Episode 262- Unlocking Potential: Recognizing the layers of training

Episode 262_ Unlocking Potential_ Recognizing the layers of training.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 262_ Unlocking Potential_ Recognizing the layers of training.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
We just experience each other through our bodies, but it's our minds that are driving each of us to respond with our bodies. That's masterful.

Speaker2:
You know, what can I do differently that communicates to my horse? And it may be teaching the horse, and it may be I'm not clear enough, or that my cue isn't specific enough for him to understand.

Speaker1:
Yes, it's the right answer. It's the right answer again, and it's the right answer again. And how great is that to get the right answer 20 times in a row.

Speaker3:
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.

Speaker4:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. If you've been listening to the episodes in order, you'll know that I've been interviewing students and today you'll meet two more. I hope that by hearing from different perspectives, the concepts that I share might land differently for you. Listen for how they share their struggles and their breakthroughs, because they've made some amazing connections that have changed their experiences of their horses for the better. One concept for you to consider as you listen today is the value of educating your eye. And what I mean by that is, if you can see the problem in layers, you're going to be able to view it differently. So consider it even just a beginning a middle and an end would be layers. Can you see the problem in layers? Can you see the solution in layers? When I hear people talk about the depth of learning, this is what they're describing. Because the more layers you can see, the more impact it will have on your ability to communicate and by extension, on the relationship you have with your horse. It's more than just seeing the finished product. It's seeing the layers that created the finished product. And one last thing before we begin. Jackie says something about halfway through the interview and you'll hear me crack up. I'm curious to know how the people you ride with would react if you said that sentence to them. Email me and let me know. Okay. Enough intro. Let's jump into the conversation. Thank you for joining me today and for doing this interview. And could you guys introduce yourselves to the listeners?

Speaker1:
I'm Sheila Lamb from Colorado, and I've got four horses and a mule, and I am one of the lucky people that gets to use my horses for work. I work for the Forest Service and I manage grazing allotments across over a million acres, which is crazy. I trail ride a lot just for pleasure and I enjoy working in the arena with the horses too. We do quite a bit of cattle work and I'd like to have good solid using horses, so that's kind of my background and what I do with them. Coming into the resourceful rider, gosh, I, I have consumed horse information since I was a little kid and. When I finally got to own horses in my childhood, and I've owned them ever since, I've hooked up with a variety of different trainers and whatnot. But never found anything like like Stacy Westfall before. And I'm just thrilled to talk about how she's changed my horse life.

Speaker4:
Well, thank you for that. Jackie, how about you?

Speaker2:
Yes. Hi, I'm Jackie. I'm from Missouri. I'm kind of middle Missouri. I own one horse, but I bought a horse and a pony, so I have a little herd of three. I do a lot of training with my horse. And this question was funny because when I read it, I was like, I'm not going to say I do. Ooh, I want to do, I want to do more trail riding. I've done some showing. I want to expand the showing and I ride with my friends. I'll trailer to their house sometimes or they'll come here, but I spend a lot of time training my horse, preparing for trail ride and show. So I think that's probably going to come around with. One of the things that I want to do through this course was to get me into showing. As a child, I never owned a horse until I was in my 50s, but my friend had horses. Since I was like six years old. I have been with her and her horses and she showed a lot and I went with her to those shows I showed occasionally I enjoy showing. I think it's a fun activity to do with your horse, so that's my goal. When I saw your program, I decided what I really liked about it was how specific it was, and that it would help me advance into that showing and be able to actually do what it is I had intended to do.

Speaker4:
When I hear training, what I hear personally is developing a conversation. So it makes sense to me that I can go out and train a lot with or without showing. Because when I hear the word training, I think developing the language and developing the conversation. Other people think training is different. Like sometimes you train and sometimes you don't train. And I'm like, I feel like I'm training all the time. All the time. We're developing a conversation. So for me, so it kind of makes sense actually the way that you answered that question.

Speaker5:
Thank you.

Speaker4:
I am curious. And you started to answer it some. Was there something you were struggling with or something you were looking to achieve or both?

Speaker2:
The reason that I originally joined, what I wanted to do was finally changes, and I thought your program was outstanding. I love the techniques that you use to develop the horse and the rider to prepare to do a final change versus the speed concept of just go fast and fly it, and that that just doesn't work for me. So your your style, the program that you develop to prepare to do that really caught my attention.

Speaker1:
I had a pretty specific goal when I signed up, and that was I had three young horses that were at the, you know, early stages of their training, and I needed to find a way to become their trainer. And so many other programs focus on, well, let's get the let's get the horse doing X, y, z. And I think your program is really special in that it empowers the human to become the trainer of their own horse. That's exactly what I was looking for. And that's the difference between.

Speaker4:
If you were going to explain the experience of participating in the program to a friend, how would you describe it?

Speaker1:
Oh my gosh. The program teaches you how to become your horse's teacher. And it's because. It's because you're just such an incredible teacher yourself. The program offers all of the online content, which you can approach at your own speed. I really appreciated that. And then being able to go back and review, you know, the courses, the individual lessons, the videos, and to see horses at different stages of development going through the same exercise and, you know, pitfalls to to watch out for in yourself and the way that that gets reflected in the horse. The additional support with all of the worksheets that ask you to do something. This is one of those programs that the more you engage with it and the more you give, the more you get out of it. You have to work at it, and it's the work that makes the difference. But you are the support behind everything and the willingness for you. Through the weekly zoom calls to read the successes that inspire us, read the questions that we all have in our minds and we haven't asked ourselves. And and hearing you answer those for people and reviewing videos and allowing us to become better observers of the horse of ourselves. The program as a whole has completely changed my horse life and my relationship with my horses, because it's changed me.

Speaker2:
Well, if I was explaining it to a friend, I would say the thing that I really like about Stacy's program one is once you sign up for it, you have access to it for life. And that was really important to me because I was going to be retired and my finances were going to change, so that was important. But then when you get into the program itself, what I love with the training videos, how you broke down processes into two chunks and they're pretty SHORT ############, you know, you can watch a video, a few videos in a pretty SHORT ############ period of time, and then they build on each other. So when you get through that program, you have a really strong understanding of, for example, the steering program. It starts out pretty simple, but as you move through it, you learn more and more about the nuances of what you want your horse and you to learn about the steering. I really like then to follow all that up with the zoom calls. So then you're out there experimenting, trying to figure things out on yourself. Maybe I have Stacy in my ear because you have an audio, which I love, that can actually talk me through a ride, and I've used that audio audio several times, and it really helps you pull all that together and come to a zoom call and you're, you're like, well, what am I going to say? My heart's hardly moves. He's slow. I don't have anything to offer. And then I hear everyone share and suddenly I'm getting more and more out of the rides I was having, because that zoom call. And when we share our experiences, it gives us a chance to understand better the results we're getting with our horses and gives us different ways to think about the results, what we're getting with our horses and energizes you and creates commitment because it is a commitment if you want to advance. That's what I loved about the program. And what I would tell my friends is that you can learn from this. It's a very supportive group, a very safe, supportive group to work with.

Speaker5:
Mm.

Speaker4:
Thank you for sharing that. I did make the video into SHORT ############ chunks when I was creating it, thinking the majority of them. I know they're under 15 minutes, but there's a lot that hover right around like a seven and eight minute mark.

Speaker5:
Right.

Speaker4:
And my thought in there was not only can you do and see a lot in that amount of time, but it also was to make it more easily navigated by you when you wanted to go back and look at these individual sections. So it's music to my ears to hear that that's working.

Speaker2:
Yeah, I really like I like the SHORT ############ videos.

Speaker1:
It's just going to echo exactly what Jackie said. It's so approachable to have them in those pieces, and it kind of provides the I even though it's funny because you've included videos that are called deep dives, but I feel like each video itself is kind of a deep dive. Right? This is much as you.

Speaker2:
Can absorb, right?

Speaker1:
Yeah. And the fact that they've been broken down into like these areas and allows you to see, you know, it's not like do this with your horse. It's ask wait for what the response is based on what the response is. Then this is how you can then respond back. And it it is. You can see through the videos the development of the conversation, and then you can learn how to apply that to your own horse and your own situation.

Speaker4:
When you started the course, did you focus on one area in particular?

Speaker2:
I started with the steering course and okay, so I felt like in going through the the stages with your terminology, I'd say he bounces between high school and middle school, you know. So I wrote a lot with my legs and my seat and I was moving towards Bridleless riding. I have ridden him bridleless and my arena from time to time. And so when I went into the steering course and I picked up the reins, I'm like. So resistant. That's the best word to use. So resistant. Well, do I even want to do this? Do I want to teach my horse this? Because I just worked so hard to teach him to move off my leg and my seat, and now I'm picking up these reins. Do I want to do this? And so. But I did it. I just decided to follow the program. I set up the cones, I measured them out. I did the, um, the cloverleaf. And I'm telling you, it was the most painful thing in the beginning. It was so painful. And like, I would pick up a rein, and he'd pull the other way, you know? Does he have bit problems? No. Does he have. No. He just asked question after question after question. And I really questioned it for a while. And then all of a sudden it clicked in me and I went, oh, you know what? If we're going to be an advanced horse and rider, we should be able to follow the feel of a rein, and understand what is being asked of us. We could also follow the feel of a leg and understand what's asked of us.

Speaker2:
This is advancing us and we're not going to be resistant, you or me, because I think we're the same sometimes and we're going to work the program. And, you know, I work the program. I didn't really think I was seeing a lot of progress, but my border looks at me and says, wow, you and Finn have really changed. I'm seeing more bend in you. She just saw more. He is following the feel of the reins. So much sweeter, so much nicer and even asking questions now, which just cracked me up. And I'm laughing. And it's such an improvement in my mindset because before I would, that would have been a struggle. And now I'm laughing because I'm like, he is asking me, and what am I doing? Am I? Am I asking him accidentally to go sideways at the cone? Am I not preparing an advance and asking him to get around the cone and advance so it's easy enough for him. So he's like, hey, this is sort of hard. So let's go sideways here, you know? And then we can get around that cone. All I know is we have a better relationship and we are definitely following the field off the rein now. And yes, you know what? If you want to be advanced, you can you can ride with your seat and your legs. You can ride with your reins in any combination. And together you can do that. And that is a breakthrough for me.

Speaker4:
Have you noticed that it changed his responsiveness when you did go back to just seat and legs?

Speaker2:
Yeah. was fine, you know? Yeah. And now he just adjusts. Oh, we're using the rein, now. Oh, we're using the seat. And like because I think it was me who thought that there was a limitation and I thought it was going backwards. Like, I don't want I want to advance, I don't want to go backwards. But what I realized it was an advancement and that was pretty cool. And I'm excited to get to the flying lead change course. But I really want I really want to totally go through this program and feel like we're switching. We're using the reins. The other day, just out of the blue, I asked him to do a counter bend off of the cloverleaf, and we came around and I just went, well, what if we just, you know, because maybe he'll file the. And he did. He filed the field beautifully. And I'm like, yes, we're getting it.

Speaker1:
Just like Jackie. I started with the steering course also, but quickly realized. That the key for me was going into the mindset, and that has been the thing that has been. Changing for me and for the horses because, you know, we haven't talked about the Foursquare model yet, but, you know, as one of the focuses of your whole program, that mindset piece is critical.

Speaker4:
Podcast listeners are already familiar with the concept of the Foursquare model and the rider's mind, the rider's body, the horse's mind, the horse's body. And the program is a collection of courses. It's the steering, the collection, the whoa, the mindset mastery, the weekly calls. But my goal in doing the whole program was to bring that Foursquare model to life. So now that you've been in there for a while, what have you experienced about the Foursquare model coming to life?

Speaker1:
Yeah, when I first heard you talk about the Foursquare model, it was on your podcast, and that truly is what got me interested in being in The Resourceful Rider, because I think that's so important to explore that as we develop our relationships with our horses. And I never thought of that horse human relationship in those terms before. And, you know, we just experience each other through our bodies, but it's our minds that are driving each of us to respond with our bodies. That's masterful, to really explore that Foursquare model and realize that everything that happens between you and your horse originates in your mind and then is projected through your body. So that's one of the most powerful keys to your program.

Speaker4:
I believe one of the features that podcast listeners might not know about is that inside the Mindset Mastery course, there's an ask a coach element where students can write in and the questions are anonymous, and then they're answered from a coaching angle. That's purely mindset. So there's no answer that's going to say use more left rein, it's all going to be about how you're viewing it. What is that like for you when you go in and you read those questions, whether they may be your question and the answer to you, or it could be any of the other hundreds of questions that are in there, what is that experience like?

Speaker1:
I've put questions in there and. The reflection of reading my own question, and then having a coach offer an outside experience for how that is working. You know how the the question is manifesting itself with the horse. That's been huge. And scrolling through the different questions that have been asked, I feel like. I could have asked every one of these questions, because truly. And that's the beauty of belonging to a group and feeling the power of that community is everybody is going through the same thing, and it's non-judgmental, 100%, and it just helps you see things from a different perspective, a better perspective. And it's truly helped me change.

Speaker2:
Really. I come out of it with the horses. Really. Never wrong is what I come out of it with. That is how we approach our horse, and that if we're not getting the answers that we're hoping for, that is because there's questions and maybe we need to refine the way that we're communicating. Maybe we need to teach something. And when you put your mindset so you don't get angry with your horse, you don't get angry with yourself. You investigate. You want to understand, like, you know, what can I do differently that communicates to my horse? And it may be teaching the horse, and it may be I'm not clear enough, or that my cue isn't specific enough for him to understand.

Speaker4:
Yeah, that curiosity that you have allows them to ask questions, and then them being allowed to ask questions makes them more curious about what the answers might be. And it creates this beautiful circle of curiosity in both of you, because I feel like I redirect far more often than I. Correct.

Speaker5:
Yeah.

Speaker1:
I was just going to say, Jackie, that was beautiful, that you said the horse is never wrong. Because that's exactly what I experience now. And I never thought of my horses in that way before. And my experience of them now is I always give them the benefit of the doubt, and I see them in a more positive light. Always.

Speaker2:
Yeah, it's nice, isn't it? I mean, it's actually a really wonderful takeaway into your everyday life to just approach all, all problem solving with. It's not wrong, it's just different. It's not what was expected. And then you start the problem solving of what are the actions, what are the behaviors. To set things in a way you would like to see them. And so, you know, actually kind of bubbles over into real life I find for sure.

Speaker4:
So inside the program, can you pinpoint where you started having that happen? Was that directly the mindset? Was it the zoom calls? Is it watching the evaluations? Is it learning to do your own evaluations? How has that seeped into both of you that it's changed your relationships with your courses this much?

Speaker2:
Well, the mindset really focuses on this, but it's all of that, you know, like you read it in the mindset program. You think about the concept and it starts you on that journey. But then as you're training, as you're listening to the zoom calls and you're interacting with people, it just seems like it just became obvious, oh, this is what works. And then when you're trying it with your horse, they love it. You know, you're not forcing into something. I feel like to be honest with my horse, if the wrong person had him, they might say he is dangerous and wild. But because I learned to not push him, I do push him. I do stretch him. I do ask for more from him, but I don't make him. I work with him. I ask him questions, he asks me questions, and then I try to fill in the blanks. And that is how we we advance. And I think it comes from the whole package. Stacy, you know, it's the whole package. It's very focused in mindset, but it's the whole package of the classes, the zoom calls, the group and all of us talking and then the experiences. And now your mind is open to seeing your horse in a totally different way.

Speaker1:
Well, I think the thing that makes the program powerful overall is the layering of everything. And it's not just one thing that makes the difference. It's all of the things or practicing one thing in a variety of different contexts. One of the key breakthroughs for me has been. Just ruminating on that whole idea of yours that your horse has questions. I never thought of that before. It's a miracle. And to to see them saying that in the different situations that we're in. Gosh, my horse, my horses have a lot of questions and it's just such a different way to approach, you know, what we're going to do from there. The other real key to the program, I think, is that it's trained me to be a better observer or taught me how to be a better observer. You're very good at teaching people to observe everything you know, observe the horse, observe the rider, observe. You know, just be more aware of everything that's happening, because within the space of, you know, a five minute training session, there are hundreds of exchanges that are happening between horse and rider, and being able to observe those in as much detail as you can really helps you unlock what's happening with the communication. The evaluation of my own rides has been enhanced by becoming a better observer. And. Being allowed to do that. Watching other people's videos as well. We get so much practice at that. And it's it's just another skill that the more we practice it, the better we can become at it and the more we can see in it. And so all of that's been very, very helpful.

Speaker4:
One of the keys inside of the program is learning to evaluate your own ride, and that's something people can do on their own. Just making a video at home and using the evaluation process on their own video at home. Or you also have the opportunity to send the video in, have it played during one of the zoom calls and evaluated by myself. And I usually bring, if you're on the call, I bring you on and talk about it. Can you tell me what that experience is like for you?

Speaker1:
Yeah, I've, I've had both experiences and I will say I was really, really hesitant to send in a video, but. You are 100% non judgmental. And so there's never ever a worry that you're going to be criticized or told that you're doing something wrong. It's purely information and feedback. And you know, even though we can evaluate our own rides, there's so much value in the feedback from you. Stacy. And I get as much out of watching you review other people's videos as I do in my own. It's almost easier in a way, because you're having kind of an out-of-body experience and you can observe it, you know, as a neutral third party, but there's certainly a lot of value in both.

Speaker2:
Watching the videos of the other students sent in. And when you review them and the way you ask the question back to the writer about, do you see this? Or what do you see here? And then offer your thoughts? Also just helps me learn so much about what to look for. I feel like I'm probably getting more gentle on myself and my horse, because I see how you ask the questions and I see how we are progressing, where maybe in the beginning I thought I wasn't progressing, but because I'm watching the videos and I'm hearing that your feedback, I realize, oh, these are progress points. We are making progress here.

Speaker4:
The word community comes up a lot. Why do you think that is?

Speaker2:
Well, I think that the community is important because human beings are social animals. Horses are herd animals. We're social animals, and the community makes us feel like we're a part of a group. We're in a safe place. I think that's so important that your platform provides Stacy is is so safe that you just are not judged. You just come in and say, hey, here's me, here's what I'm trying to do. And you and everyone on that zoom call are supportive, and we all want to belong to a group. I think that's part of our nature. And so being able to share what we're doing with like minded people is really, really important. There are some people, if I told them my horse is asking questions and I'm working to answer, they would check me into the doctor. They would understand that idea, you know? So being able to share your mindset and how you are approaching, training your horse and working with your horse and what's important to you, and being with like minded people, I think is really, really important and encouraging.

Speaker1:
Yeah, the community is super valuable. Stacy is the the leader, the teacher, the ultimate feedback. But it takes the community to provide the opportunity for us to all. Experience the questions and go through the reviews and just see that we are not alone. The things that we are experiencing, everybody is experiencing and there's so much to be learned by. The web of people that belong to the resourceful writer community.

Speaker4:
How is your experience of your horse different now?

Speaker1:
Oh my gosh. I see my horses as so capable and I never saw them in that way before. And I always thought that. Oh my gosh, they're not ready for this. They're not ready for that. We can't learn that yet. But it's like, when do you know you're there? You don't ever really know unless you try and you know, you've done podcasts on is your horse capable? And that really resonated with me. And now, based on my experiences with my horses and what I've been able to teach them through your program, they are absolutely capable and so am I.

Speaker2:
I see our possibilities now. I approach my dream with more confidence, and my dream is to go show my horse and go out and do things with him. I think I have a really nice horse and how lucky is that? And I really want to go do things with him. And I see now we can, you know, it changes my perspective that we're capable of learning and training and going and accomplishing our goals.

Speaker4:
Has the program changed the structure of the way that you work with your horse? Jackie?

Speaker2:
Yeah, sure. It definitely has. Okay, so I've been in other programs before, and somehow when I came out of them, somehow it seemed like I accidentally learned to ask less of my horse. And one of the big things I have learned through this program is my horse is really capable, and I should ask more of him. He's there. He's ready. As long as I do my job of making sure that I give him a chance to be fit and prepared for the work that we're going to do. He's really capable. So, like doing 20 times around the cloverleaf, ten in each direction. So you would have done three and said, oh, we're good. So and I really learned the value of this repetition. You know, the pattern in the beginning. Just seems like a pattern. But as you spend time doing the repetition of the pattern, you have an opportunity to learn so much. First of all, once your horse learns the pattern, then together you're kind of learning. Like, how are we shaping ourselves? How are we moving? You know, oh, look, I make it hard on my horse because I'm sitting funny. Like, you really start to really examine your whole self because you're not thinking how to navigate the pattern. I would have never have spent that much time on the pattern before.

Speaker2:
So we work a lot harder. Like work used to be sort of a bad word inadvertently. Okay, want to say it was not intended? And now I'm like, we're doing more. We're getting more done. We're we're going to do more of this. Because when we do more, we actually get better. And a lot comes out of that. There's nuance and depth of the training that shows up when you repeat it, and your horse knows now this is what we're doing. Then he starts or your horse starts to ask questions in new ways, and you can examine how you're riding in new ways. And if you're just busy all the time trying to figure out how to navigate a pattern, you don't get the opportunity to get deep into thinking about, how are you riding this? Are your reins even in this case? Or are you accidentally pulling a rein? Or how are you sitting? Are you cockeyed? Are you straight? Are you giving your horse the opportunity to follow the pattern successfully? And you get to do that when you work the pattern enough? So that was all new to me, and I'm really glad. And my horse is getting so much fitter. I see a lot of fitness through all this.

Speaker4:
Yeah. What would you go back and tell yourself now that you know it? Now, if you could time travel back, how would you tell yourself we're going to do this repetition and it's going to be okay. And the word work is not going to be a four letter curse word anymore. Like, how would you convey that to yourself if you were able to go back there?

Speaker5:
Go back?

Speaker2:
I mean, really, truly. It's literally just saying it's okay. I mean, I actually thought I was doing my horse a favor by doing less. And now I realize, no, I wasn't, you know, my my horse's health depends on his fitness. Really, truly. He's out on the field 24 by seven, and I don't want my horse to get too heavy. I want him to stay healthy on that grass in the summertime. I want him to be able to have healthy hooves and legs and all that depends on me providing exercise. He gets it when he's walking, but not enough. And so then we get to do interesting things through exercise, by training and learning patterns, going on trail rides. We've done that a few times and I'm liking that. And we've been to a few shows and all of that you get to do because you believe the work is okay, but you can't do that if you don't do the work.

Speaker5:
Yeah.

Speaker4:
One thing that I've enjoyed about the Resourceful Rider program is that people can come in and have different goals. Then the goals are across the board. We've got endurance riders, we've got people that want to show, we've got people that don't want to show. We've got people with horses that have like arthritis. And so they work around some of the different issues that the horses might have physically. And one thing that I really enjoy about the program is that you're able to flex it to what you want, and for some people that want the higher level performance, we do have open discussions about the fitness level that's going to require. And so not to say that all horses are going to achieve that fitness level, depending on what the goals are, what the ages are and all the different things. But for sure to have that conversation out there and just being up front about the fitness level that is required for some of the higher level maneuvers, I think is eye opening sometimes for the riders of the horses who are like, hey, that actually makes sense. It would be a lot easier for my horse to achieve this if they were more fit in this area. So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker2:
And if I'm riding him to fitness, I'm developing fitness and I'm riding better, which is helping him.

Speaker5:
Yes.

Speaker1:
The piece of what you said there that really, I think is important for me is Stacy has said this so many different ways and so many different times, but it's. We think of it as repetition. But for our horses, when they experience something over and over and they get the right answer, it's like reinforcement of yes, it's the right answer, it's the right answer again, and it's the right answer again. And how great is that to get the right answer 20 times in a row.

Speaker5:
That's right.

Speaker1:
And that is you know, it just reinforces itself. And I love that. So that's how I always see repetition now is just more opportunities to have that right answer.

Speaker5:
I love that yes.

Speaker4:
Is there anything else you'd like to share about your experience in the Resourceful Rider program?

Speaker1:
I had a lot of doubt about whether or not I was going to be able to become the trainer of my horses, and whether or not an online training program was going to work for me in order to be able to do that. And. Oh my gosh, it. I just can't reinforce how much it has changed me. It's changed my horses. It's changed my relationship with my horses. Stacy is a fantastic teacher of people as much as she's a lifelong horse learner and expert. She truly is gifted in teaching people, and that's the thing that makes the difference.

Speaker2:
You really are. You know, Stacy too. Kind of a little bit off topic. Um, ten years ago, when I decided, I guess maybe 12 years ago, I decided I had some free time, my children were grown and I decided I wanted to get back into horses. I had a little extra money, I could do it, and I started calling people around and said, I want to come ride at stables. And they're like, you have to take lessons. And I did. So I found a place and took lessons, and SHORT ############ly thereafter I'm like, I want my own horse and started down the journey of buying a horse, and I did. I took a horse on a two week test period, and I had. Different concepts of how to interact with a horse. I always felt like what I learned from my friend was like natural horsemanship before it was popular or coined. Okay. She always had this very kind way with horses, but very effective. And I tried to translate that. But I got this horse and I went to ride the horse and something went off, and I tried to stop the horse because I felt he was running away on me. And I had a single rein and it broke. And when it broke, I thought, and I took an ugly fall and ended up in the hospital. And when I came out of that, my husband's like, now you're done with the horse thing, right? And I'm like, no, no, I'm not. I got the bug again. And I called my lifelong friend who got me going in horses, and I said, I need help.

Speaker5:
I said.

Speaker2:
I want a horse and I need help. I just I was always by your side, Denise. And so I never realized that all the confidence I had, I took from my friend and all the knowledge I had, I took from my friend, I. I didn't know how to be alone with a horse. I said, I need to follow somebody, I need lessons. And she she gave me a list of three people and your name was on it, like here. And I went and looked you up. I got your book and your DVD. This was before you started your online courses, and I started reading and I started working with that. And that was my beginning of changing my approach with horses. That was, to me, that connection I got through you. And what you publish is what saved me. So I could have a horse. And I've been safe with my horse since. Was it easy? No, it was not easy. I went through a long period of time of fear learning. And it's just layers of learning, right? You hear the same thing, maybe over and over again, but as you learn it, then you're ready to hear the next thing, and then you learn that and you can apply it.

Speaker2:
And it's helped me so much. You know, I used to go out and try to ride my horse. Well, first of all, I was afraid of the saddle that I might get hooked up. I had a very active imagination. My mind worked against me and I think I'm just going to ride him bareback. My friends like you're afraid to ride, but you're going to ride bareback. And I said, yeah, because then I won't get hooked on the saddle if I fall off. So I would take him out bareback. I'd get off, I'd get off, I'd get up, I get off, I get up, ride to the arena, I get off, walk over, get on the mounting block, play with him, get up, get off. Friends would ride him and I'm like, oh, look, he's a nice horse. I'll ride him, you know? But all that came from. The information you put out there to the public that made it available for me to read and learn how to better be with horses and how to communicate with horses. And I think I have just a lovely horse now and I'm so grateful. Thank you.

Speaker4:
Oh, you're very welcome. And and thank you both for doing this interview with me.

Speaker1:
Stacy I know you hear it all the time, but you're amazing.

Speaker5:
You're so never doubt yourself. Don't ever doubt yourself.

Speaker2:
You're doing a great job.

Speaker4:
You know, it was interesting when you were talking about my teaching style and different things like that. I was actually thinking about my mom. My mom's a teacher. And so many of those lessons I can hear. My mom.

Speaker5:
I love it.

Speaker1:
Yeah, I love it. My my daughter's a teacher, and she often says, you know, it's not her job. It is her calling. And I feel like this is your calling.

Speaker4:
Well, thank you for that. Thanks for listening. And remember to email me and let me know how the people around you would respond if you said, my horse is asking questions and I'm working to answer them. And to learn more about the Resourceful Rider program, visit my website Stacy westfall.com. And if the program's not open, put your name on the waitlist so you can be notified the next time that it is open. You'll also receive behind the scenes information if you're on that mailing list.

Speaker3:
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.

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