Episode 21: Your Horse Needs You to Do This

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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.

Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall, and I'm here to teach you how to understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. Well, guys, it's the end of another season. And today, I'm going to wrap up the season. Give you a gigantic tip and then share with you a little bit about the upcoming season. I know I've covered a lot of ground in the last two seasons. The writer's mind and the riders body, and I'm even more excited about the next two seasons, which are all about the horse.

Well, kind of. I'm still going to stick you guys in there, too. But if I had to encourage you guys to do one thing to improve your riding, it would be to focus on this last season. The rider's body.

It is consistently the weakest link that I see out of the four different areas I'm talking about, which are the riders mind, the riders body, the horses mind and the horses body. And here's why I think that is, first of all, we're all super excited to talk about the horses, mind and body in the next two seasons.

I mean, we get to talk about horses, horses only. It's awesome. And when we talk about the riders, mind, you can change your mind in an instant.

You can read an article, you can watch a video, you can listen to a podcast and instantly change a thought you've held for a long time. That's mind boggling. I mean, it is to me anyway. I don't know if it is to you, but you can literally change your mind in an instant.

But changing your body takes work and a ton of commitment.

I'm here to tell you, at 44, I've been experimenting all my life, I've been riding all my life. I can feel age changing me and I have taken up exercise and it will pay you back a thousand fold in every area of your life. Personally, I tend to use horses as my motivational area because I want to do. I'm willing to do what I need to to ride better. But it is awesome to feel the difference in my body in other areas of my life. It's just more enjoyable when I'm out gardening or I'm going somewhere with friends and it doesn't feel like as much of a physical strain because even though I've ridden my whole life, I've been really open with the idea that riding is not a balance strength and flexibility training.

Because think about it, strength and flexibility is exactly what we want in our horses and it's what we need in ourselves.

Right now, I'm currently showing in traditional dressage, and it's really interesting because I can feel my old muscle memory. Whether you want to call it muscle memory from Colt starting or muscle memory from raining, I can feel it conflicting and fighting with my new muscle memory.

And let's be clear, I'm not interested in giving up my old muscle memory.

Now, you might have habits that you want to just flat break because they might be considered bad habits across multiple disciplines, but you might have habits you want to keep. For example, when I ride colts or problem horses, the idea that if a horse starts to throw its head or start to think about rearing or cause a problem. The fact that my body is hardwired to lean to the left, prepared to bail off and do six other things that are going to keep me and the horse safe.

I'm not interested in losing that, but I am interested in adding to it.

It's so cool when you get to the point in your life where you can add, add, add layers of muscle memory. And that is going to be one of the big themes you're going to hear when we talk about the next two seasons. The horses mind and the horses body, the idea that we can add a lot of layers.

Here is the deal. There is a difference between consuming and applying things to your life. I am really honored that you were listening to this podcast. It is. However consuming right now, when you're listening, you're consuming, not applying. I know sometimes it's hard to tell if we're consuming or applying, you know, because listening to a podcast feels like you're doing something. Here's how you can tell the difference between consuming versus applying. You're ready. Focus. People will notice a difference in you.

So that does mean that you could be listening to this and you could be applying it to your mind and you will know if you've applied it to your mind when people notice a difference in you. And that might not be tomorrow. If you look back over the last year till now, you should notice a difference in yourself. And it should be a direction, your choosing.

You'll know if you're consuming or applying when people notice a difference in you. Here's an idea. Decide to do something every single day to improve. I'm leaving that dramatic pause right there because I want to know.

Did you automatically in your head think I don't have time? Did you feel your muscles tighten up? Did you feel some kind of resistance to the idea of dedicating time every single day to improving? Because I'm going to say it only has to be like 10 or 15 minutes, but you got to write it on your calendar and then you've got to do it. Maybe you take me up on the idea that it's some kind of exercise, like yoga or something like that.

Or maybe it's more mental because here's another trick. You could exercise.

You could do yoga or you could walk around your kitchen moving your hands and legs as if you were riding between stirring your ham and bean soup, just like Susie did when she was listening to Episode 19, she put it into action in her kitchen. That's how you're going to know because she put it into action and that action in the kitchen. Walking around. I can still picture it. Thank you, Susie, for sending me this information, because that's what I'm doing when I'm sitting here podcasting. I'm actually bending my body to the left and I'm actually taking my right hand out to 2:00 when I'm recording these. And if you're walking around your kitchen. Between stirring your ham and bean soup, which, by the way, Suzy. That would be like pulling to the gate when you're doing that, when you're mimicking those motions, you're putting it into action. So guys put it into action. And I'm telling you, if you braced against the idea of ten to fifteen minutes, it's worth examining the ten or fifteen minutes if you actually decide and dedicate yourself to doing something that takes you closer to your goals for just 10 or 15 minutes. You'll be amazed at how good it will feel and that good feeling, that mental thought of this good feeling is going to help lead you to take more action. It's an awesome circle. The next episode will start Season 3, which is the horses mind. And here are some of the questions that have been called in.

My question is really, how can I untrain a high level mountain shooting Harz just to help him understand that I don't want to compete at that high level that he has been at.

Do you think there are horses will maybe have mental issues or trauma so serious that it makes impossible to fix certain behaviors? Or is it just me?

I have a quick question. What do you mean by a creative horse? Thanks.

If you have a question about a horse, you don't even have to tell me if it's the horse's mind or the horse's body. I can decide that for you. Call it in and leave it on the voicemail.

You can find it real easy if you go to Stacy Westfall dot com on the right hand side, there'll be an orange tab and it's really easy to do even from your cell phone. Short voicemail. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. And I'll talk to you in the next episode.

If you enjoy listening to Stacy podcast, please visit Stacy Westfall dot com for articles, videos and tips to help you and your horse succeed.

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