Episode 259: The value of seeing the whole process

Episode 259- The value of seeing the whole process.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 259- The value of seeing the whole process.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
You also help us understand really well all of the things that are involved in in something not just like here's this isolated exercise and that's partly back to like understanding this whole process. So when you start to understand the whole piece, and I by no means have the kind of grasp on it yet that you do. But I'm getting more and more understanding there. And the more I understand, the quicker I am to be able to, to realize like, okay, these two things that before I would not have seen as tied together at all, really are tied together. Here's how they're tied together and here's how most of it's being driven from what I just did. And then that in a way, makes you excited.

Speaker2:
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.

Speaker3:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. Over the next few episodes, I'll be taking you behind the scenes where you'll have a chance to meet some of the incredible students inside my Resourceful Rider program. Through these conversations, you'll get to hear their personal journeys. These episodes are filled with wisdom and inspiration, and I hope that by sharing their stories, you'll hear what they've achieved and realize that it's possible for you too. You will notice at one point in this episode that the recording is paused for us to take a few deep breaths before we continue, and you'll understand why when you get there, and you'll walk away knowing more about the amazing people inside my program. Let's get started. Thank you for joining me today. And could you guys introduce yourselves to the listeners?

Speaker4:
Hi, my name is Lindsay Lorraine. I'm from British Columbia, Canada, which is in the Pacific Northwest. I own two horses. I own a thoroughbred who is 12 and his name is Leo, and I own a little stock mare who is ten, and she's actually a wild horse that's been now domesticated for the last couple of years. And my friend helped gentle her, and I've taken her on as a project with my thoroughbred, Leo. I ride dressage, and my goal is to show him and also to go trail riding. It. Also, I'm sort of curious about doing Western events with him too. He seems like he has a lot of potential, so I'm just sort of putting like those foundational pieces on him now and next year. I'm looking forward to taking him out and getting him more seasoned. My background is I grew up with horses. I was in Four-h. I was horse crazy. I had not only my own horses, but I also rode a lot of horses on a on a guest ranch, took out trail rides and was on a drill team, went to Gymkhanas and just like I was horse crazy, I went to university and sold my horse, got out of horses for eight years, and as I started getting back into horses, I realized that my curiosity had grown a lot more. Wondering how they learn. But my my flow with the horses hadn't grown. So I was feeling like that.

Speaker4:
That piece that you have when you're a child and you can sort of ride and feel that hadn't come with me as an adult. So that was something that kind of led me to the internet and googling and going to conferences and listening for people's names. And that's how I found Stacy was actually through a conference. One of the presenters noted that she was the master of timing, and I was like, who is Stacy Westfall? And I googled her, and of course I saw the bareback and bridle video, and then I saw the Jack series, and it was when I saw the Jack series that I was it was really one of the first times that I saw someone training a horse, and the horse was just as interested in the person as the person was interested in the horse, and I felt like the horse felt the way that I feel towards horses, like Jack was interested in Stacy in a way that I was interested in training my horses. And I thought, how could I get, how could I get that? And so I started. I signed up for Stacy's newsletter. I just started following her and emailing her. I've been in the Resourceful Rider program, I think, since the beginning, and I've also done the steering and net training course. When you trialed that before Covid, I was there as well, and then I've done some private coaching.

Speaker3:
Very good. How about you, Heather?

Speaker1:
My name is Heather Wymer and I am from Washington State. I own one horse, a mare, Amelia. She is a Standardbred Arabian cross and I do endurance with her. Um, just kind of getting started with her career that way. And we've done a couple 50 mile rides hoping that she will be 100 mile horse. I have ridden my whole life. My grandparents owned and managed a cattle ranch when I was growing up, so I that was like my favorite place to be was on their ranch riding with them. I didn't get my own horse until I was 12, but he was a little. I got a mustang from the BLM that was like, you know, totally wild, untouched. And that was my first horse, which would go terribly wrong for most people. But I trained him from like the ground up. He was an awesome horse. Um, and then I've worked at summer camps and stayed involved with summer camps and like a training capacity now with the youth and staff. So I have just loved horses for a long time. I really, really like the training piece of it. That has always been something that I have really enjoyed, and I found Stacy through a podcast I used to. I still do occasionally listen to some of the Horse Radio Network podcasts, and you were on there for just a brief time and then started your own podcast, and I loved how thorough you were with any topic, like discussing, you know, not just like the physical part of what the horse is doing, but where they're at mentally, where the rider's at mentally, what the rider is doing.

Speaker1:
And so when you, um, like Lindsay, I, I was part of that group when you first released the neck training course. And that was really funny timing, because I had just been thinking to myself, like, I have always been able to put like a decent neck rein on a horse, but not like, really good. Like there's pieces of it that I knew there was like some sort of missing link. Like their shape wasn't really great, like it was functional, but it wasn't. It wasn't all that it could be. And so when I saw that you were doing that, I thought, oh, if there's one person that can explain this in a way that will really make sense and put all those pieces together like it's, it's Stacy. So I was just like ready and waiting for that course to come out. And then about the time when I was part of the way through that course, I was thinking to myself, you know something I've always wanted to understand the whole way through is how to do flying lead changes like I have not.

Speaker1:
That's something I haven't done. It's something I haven't seen. I've watched people in various stages of training for that, but not in a way that was ever really clear to me or that it appeared was ever really clear to their horses, because there was a lot of like, frustration and stuff through this process. And so. And when I heard that you were my husband. My family thinks it's funny. They're always like, I'll. I'll be like, guess what I heard? And my kids are like, is this Stacy Westfall? And I'm like, yes, yes. They just know that if I'm excited about something, it's probably whatever new thing I've heard from Stacy. So they when I heard that you were releasing that course, I was like, man, if I could have like picked one thing for her to do a course on, this would have totally been it. So I was just waiting for that. And then when you rolled that out with like the package of the zoom calls, I was like, this, this is amazing. I was I was beyond excited about this. And part of the reason that I was really motivated to, to do something other than there's been a lot of years in my life where I've taken really regular in-person, like private one on one lessons.

Speaker1:
But Amelia is definitely kind of an outlier horse. She's sensitive. She has a very low tolerance for. Kind of frustration or not being heard, and I knew what I had run into with a lot of other trainers, like they would mistake confusion for defiance or other things, and the way that they would want to push her and want me to react to her would bring out fight in her very quick and in most horses it wouldn't. But in her was like, I know her well enough and I just that was why I had held off. Doing that with her, with with other trainers and teachers like this isn't going to it's not going to end well. I'm going to end up in a place where I'm going to have to be my horse's advocate and say, you know, thanks, but no thanks and and walk away from it. So it was all perfect timing in that I was really looking for a way to keep progressing, to add to my knowledge. But. In a way that I felt would work for this horse that was, you know, by far the trickiest, most sensitive horse I've ever worked with.

Stacy:
Well, thank you for sharing that, both of you. And it's interesting because, you know, I get to hear from your angle, like seeing the Jack series, how that impacted you, why that impacted you, both of you mentioning like the steering course and then moving into the program. My intention when I created the the three different courses that are inside of the program, the specifically the steering, the collection, lead changes, and the whoa. I kept picturing in my mind if I could create a library like a path of videos that literally just showed people. Because so often I think you can jump on YouTube and you can find really amazing information, but oftentimes you're just pulling one puzzle piece out over here and a different puzzle piece out over there. And if you don't see a cohesive program all the way through, then it makes it really challenging to figure out what piece you're looking at. And so when I was creating it, I was literally thinking like, how could I do this in a way that could show the aides that are used on the first ride all the way through to the lead changes? I think a lot of times people almost like the limitation of the little chunks, which you're able to do little chunks when you come into the program. But I love the idea of like also being able to see the whole thing.

Speaker1:
And at some point, if you don't see the whole thing and really understand it, I think you miss pieces or you can let pieces ride that you shouldn't without, like where I'm at now, knowing the path and knowing what we have ahead of us helps me see areas that she's weak in now and know. Like if don't fix this, I'm not going to have what I need to make these things down the road happen. Whereas if I didn't know that whole path, I think that would be a lot easier to just think we were probably doing better than we actually were and just feel good about that and not not realize. Really what needed to happen in the end.

Lindsay:
I think, too. So you gave us a map, and you kind of always give everyone a map of the stages. And if it was, if it was. Presto on day. Day one, this is what it would look like. But we all come from our own experiences and perspectives, and you know that just as well as we do. And you have helped show us what levels we can start on, and that it's not going to be a clear path. And it's okay to not think of it as, as a, as a linear, you know, it is linear, but you will kind of pick places to begin and then you kind of push up a little bit and then you can come back down, retest where you are, understand the linear line again and pick another place along that line. Push forward, see where you are, reflect and come back. So we're teaching our horses these stages. We're tracking sort of where they are on on these stages. Where is this horse. Where's this horse's knowledge on the inside? Rein, for example. That is something that is not one dimensional. That's something that's three dimensional because yes, it can be an inside turn and we can build a really a really great inside turn using the inside rein,.

Lindsay:
But now we're talking about using collection building into collection, or now we're talking about moving a hip. And so how can we now we're looking at that linear line again. How can we. Build that up and still test that inside rein, turn. So the thing about knowing all of the stages. Is knowing how to be critical of ourselves as well. How can I test where I am, what my knowledge is, and what my horse's knowledge is, and then put that back on that linear line and reflect? So there's a piece about relearning that is always evident in the program. And that's the thing that makes the training so solid. I just came off of four weeks of not riding, and my 12 year old thoroughbred, who is a very hot horse I needed. I lunged him maybe three circles to just do a check in, and I can just get on and ride. And I know what a really well trained horse is feeling like because of this program. And so that relearning is always is always happening.

Speaker3:
If you're going to explain participating in the program to a friend, how would you explain it?

Heather:
You know, you've kind of already explained like, like the basics of of the video library. Which I think you did a great job in, how thorough that is. One of the areas that I really love. I always go and watch the videos about the likely mistakes you're going to make, because that's usually always what I'm going to do is make those mistakes. So go back to those videos a lot, because that's usually where I went wrong. Um, so you're very thorough in that part. And then. Explaining. You know, we have these weekly zoom calls. And what I think that has done a lot of things for me. It has been really helpful. Somewhere in my mind I had this idea which I wouldn't have even been able to like, really say before, but I had this idea that if you did it all right, quote unquote. That it would look fairly pretty and neat. Through the whole process. And in reality, that's just bogus. Like you introduce a new, especially when you get past the elementary school level stuff and into the high school level stuff. It's so complex and you're training multiple things all at the same time, that it's more common that you fix one problem and you break three other things when you when you do that, and it when you realize that this is all part of the process and all you have to do is go answer a couple questions and then it's like it all levels up. You don't just you don't just fix the one thing that you set out to do.

Speaker1:
It's like all of those other skills. Get that much more solid because of those questions. It allowed me, instead of feeling frustration every time I hit one of those hiccups in the road where you felt like last week, everything was going really smooth for me. And then I try this. And now I feel like I lost three quarters of what I just had going. You realize that you didn't lose it. There's just these other questions that have come up, and then you get really excited because you realize that when you answer these new questions that came up, you're going to be way ahead of where you were last week. So seeing that happen with myself, with Lindsey, with lots of other people over and over again, I think helped me just become. Like embrace a process that otherwise was frustrating because I was expecting something that wasn't reality. And so now when I see those little and I can also see where my horse is coming by most of this totally, honestly, you know, there will be funny things like when all of a sudden I was like, wow, my backup was really good, and now it's not. But I know it's not because I just spent the last ride focusing on something else. And so now I can honestly see where these new questions have come from. And so. To me, that community piece of it is huge. Not just not just the ability for me to have my own videos reviewed, which is also amazing because there's always like.

Speaker1:
There's always at least one big thing that I wouldn't have come up with on my own that that gets added from the video review part. So then there's this community piece, and then there's also. The mindset mastery part of it. For me. That has changed my whole life. Like it has allowed me to not be as critical of myself, of my husband, of my kids, of my coworkers, to just have a lot more fun in my life because I'm realizing all of these crazy underlying thoughts that I had and deciding I don't want to have them anymore. Deciding that I can choose something else. And so I think it's it's a really complex thing. I feel like if somebody listened to me trying to explain it, they would be like, you got all of this from a horse training course, but but it's but it's but it's really true. So it's kind of. Yeah. How to explain those those components that that really great library and foundation, the structure of being able to bring things to you, of seeing other people progressing on that path, that whole community aspect, and then really getting a handle on the mindset part of it and realizing what a huge piece that is. And then when you realize what a huge piece it is with your horse, you realize what a huge piece it is every other place in your life.

Speaker3:
Is there one specific example that stands out with Amelia, which also have to just say, I think it's funny that I end up knowing all of your horses names and for whatever reason, Heather, your horse's name is Amelia, and I tend to actually want to call you Amelia half the time. You'll notice on the zoom calls doesn't happen as much with Leo and Lindsey. Yeah, but is there an experience with Amelia, whether that's on an endurance ride or just out on a, on a, on a regular riding day where you could kind of anchor that idea that you were just telling us about, where something felt like it was working and then maybe didn't feel like it was working and then felt like it leveled up and you were like, wow, I didn't see that coming. I now that I'm on the other side, I see how that level up process worked.

Speaker1:
It had the realization with her a bit ago that there was a little bit of resistance to really coming into a higher level of contact, which I needed to bring her into to get the level of collection I needed to get to kind of progress forward. So I kind of got to the point where I was like. You know, I this is where I need to go. And I feel that there's this resistance here, so I. I did a ride. Where and what it felt like was like I would I would drive her forward. I would ask her to come into that contact. And there was just kind of this resistance there. Like, like, I really I really don't know about it. I'm not 100%. So I thought, you know, I'm going to do a ride where my whole. Point of this ride is. To have her decide that that level of contact. And in that case, I was working specifically in a Canter that that level of contact is good. It's it's not just okay, it's good. And so I would write her I was just doing wandering circles. I would write her until she willingly, nicely came into that level of collection. I would let her just I would just stop actively writing her. I wouldn't ask her for a stop or anything. I would just stop actively writing her. But she's a horse that hunts the stop anyway, so she would feel that and be like, oh, I get to stop.

Speaker1:
I would just let her stop. I would praise her, I would hop off. I'd hang out for a little bit, I'd hop back on again, and I'd ride until I felt her come into that level of like collection and relaxation at the same time. And so I did this probably 10 or 15 minutes of this, of actual writing with double or triple that amount of time where I'm just hanging out and saying that was exactly what I wanted. Good job. So then the next ride, she comes and she is willing to give me all kinds of contact. She's like, check this out. Do you want more contact in a truck? Do you want more contact when I'm stopped, do you want like, what would you look, I can go up with that. I can go down with like. I mean, she was offering like, all sorts of things, which before, if I would have tried to have asked her for it would have just been like, I don't know about this. And there would have been kind of this base level of uncertainty and resistance there. And instead it was like, I just thought about all these, like, if you really like this one thing, I think I've got a whole bag of tricks that you might be super excited about. So then I stopped her and I asked for a backup and I had no backup anymore.

Heather:
I just had this like, look, I will come nicely into the reins. Oh, do you want my head a little lower? Do you want my head a little higher? Do you want like. And I for a second I was like, why on earth do I have no backup? Like I could put a fair amount of pressure on the reins and there was just no backup like before. What would have been sending her back a bunch? But I've gotten smart enough to where I was like, this is all what I just did. She's decided this level of contact is just fine. She's exploring with all these different ways of making contact with my hands and being completely comfortable and happy with it. So then I talked to Stacy about it and I realized, you know, like a lot of good things are coming with this. So with that, I didn't go about trying to like, take a hard line on like, here's a problem, we have to fix it. But what I did is I just sat it out and waited until she kind of went, oh, do you really want me to back up to, like, I tried all these fancy things with my head. Do you really want me to back up to. And was like, yeah, yeah, that'd be great. And then what I found that only took probably two rides, and then I had a better backup than what I had going into that.

Speaker1:
And that's just like, I mean, we're talking two rides with a couple. Minutes overall of fiddling with it? Not really. Hardly any time devoted to this. And then when I came back, it was like. She had a whole new level of sensitivity to anything that involved connection with the bit, including like. Shoulder work, lateral work, any outside rein, work. All of her collection was better, and then all of her downward transition stuff and her being willing to, like, stay balanced. That's where all of a sudden, like, if you look at my videos from before and actually this is part this is part of what I love about Stacy too, is that Stacy points out all these things that sometimes I miss in that video where I'm like, look my back up, quit working Stacy's like, look at these square halts. That time after time after time, this horse is coming down into perfectly square halts. Two days before that there was no square halts like that. It just all came. So even stuff that was not, I wasn't putting concerted effort into, I didn't go back and try to polish. All of a sudden all of it got better because the pieces came together for her. She accepted all of this, and then it translated into everything that she did, stuff that I had had been working on and stuff that I hadn't touched, you know, in weeks.

Speaker3:
That is a such a clear example. Tell me a little bit about the process, that how the program helped you unlock that thinking in yourself.

Speaker1:
So the mind, the mindset part of it for me, like I said, has been huge and and the the basics. If I had to summarize that down to like the really cliff notes version, it would be to become really quick at recognizing when a little frustration wants to pop its ugly head up. And to think like, what's that thought? And then because of the mindset work. I've been able to go my place, that I've been working on retraining my mind to go to instead of like in this case, why on earth will my horse no longer back up, like to become instantaneously curious about this? And with practicing this, this has come much quicker. It used to be like, you know, I would have this thought, it would be like down the road, like it would be a process of me getting from the initial frustration of whatever happened to curiosity. And then the amazing thing that I've learned is that curiosity allows you to problem solve. It allows you to be so much more effective. Frustration just shuts you down. You you don't get anywhere when you're frustrated. And so what changed for me is that when that when I realized that something had kind of come undone a little bit, I very quickly went to curiosity instead of frustration, instead of like, why does my horse no longer back up? I went to curiosity. And because of understanding, you also help us understand really well all of the things that are involved in in something not just like here's this isolated exercise and that's partly back to like understanding this whole process. So when you start to understand the whole piece, and I by no means have the kind of grasp on it yet that you do.

Speaker1:
But I'm getting more and more understanding there. And the more I understand, the quicker I am to be able to, to realize like, okay, these two things that before I would not have seen as tied together at all, really are tied together. Here's how they're tied together and here's how most of it's being driven from what I just did. And then that in a way makes you excited because even though it made this other thing not work, it really is still a direct result of what you were just doing. And then all you have to do is figure out, okay, what what questions are still. There that I need to answer. And then, like I said, realizing like the first couple times I went through this process, I was just thinking in my mind like, okay, just just fix what broke, and then we'll kind of get back to the baseline and we'll start over. And then I realized, like, you don't come back to the baseline when you adjust these things, you come back way above where you were. And then I started getting excited about this problem solving piece because I was like, when I answer these questions, we're going to be at a whole new level. So instead of this frustration of like, I had this great thing and now I don't, which is what it had felt like previously. It's like I had this great thing, and now I just uncovered these new questions that are here. And when I answer those questions, the great thing I thought I had is going to be like, way in the dust. And I'm going to be we're going to be at a totally new place.

Speaker5:
Mm hmm.

Speaker3:
You're referencing what I would call elementary school, high school, college. That's that whole leveling up. And it's also that interconnectedness. It's understanding the pieces but also the leveling up. And it is, like you said for Amelia, when they're operating at one certain level, elementary school, for example, when they're operating there they have certain thoughts and they've been rewarded for behaviors at an elementary level and thinking at an elementary level. So when you go to stretch them up to high school, back to what you said earlier in the call, like sometimes it can feel like the messy middle because they're a little bit like this is the answer. So there's a brain stretch and a body stretch going on for them. So it was brilliant on your part to slow down enough there not to essentially punish her for offering literally what you'd been training, which is where I think sometimes when people don't slow down that little bit to be like, okay, that's a little weird. Like, why did my backup go away? Then when you do slow down, there's so much grace for the horse's experience there. Lindsay, if you were going to explain the experience of participating in the program to a friend, how would you describe it?

Speaker4:
I would first of all be like, you know, Stacy Westfall is teaching it, right? Like, you got to sign up because it's so it's so wonderful that you're there weekly to talk to us. And it's not so much that it's my experience of talking to you like that. That has been a tremendous growth point in my life, but also I learn so much from the other students, and I get to hear what you would say to them. So it's not just like I'm getting one private lesson a week. I'm getting the vantage point of everyone having private lessons in a week and and the work that they're doing. When I think about what it is to have private coaching lessons with a coach on the ground in front of you, and like, I love that. I think there's so much that you can gain from that. The thing years ago, before I had this program that I wasn't gaining from, that was my own assessment skills, and through the program I have gained this ability to assess and I've sort of lost the frustration but gained the relationship. So my horses make me laugh. I feel like I understand their their personalities and who they who they really are. I can see them clearly and I respect them more for who they are and what their experiences have been. Because, like Heather said, that frustration can just shut you down.

Speaker4:
So, like I, I could remember a time where I would be really frustrated, like I already taught this horse to back up. That is done. And the fact that we're not backing up now would be so frustrating. But now I laugh when my horse backs up as an idea, and I'm grateful that he can trust me to ask that question and that I get to then I'm excited about spending the next five minutes of playing that game and teaching him that lesson. I think we can forget that horses are. They have like a young mind, like we hear that like the mind of a horse or a dog is like a three year old child. And that's a privilege to be able to play and raise children. And so it's a privilege to be able to be coached by you, Stacy to see that in our horses and to not see them as defiant and to not see them as trying to pull one over on you, that they're children. And we get to, through their experiences, really honor, honor their mind in the way that they think. So with a coaching lesson with like with a private coaching lesson, I found that the coach would tell me exactly what to do with my hands and my legs and my seat and my horse, and I could get the horse to do a lot of great things, but it was almost like I was the puppet.

Speaker4:
You know, so you have the you have the coach in your ear, and they're pulling me as their strings, and I'm pulling the horse now, but with the program. I'm sort of like the composer, and we're all sort of musicians, and you're sort of teaching us how to how to be ourselves and how to how to how to honor our horses and really, like, lift everyone up so we can all sort of be in this, this together. So there's just like the honor of of learning through your knowledge, Stacy, but also giving us the power to, to do it again and again. I really built my, my own like internal resilience. So when things go wrong, I, I'm not so hard on myself and I'm not so close to just giving up. I think a lot of the time when you ride alone and you are training your own horse, you can be really hard on yourself and you can question why does it work well for this person but not me? And what am I doing wrong? I've learned to be so much kinder to myself and just to to trust myself and to go at my own pace. And that is like a life lesson that I'm I'm really thankful that I got to learn through this program.

Speaker3:
How has videotaping how has that impacted both of you like doing your own evaluations or sending them in for evaluation?

Speaker4:
Well, my horse really struggles picking up the left lead Canter and it becomes I can get really flustered with a asking for it and then b riding it, but then you're also sometimes riding a crossfire. You're riding the wrong lead or you've asked for it wrong yourself. So rather than being in that situation with a coach and I've been there before where your horse is getting the wrong lead and the coach is just mechanically telling you what to do, and then you end up getting it, but you don't authentically feel it. I didn't at least, and then I couldn't. I couldn't really get it without the coach being there, and it took quite a while for me to to do it outside of this program. So now inside the program, a similar problem I video. So I'm just riding in these like two minute bursts of playing around with how to ask for the correct lead. And then I get to hop off and see, oh, he cross fired for two strides. He picked it up and then we did this. So then now I can start to authentically feel what that is in my body, and then I can start to feel his shoulders or his hips and his head and the corners. And you you need to slow that type of learning down, and you need to do it in small increments, because if you do it in like a larger increment, then you've lost sort of the feeling and that muscle memory. I feel like there is like scientific proof of just doing things like for short bursts. Well, and I can see the results with my horse and myself, and also just the confidence that you get along the way through relearning all of these pieces that build up what it is to to ride and train a horse.

Speaker3:
Remind me if I'm remembering this correctly or not, but I think I was coaching somebody live on a zoom call about how to use the outside rein to kind of close the door for the shoulder. And I believe you were on Leo and popped in on the chat and said, I'm riding right now and just picked up the left lead using what you were talking to. I think it was Kathy about, does that sound familiar?

Speaker5:
Yeah.

Speaker4:
Well, I love Kathy's calls. They're so much fun and it's so fun to be riding and listening to the zoom calls. And that one.

Speaker3:
Happened to be live. Did you just stop in the middle of it and just type into.

Speaker5:
Me like I.

Speaker4:
Was in my arena? I was riding big. I was cantering big circles. I think Kathy was working on. Yeah.

Speaker5:
She was. And I was like.

Speaker4:
That's that same door that's open for me. And I just closed it, closed it, did a beautiful canter, hopped off, watched the video and was like, you know, who'd like to hear about this? Kathy and Stacy.

Speaker3:
Literally live on the call. I was like, uh, Lindsey just typed in this. She just did this and got her left lead, so. Oh, that's great. Heather, how has videotaping and learning to self-evaluate. How's that worked for you?

Speaker1:
So I had to start back at a much more basic place before I could appreciate what Lindsay's talking about. When I first started videoing, um, it was super hard for me. I would look at my videos and I would just be so critical of myself and my horse. And I realized that I really only wanted to submit videos that were almost perfect, which was kind of silly because the whole point was to figure out what how to progress, which, you know, isn't about perfection, but. So it was really a path of like. Me having to figure out and and the mind coaching. That's where the thought coaching came in big time because. So I did my first video and then I wanted to record it over and over again. And then I realized that I was writing really mean because I wanted like all of a sudden I, I saw all the things, you know, and I wanted to fix it so I could submit a better video. And then I caught myself and I was like, this is stupid. I need to write nice. No matter. Like if I'm videoing, who's going to see it or whatever, it brought out a part of me that, like I didn't even realize was there, but like that. Critical. Harsh. Um, so I had to go through this whole process before I could even get in the habit of where submitting videos was comfortable for me mentally, where I would say, okay, I'm going to video this, I'm going to submit the first take no matter what it looks like, I am just going to ride something.

Speaker1:
And I found it was better if I intentionally pick things that I wasn't really polished at and was like, I know I will get there quicker if I get feedback. I'm just going to video it and I'm going to show it in all of its imperfect. Glory and. So for me, that was like, I didn't realize how much of a thing that was going to be or how much I had kind of avoided videotaping until I really started doing that. And then once I dealt with all of those feelings, then I could get into what Lindsay was talking about and see, like, what a fantastic. Tool this is. And then another layer to that, which we talked about a little bit on yesterday's zoom call is I was realizing, okay, I've got what I can gain from watching my own video. You know, the beauty about videos, whether it's our videos, whether it's the zoom calls, we can go back and listen to them again. You know, you think like, what was that thing that she was telling me, I can go back. I can listen to it again. I can listen to it as many times as I need to. Um. And then. When I know ahead of time that I'm going to be talking to somebody about this, I get much deeper into my thought process about this, and I problem solve. And literally before you were talking about that on yesterday's call, I thought, you know, if I just pretended I was going to submit every video to Stacy, I would do a better job of problem solving myself, because I would be more thorough about it, because I would think through, well, she's going to ask about this and she's going to think about this angle.

Speaker1:
And so I get better and better about being way more thorough because, you know, my personality, I always want to like, get the most out of everything, you know. So I'm like, well, if I think through all this and I come there with all of my thoughts really thoroughly lined out, then we then we can hop right in and she can tell me where I'm wrong. She can add to add to it. You know, we can we can get down to business really quick, but it makes me be a lot more thoughtful about that whole process. And then I also love. It allows you to see. A lot more of what's really happening that you might miss. That's very easy to miss when you're just, you know, being in the moment, whether it's. Balance things like when I was teaching Amelia to stop off of legs only and wasn't wasn't using my hands like literally watching what happened with her, with her balance as she's trying to figure this out on her own without the aid of, you know, me having a little bit of pressure on those reins. Um, so yeah, there's the videoing has been I was slower than a lot of people to really embrace that, and it was because of my mental hangups about it. Um, but once I worked through that, it has been a really, really amazing tool that that brings a lot from a lot of different angles.

Speaker3:
From my perspective, it's fun for me to watch you each individually develop your own AI as you go through the program. If I'm coaching, Heather and Lindsey is listening. Lindsey, you're getting a different perspective of that happening. For me, I'm I'm getting this outside perspective also of the overall growth of each of you as you're going through the program. And that has been so rewarding to watch you realize and develop to the next level and develop to the next level. And your eye and your ability to see always has to come before your ability to execute. And that's something that people don't often think about. But you've got to be able to have that. That concept has got to be. You've got to be reaching for it and seeing it and then physically go out and you execute. And so it's super fun for me to watch this process from my side.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And will we gain that? We gain that value as well. Because I don't ride at a barn. I ride at home. And so this way I get to watch other people ride and I get to watch other horses. And then also within the program we get to cheer each other on. And although we don't really talk directly to other students, I can see students be at really low places. And then all of a sudden six months later, they've progressed and they're now kind of like speaking the language of these up and down discoveries. And, and we get to celebrate those little wins. We get to hear the successes and the other students. And it can be emotional when you see someone submit something and their horse just picks up the most beautiful three sides of Canter and it's a gaited horse, and you're just like, that is the most beautiful thing I've seen. And I'm so proud that I get to witness their growth and experience. It's a privilege.

Speaker3:
Is there anything else you'd like to share about your experience inside the Resourceful Rider program?

Speaker4:
I think for me it has been life changing. I'm a better person to myself. I'm a I'm a better partner to my husband. And I'm a I'm like a really good mom, too. And I feel like I'm kind to my horses, and I just feel like it's just been an honor to be in this program, and I would really recommend anyone to join it.

Speaker1:
Um, my my path with Amelia started out really hard, and, um. In addition to her being kind of a challenge to train, to train, she had a lot of health problems and a couple injuries, and there were times where. I didn't know if I would have to make a really hard decision and put her down as a very young horse. Um, months of taking her back to WSU every month and then in the middle of that. Not knowing if I could even succeed with her. And succeed with her training. But knowing that I had seen enough of a lot of other trainers to know that she wouldn't succeed with them. And so I felt like. Sorry, guys. My commitment to her. Wants to stick with our. If I could, to fix her. The physical problems. And bring her to a point in training where? If she didn't work out for what wanted. But she could succeed for other people. Although she had a set of skills that would be useful and desirable. And that she wouldn't end up in a bad place because I felt like for a while. If I let her go.

Speaker1:
I didn't think her odds were good at all. But there was some times where it was so dark that I remember one. One trip at WSU. Thinking, well, at least if I lost her, like, I wouldn't have to keep trying to make this happen. And then feeling terrible for having that thought. And realizing through that whole process like it it realizing that I wasn't as nice and as kind of a person that I thought I was. I just hadn't had the right buttons pushed and. Going from that to. The point where. I love every ride on her. Where she has been successful by outside standards and my standards. And where? I have learned and grown so much. I don't even know how to really express how much that's meant. And think. I feel like. God knew that I needed Amelia and she needed me. And I feel like at the right time, God knew that I needed this program and I needed the help and the support and. Everything else that went along with it. It's not only become a better trainer. But a better person.

Speaker3:
Did you have any hesitation about training your horses using an online program? Were there any hesitations for you guys?

Speaker4:
You offered the steering course once in the fall, and then you opened it up again in the. In the winter. Maybe. I remember not being in the the very first stream of the steering course. And the reason I stalled was because. I thought I'd get a little bit further on my own first and that. That I probably, um, I actually kind of thought that everyone would be more advanced and that, um. That it maybe wasn't that I wasn't good enough to be in.

Speaker1:
I thought that too, but I thought since I don't have to submit videos, nobody can see how terrible I am. So I will just hop in at the very beginning and then I can learn all this stuff, and I'll watch all the videos and I'll be ready to go, you know, as. So I hopped in right away. It was the videoing part and showing people my videos that took me a while to get on board with that part. And then to me, the idea of like remotely learning from somebody my. Like. To me, that was just a matter of how good of an instructor you were, and I knew you would be a good instructor just because of how you were on your podcast. Yeah.

Speaker4:
Didn't worry about that at all. Yeah.

Speaker1:
So didn't worry about that at all.

Speaker3:
There's not a requirement to send in videos. It's just it's another level of learning. And it's it's fascinating to me because there are people in the program that send in success stories, and they've never sent in videos, but they have still benefited from everybody who has sent in videos because they're watching. And and so there's there's no wrong way to go through the course. It's just got the multi-level because of the all the dimensions it offers that.

Speaker1:
And that's the nice thing too, is that if you're uncertain in the beginning. You can just hang back for a while and chill until you're courageous enough to start doing some of those other things.

Speaker4:
I just find it so beautiful with each new student that comes in the faith that you have in them and the the the way that you patiently hold space for them to share their story. I you've probably heard it a thousand times and someone else's way, but I just it's who you are. It's such a such a beautiful person.

Speaker1:
I remember very distinctly too. There was one time where I had submitted a video. You coached me and it was a pretty. Basic video. I don't remember exactly what it was on, but we were not doing anything special or spectacular. And then right after me was a video that I think Bob submitted of flying lead changes, and he was like, I'm taking my already good flying lead change. And then I'm trying to put a different cue on it, and I'm like, well, that makes what I'm doing look like, you know, child's play. But what I loved is I, I, it helped me see something that I had not put my finger on before and that. Was that you? Had the ability. And right before me, I think had been somebody that you were talking to about groundwork. So I felt like we spanned all the way from like very, very beginning to. How do I put a, you know, a more subtle cue on my flying lead change? And I felt like you treated us all like we were equals. Like none of. Like I wasn't any less. Then Bob was and my horse wasn't any less then Bob's horse. And I thought like, wow, how? How did she do that? And it's made me really curious about, like to pay attention how you coach and how you talk to people and how you give feedback in a way. Because traditionally what I'd run into is kind of one end or the other on trainers, either the kind that they really flatter you a lot, but it's like wasting your money because you're not actually going to hear a lot of helpful stuff. Or people who are kind of. Harsh and it feels harsh, and you kind of feel like you have to have a tough skin in order to learn, and you're not that way at all. Yet we learn so much without it feeling abrasive or anything else.

Speaker5:
Well.

Speaker3:
I'll tell you my secret, but I think Lindsay already discovered it on her own. When you're talking about the Jack series, I'm actually just treating you guys like I treat my horses.

Speaker1:
There you go.

Speaker3:
It literally just view each of you when you walk in with a video or wherever. I literally just put the same lens on that I do with any horse that walks in the barn.

Speaker4:
Mindset mastery.

Speaker5:
Yeah.

Speaker1:
Well, and even, you know, along those same lines, like so many people are so quick to add a lot of judgment to stuff too, and then to basically say like. I love that even if somebody comes at you with something that's from a completely different perspective, you just walk through it of like, well, like if you used that cue, for instance, like this would be the potential side effect from that, not labeling it right or wrong, and then just walking through and helping that person see that.

Speaker5:
Well, thank you.

Speaker3:
So much for for spending this time with me today and for sharing all of this. Thank you. Stacy. Thank you so much. To learn more about the Resourceful Writer program, visit my website Stacy westfall.com and put your name on the wait list. Then you'll receive more behind the scenes peeks into the program.

Speaker2:
If you enjoy listening to Stacy's podcast, please visit Stacy westfall.com for articles, videos and tips to help you and your horse succeed.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you’d love including powerful integrations and APIs, share transcripts, advanced search, automatic transcription software, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.