Episode 274: From Doubt to Discovery: See your horse more clearly to bring back the wonder and joy

Episode 274_ From Doubt to Discovery_ See your horse more clearly to bring back the wonder and joy.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 274_ From Doubt to Discovery_ See your horse more clearly to bring back the wonder and joy.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Where the doubt came in for me would have been training your own horse.

Speaker2:
You illustrate. A lot of times that horse is getting warmer or colder so that you're constantly guiding in a gentle way, one direction or the other.

Speaker3:
Yeah, I like listening to the calls and just knowing that I'm in a community with other women that are trying to get better with their horses, too.

Speaker1:
It's brought a little bit of the wonder and the joy back to experiencing my horse.

Speaker2:
It's a lot more fun and much more, much more relaxed.

Speaker4:
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.

Speaker5:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. In this episode, I'm interviewing three more students from inside my Resourceful Rider program. As you listen, pay particular attention to the struggles they name and the growth that they experienced. What stands out to me is how the riders are describing that they can now see themselves and their horses more clearly. If I say it backwards, it would be that before they experienced this shift, their emotions, whether that was anger, frustration or feeling scared, were actually altering what they were able to see. Now let me be clear emotions are not the enemy. But if you don't learn the skills of how to respond to them when they come up, especially the ones you don't like, they will cloud your ability to clearly see what your horse needs. I think many of you who listen to this podcast don't like the idea of dominating or using force, which is perfect because I don't like that either. What I want to show you is that you can learn to support your horse. You can learn to see that the horse is confused, or that the horse would benefit from clarification. This approach still involves understanding what's happening with the horse's body, but it also involves you understanding where you are confused and understanding where you would benefit from clarification and how you can support yourself on this journey. And it just might be that you would benefit from being the student first, so that you can then become the teacher of your horse. Now let's meet the students.

Speaker2:
I'm Linda Barrett, I'm from southern Oregon. I'm on the edge of the Great Basin, and I only have two horses. One is a pasture pet, a buddy for my one horse that I ride. I live on a ranch, but the guys all ride four wheelers now. So anyway, I'm the one that's still hanging on and mostly what I do is ride on the ranch. But because I live where Tom Dorrance's legacy is large, there are many, many great horse people here, and it's always been my dream to take my skill up to a level that, you know, fits my area. I just would love to be able to do that. And it's always there's always been something very important that's taken my time. And as many clinics as I've gone to, I've gained something. But this is this is a chance. This is like a gift to me to be able to just continue on and try to pursue a long time dream. My background and experiences. I've, you know, rode as a youngster and then married into this ranch and we ride together. But like I said, it's kind of like the gathering takes more precedence than the actual horsemanship. And so you just go and get the job done. And I've been doing that for too many years, and now I want to come back to being very, you know, more the vaquero tradition, more the western dressage and just, you know, just that elevated degree of horsemanship. So that's my long time dream.

Speaker1:
My name is Suki. I am from Alaska. I have a horse and a pony. A horse for me and a pony for my grandkids. And right now I am doing Western dressage with my with my mare and also with my daughter's horse and my pony. I do a little bit of the equine assisted psychotherapy. So that's a that's a passion of mine too, as far as background. And I came into this course having been away from serious riding for about ten years. Um, and the cool thing about that is I came in really open to shifting the way that I approached horses. Before that I had done some showing and my family just always had horses, but, um, it was always just kind of more the training in the aspect of the horse is going to do what you tell them to do. And in the time that I was away from horses, I saw much more of the natural horsemanship. And so I experienced a lot of the different trainers who brought natural horsemanship. And, um, just finding Stacy was just so pivotal because it, it, um, the way that she approached it wasn't just from the horse's perspective or just from the writer's perspective. It was really it brought everything together and so really connected with that. And it made my experience coming back to horses so much more powerful and just satisfying. So I'm grateful to be here.

Speaker3:
So I'm Stephanie and I'm from Missouri. Uh, I have I'm married and I have two children, ten and seven other ages. And I have a horse that I ride. He's a 12 year old gypsy vanner. And then my daughter has a pony that's a gypsy pony cross. And so. We drive him, but we don't drive my horse, so I just ride him mostly. I came to the course because I was struggling with confidence. When I was 15, I tried to train my own horse and just kind of what I could learn from attending clinics and reading things. And so went pretty well, except that I had an accident then. And so after I had the accident, I got bucked off. I didn't ride for much for like almost ten years. I guess it was nine or so. And so when I came back to horse riding again. It was really a hard to get my confidence back. So that's what I was working on and I wanted to. I wanted a coach because I had started a strength training and once I had a coach, everything moves so much faster and so much better, and I had so much better results. I thought, if I get a coach with my writing, you know, it might be the same. So that's kind of why I came to the course, because I wanted to learn and grow and get better. And so I'm a little bit maybe of an outlier because I'm Mennonite. And so we don't have, uh, videos and cameras and. I can go to the library to, to watch the, to do the course.

Speaker5:
So the printable material could be pretty good for you then?

Speaker3:
Yes. Um hum. Yeah. I can also be on the zoom calls just with my phone at home, so that that's helpful too. So I do that.

Speaker5:
That is good to know. So if you were going to explain the experience of participating in the program to a friend, how would you describe it?

Speaker2:
I thought about that a lot. Every one of us has said I wanted to improve. I was looking for coach. I was trying to find an answer. And I think at that point it's then I could say this is like a clinic, only that it's continues to be extended. It's a huge library of resources that you can continue to go to, and it's a welcoming place where you're met, where you are and coached forward. And I love the I – it's hard to submit the videos and be the vulnerable one, but I love learning from other people. I love being inspired by Sookie's success, and I love, you know, hearing what other people are doing because it's all integrates into what we're each doing. And so when I'm speaking to someone else, I would tell them, it's a it's an incredible, you know, library of resources that you can go to at any time and that you get this consistent feedback and that it offers structure, and it offers a model to follow, an exemplary model to follow. So those are some of the things I would say.

Speaker1:
It's so much it's so hard to actually say, okay, this does this because there's just so much that it offers. But as I reflected, I was just thinking this program really provides coaching and tools that make you a better partner for your horse. But not only that, it makes you a better version of yourself, just in general. So we have access to world class coaching with Stacy, who is an excellent teacher. In addition to her accomplishments in other areas. She's not only in tune with our horses questions, she's attuned to ours. Um. Stacy approaches concepts from every angle until it makes sense to you.

Speaker3:
Yes, I like what both of them said. That was good. Um, I think I would tell somebody it's very detailed and very step by step. And so I love the way the course keeps track of what you've already seen, you know. And that makes so you don't get confused of what you've already done and where you are. So I like that part. And I would I would definitely tell somebody, you know, if you don't know much, it will get you started. And and then it will keep teaching you, you know, as you grow.

Speaker5:
The program consists of the self-paced courses, the steering, the collection, the Whoa, the Mindset Mastery course, and the weekly zoom calls and all those past recordings. And my goal when I was creating the program was to address what I talk about on the podcast as the four square model, the rider's mind, the rider's body, the horse's mind, the horse's body. Now that you've been in the program for a while, I would like to hear how your awareness of those four areas has maybe shifted or changed, or even helped you when you're maybe evaluating your rides.

Speaker2:
The thinking in those terms and giving it that structure is enormously helpful. This it was very helpful to think of it in terms of how is this resistance reflecting something she's thinking, or is her body prepared with the balance and strength she needs to do what I'm asking her to do? Or how am I showing up at the barn? I think you asked that a lot is how are we showing up or what are we? What's our intention, what's our focus? How aware are we of what's going on? And then what are we doing with our cues? You know, all of that has come into play to help improve what we're doing. I love that approach.

Speaker1:
Um, so for me, as as I struggled with training, um, I noticed that I was having emotions and reactions that weren't present in other areas of my life. Um, I felt frustrated and angry, and I would often leave training sessions really feeling defeated. Uh, so the four areas putting it into the four areas made all the difference in the world. Everything together felt really overwhelming. But when when it was broken out into the four different areas, like is it the rider's mind? Is it the rider's body? Is it the horse's mind that the horse's body? All of a sudden there was a direction that I could go. And so when I think about those those emotions, putting in the thought model and actually addressing the emotions that were coming up in me, that changed everything, and my experience of my horse suddenly became so much better and everything felt more doable. We were both more open, more teachable, more ready to actually make the progress that we wanted to make.

Speaker3:
I think it helped me just be a lot more aware of how I'm showing up. And instead of just going straight to feeling scared or angry or frustrated, you know, instead of just going straight to that, I take a little more time to just think and ask questions.

Speaker5:
Now all three of you have referenced the mindset mastery. How would you describe the Mindset mastery, or better yet, your experience of using the Mindset Mastery course? How has that worked for you? And was that something you were as aware of coming in as you are now?

Speaker2:
It was clearly not as aware of it that, I mean, awareness has been a key component of this course and improvement. Patching those holes, building that foundation, strengthening it. And in your mindset is that, you know, at least one fourth of the foundation and the whole structure. And what I found was having to articulate the circumstance and having to pare down to just the circumstance and then isolate a thought and isolate a feeling was an excellent practice and had to be coached to narrow the focus and take things down into, um, more pieces. I love the direct feedback and I love that it's always gracious. I don't feel anybody's ever belittled. It's always gracious and kind and empowering and inspiring. It gives you a new direction to go. It gives you a next step or affirms something that you're doing right. And so it was improving focus, improving awareness, being more intentional, all those things.

Speaker1:
I feel the mindset mastery really is a game changer. It's, you know, thinking about how you're thinking affects your feelings and your behaviors is very familiar to me. It's I'm a counselor. And so it's kind of what I do. But when you bring the horse and the training aspect into it, what that brings up all kinds of feelings and emotions and situations that may be, you know, just everyday life doesn't offer those opportunities. So I feel like it really has been a game changer. You're coaching through. It has helped me to refine my own ability to understand how circumstances, and my thinking about those circumstances affects my feelings in the moment and affects the whole behavior, mine and my horses. Even so, for me, once I was able to address my own thought process so that that thought in my mind, you're messing this up or whatever that might be, it completely changed my experience with my horse.

Speaker2:
I think that one of the things maybe we're all saying, this sort of is oftentimes it seems like an answer in the mindset mastery is have you considered this or what else is possible? And you just keep opening the door to more possibilities? And I love that things don't tend to have a right and a wrong. So there's not that anxiety producing right and wrong idea. It's more how else can we see this or just that open? What are the possibilities?

Speaker5:
That's good. It kind of leads perfectly into the evaluation process. How has your ability to evaluate your own rides developed during your time in this course?

Speaker2:
Well, I think the first thing is it's become more objective. You consistently model looking at something particular and emphasizing what's going well, and then what might be changed for improvement so that there's a balance in how we're looking at it, and there's consistent encouragement to be objective about it, to be in a neutral place when we look at it. And that has helped by watching others hearing you say, look at how this horse is reaching and underneath himself with his hind leg, or look at how this stop is more on the forehand. What could she do to improve it? Or there was another example I wanted to give, but by isolating those moments, it helps us, helps me to not just see a performance that I think was really good and say, oh great, I've made it, or see a performance that I'm not satisfied with. There's not enough collection. She's too far on the forehand. I can break it down into the particulars so that I, like Suki, was saying earlier, I can take it in a new direction. I can work on that thing. Or what would improve that area.

Speaker1:
When Linda mentioned earlier the vulnerability piece, uh, and it is a vulnerable place to put your video out there, um, in front of other horse equestrian trainers, whatever their experience or background is. But a couple of things about that. Stacy has done that for us. She's made herself vulnerable. She's not not always just showing when everything goes right. She's honest and open about the times that she has to kind of redirect and figure out, okay, what do I do now? Um, which I think makes it a safe place for all of us to be vulnerable and share our. I don't know what to do here. Um, the next layer of that for me is Stacy is looking first for what's positive. So she teaches us to look for, okay, what went right and then look at. And she gives us this really cool tool of the four different areas that we can look at the rider's mind, the rider's body, the horse's mind and the horse's body. And so to be able to evaluate from any one of those aspects, um, just puts a lot of information in your hands, and it's safe to look at it, because we've been taught to look at the positive first.

Speaker3:
I definitely look more at the positive first instead of just thinking about what went wrong, you know? So it's helped me in that aspect. And also just remembering that your horse is asking questions and instead of. Just that he's trying to do something wrong. That has been a big one for me.

Speaker5:
So is your experience of your horse different now that you're looking at your horses differently like this?

Speaker3:
It's easier for me to just work with my horse through something. I think if I if I'm remembering that he has questions. And also if somebody else comes over to ride and. And they might think the horse is doing this or that. And if I can remind them, you know, of that, it just seems to go better.

Speaker2:
Before, it was easy to easily feel frustrated when you weren't accomplishing the goal. Whereas now the idea that she's asking questions and that I can have a communication with her in that manner, instead of me just being the leader in the director, I'm a cooperator. I'm a coach, I'm a oh, let me help you with that idea, or I don't know the answer. Let me figure out, you know, let me go ask Stacy what the answer is in this situation. And it's a lot more fun and much more, much more relaxed.

Speaker1:
Yeah, I love that. I think the, um, the curiosity piece instead of the oh, I need to be able to fix this kind of approaching it with more wonder really shifts the way that I feel in whatever moment that is. It's very different than the the pressure. The pressure gets released as I as I look at it from curiosity, I wonder what that question is. And I wonder, you know, what we can do with that? Um, instead of, oh, no, there's something wrong with me, I need to fix this or there's something wrong with her. I need to fix her. It's a very different approach. I think that Stacy also introduces humor, which is very unique. It's something that I don't know that I've seen in other places, really just being able to smile as your horse offers this question, I believe it's brought a little bit of the wonder and the joy back to experiencing my horse.

Speaker2:
I'm really glad you mentioned the curiosity. That's so large in this. Just coming with that curious attitude. Oh, what could this mean? Why is this happening? Instead of making an assumption?

Speaker5:
Did you have any doubts or hesitations about using an online program to train your horse?

Speaker3:
I did have some doubts about it. I wasn't sure that if I would be able to go watch and then, you know, later, go to the barn and apply the things I had learned. But just like the patterns, you know, that's something that I can practice. And it's not that hard to, uh, apply that.

Speaker1:
So for me, as someone who lives in Alaska, um, I don't know that I had really doubts about the online. I was just so grateful that it was there because it it wasn't something that I could just haul in for the weekend or anything. So, so the idea that there was this amazing course that was available online, so even I in Alaska could access it, that just felt like a huge blessing to me. I think where the doubt came in for me would have been training your own horse. It's like to me, training was the thing that was very mysterious and it felt like you either could or you couldn't. So, um, it's really been mind bending to learn that, no, we all can do it, and we might just need a little help along the way.

Speaker2:
I love the way you said that, Suki. I think if there was a question about the online, it's because I think after attending clinics, you're used to immediate feedback, right? In that place. You're just used to the person to person situation. But I think your ability to interpret rider behavior and horse thinking and horse behavior is so excellent, it bridges the gap. There's no gap. And so. The doubts are on my end more than the course itself. But I will admit that once I got into it and saw how much was available and how much is offered, it's just been beyond my expectations. The caliber of the coaching, your ability to communicate, your your example that you set for us, the access. Like I think, um, Sookie's used this word access a couple of times, and I'd say absolutely that the access to the resource, to your training, to your, your experience has all been invaluable.

Speaker5:
One of my goals when I was designing the program was to make sure that there were little chunks. I wanted to show the full arc of the training, but I wanted it to be in small chunks. And so the majority of the videos hover around 7 to 8 minutes. Maybe 15 is like on the higher side, but they're very small so that you can go back to them. You can keep track of where you are, and that you can start to see that inner woven web of information from elementary school at the beginning, all the way to that high school slash college, where the course leads to not because everybody has to go through all of it like a checklist, more so that you can see how all the pieces tie together.

Speaker2:
I completely appreciate that, that Suki was saying that some aspects were pivotal for her, and I think that was very helpful for me to be able to learn to see a piece at a time, to learn to see even maneuvers in segments as pieces of a sequence. And so, yes, I have loved that it has that improves its accessibility and improves my ability to focus and improves my awareness of how what I'm doing now is going to be helpful in the future. Or it was. That's an excellent aspect, I think, of the program.

Speaker1:
Yes, the the program offers just the most basic tools to the most finished course tools. So the fact that it's, it's really broken down into chunks that are doable. And you can start right now with one of the the lessons and you're automatically on the path, and you have stepping stones of how to get to the next level and then the next level. And so it becomes something that feels very doable.

Speaker5:
Is there anything else that you'd like to share about your experience in the Resourceful Rider program?

Speaker2:
I had a couple of anecdotes the other day on a call Lindsay rides, Leo, is talking about using her legs in a more nuanced way. And so as I were riding one day, I thought, well, I just want to think about what she means by a more nuanced way, because I, I didn't really have over confidence in leg aids, but I didn't think it wasn't on my radar that that was something I needed to fix. And. So I, just as I was riding through the field, started thinking about that. And I must have done something because all of a sudden my mare just relaxed and sighed. And then she did it again. And I thought, as I'm thinking of using my legs in a more nuanced way, I must be doing something with my legs in a more nuanced way, and it's good for her. So I'm going to focus in on this and try to improve it. And, um, watching another lady who was trying to develop bend in her horse. I felt like bend was a somewhat familiar concept, but as she was on the ground and working with him and you pointed out a forward step versus a bending step and a forward step for just that, incremental evaluation was very helpful to me.

Speaker2:
It put it in a new light. And then I loved that you used not only, um, explanation, but questions to ask us to look into our what we think we already know to draw on that knowledge. And, um, so we looked at a video of someone who's horses horse was stopping too much on the forehand and it wasn't neat. I do that too, but it wasn't me. And so your question to all of us was, what could she do to help her horse not stop on his forehand? And so just the fact that you're asking that question, you're putting it back to us. Draw on what you already know. What have we talked about? I liked that approach. I also like the idea that you illustrate a lot of times, that the horse is getting warmer or colder so that you're constantly guiding in a gentle way, one direction or the other.

Speaker1:
Those are really good. So when I was thinking about what I would add, um, just a couple of thoughts. Stacy has the ability to see potential where we might only see problems. Her confidence is contagious. I'm doing more than I ever imagined. Stacy invites us to dream. Working with Stacy has brought back the childlike wonder to owning and riding my horse.

Speaker3:
I love what Linda said. Yeah, I like listening to the calls and just knowing that I'm in a community with other women that are trying to get better with their horses, too, because I don't have a lot of other friends to ride with. So that's helpful for me. And just, um. Enjoy learning and growing with everyone.

Speaker5:
Thank you to all of you for coming on the call today, for sharing your experience, and I'll see you on the next zoom call.

Speaker6:
Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker5:
If you're interested in learning more about my Resourceful Rider program, be sure you go to my website and join the waitlist. Enrollment only opens a few times a year, and this way you'll be notified next time it does. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.

Speaker4:
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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