuing to encourage us to believe.

Stacy Westfall:
Sheila, you are very welcome and congratulations on your success. If you'd like to join Sheila and all the other resourceful students in my course, now is a great time to get started, because the sooner you start, the sooner you're going to see results like Sheila did. 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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