Episode 332: The Horse’s Mind – From Instinct to Intention (Part 2)

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Episode 332.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
This emotional regulation or elasticity is what helps the horse tell the difference. It teaches them to wait for context before just reacting. It teaches them to assess the situation instead of just guessing and going.

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.

Speaker1:
Hi, I’m Stacy Westfall and I’m here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. In this episode, part two of The Horse’s Mind, I am diving into how horses experience emotions and more importantly, how they can learn to control those emotions. I’m going to explain the horse’s natural default state and how that impacts what you see on the surface. Also, I want to explain the unique challenge that most riders face, how emotional regulation can be developed through training, and why recognizing this is key to building that relationship with your horse that you really want. When I talk about emotional control or emotional elasticity, I’m describing a horse’s ability to stay mentally regulated, especially under pressure. That means they can feel something and still stay present. They can go up and come back down. They can respond to what’s happening instead of just reacting to it. Let’s look at a few examples. The first thing I want you to imagine is a completely untrained horse that’s just been rounded up. Their instincts are typically in the driver’s seat. They’re typically in what you might say flight, fight or freeze. They’re doing what they were born to do. I’m going to explain in a minute why I don’t think this indicates a horse’s natural emotional state. Now let’s look at a couple other examples. Places where horses are often selected for their jobs and then trained to fully embrace their natural default state.

Speaker1:
So imagine a police horse, calm, grounded, powerful, trained to walk straight into chaos with confidence. As you might imagine, starting with a horse who’s naturally quiet would help. Or let’s look at a racehorse. Hot, fiery, so amped up that getting them from the paddock to the starting gate often requires another horse and rider just to manage all that energy. And again, you’d probably be better off starting with a horse who wanted to go versus one with a police horse force mindset. In both of these examples, it’s ideal if the horse’s temperament or natural default state matches the job they’re about to do. So then the training can help sharpen what’s already there. I know I’m swinging a broad stick with me, but I’m trying to lead you to my next point. Here’s where it gets really interesting. Most of us want something in the middle. We want a horse who can shift gears. We want a physical range, which requires the horse to be able to navigate an emotional range. We want a horse that can stand quietly, but will also go forward willingly. Who can walk, trot, canter and then stop and stand. And depending on what you want to do with your horse, that range can be surprisingly wide. Trail riding, for example. A lot of people want to walk and trot, occasionally lope, but you want the horse to easily go forward through things like mud or water, but also be responsive to your request to stop and stand.

Speaker1:
Oh yeah, and you’d like them to not spook and roll back and leave when a sudden, unexpected thing happens, like a branch falls or a deer busts through the underbrush, or another horse bolts. So see how there’s a range there that they’ve got to be able to handle. Or we can look at something sports specific, like reining, where a horse might be asked to walk to the center of the arena and then pick up the right lead without trotting. Now immediately run two large, fast circles and then a small, slow circle. Now halt and stand. And now go into four spins to the right, building speed to as fast as you can go while maintaining rhythm and cadence. Then stop and stand. Can you see the Contrasts. They’re not just physical challenges that I’m describing here. They’re mental, emotional challenges. Too many horses will be quiet on the trail in ideal situations. But what about when the less ideal situation happens? Many horses can learn to do individual reining maneuvers, but putting it all together, run after run without them anticipating the next fast thing and getting emotionally amped up that’s more challenging. The ability to stretch between the physical intensity while remaining mentally balanced. That’s what emotional elasticity looks like in motion. So here’s the challenge I see for most of our riding horses, it’s teaching the horse that they can do something physically fast, like running the large fast circles or spinning without emotionally escalating.

Speaker1:
Or it can also be teaching a horse that they can be around something high energy, like the deer, surprising them on the trail without emotionally escalating. Horses can learn to separate those things, especially if you teach it as a concept, because then the horse can transfer that concept to other areas. I saw this firsthand with Roxy, the mare that many of you recognize from the bareback Bridleless ride when she was just two years old. The young woman that worked for me at the time said, you’re crazy if you ever ride that horse outside. In that moment, I could see why the young lady thought that, because in the raw form, Roxy was insecure. She didn’t just immediately trust me. The reason that that young lady’s assessment was so far off from mine was that that first layer of training is getting past that natural flight, or fight or freeze. Then you start to see their natural default state. One way I can see it before training is by watching horses in a herd. I’ll give you a detailed example in just a minute, but here’s a quick way to remember what I’m saying. That early reaction wasn’t Roxie’s default temperament. That was her survival system. And that’s what’s first seen in a lot of untrained horses. Here’s a quick way to remember it. When mustangs are rounded up, they all look wild.

Speaker1:
Underneath that intensity of the moment that’s happening during the roundup, there are going to be differences. If you look at 20 different horses in that group, they would have varying temperament defaults. Let’s just use the terms hot and cold. But until you help them work through that first layer, that instinctual layer, you don’t really know what you’ve got. So when Roxy first arrived and she was shocked by the change in showing up at my barn, there were more of those early reactivity moments that were visible Underneath that, I started to uncover a horse that was insecure but actually had a quietness to her. Here’s a story to help you see how this plays out. Horse to horse. Many, many years ago we had two yearling stallions at our house. I decided one day to turn them both out in the round pen that I had set up in my indoor arena. They were turned out together outside in the pasture too, but outside was muddy and I thought they might like to play in the good footing while I went to lunch. One of the horses was a hotter horse and one was a colder horse. Short translation colder horses tend to be thinkers because they tend to be a little bit on the lazier side, and they will think their way through a problem rather than physically working through it. Hot horses. They can be thinkers too, but because they’re less likely to avoid work, it shows up differently.

Speaker1:
So had a hot horse and a cold horse in the round pinned together, and when I left they were rough housing. I went inside for lunch and when I came back out, what I found made me laugh and it made me very curious. I had been doing groundwork with horses in the round pen, so there was a tarp in the round pen, and when I reappeared after lunch, the colder horse was standing in the middle of the tarp when I walked from the barn aisle way where I could see them into the arena, where now they saw me. They both walked towards me so the colder, quieter one came off the tarp over towards the edge of the round pen. The hotter one came over towards me to say hello. They both walked towards me, but I wondered what in the world was happening out here that ended up with that. So instead of putting them away, I left them in the round pen and I watched them. And sure enough, once they figured out that I wasn’t coming to get them, they had both come to the round pen side thinking I was coming to get them. Once they figured out that wasn’t happening, the hotter one started annoying. The colder one and the colder one ran over and stood on the tarp. And the hotter one, who was still unsure of the tarp didn’t follow, which just cracked me up.

Speaker1:
This colder horse had thought his way through. I repeated the same setup for the next few days, but this time, instead of going to lunch, I stuck around and watched and sure enough, they would both play for a while. And then when the colder one was done, he’d just put himself on the tarp. I have a lot more stories like this of watching one horse, interacting with another horse, and seeing how they’re both thinking in the situation. The colder horse wasn’t just standing on the tarp by accident. He had observed the other horse while they were playing. He must have noticed that pattern that when he got closer to the tarp. The other one left him alone, and he recognized that the tarp changed the dynamics, and then he used it to his advantage. That’s not just instinct. That’s awareness. That’s a choice. That’s a horse demonstrating this ability to regulate their emotion under pressure. The horse wasn’t lacking intelligence. His default state was more movement. The colder horse noticed the tarp and considered what it meant. And the hotter horse just reacted to it. So even after watching the colder horse standing on top of the tarp, the hotter horse stayed locked into his own strategy. Movement. Pressure. Intensity. That doesn’t make him wrong, but he wasn’t slowing down enough to notice the options. He could have just noticed. It’s no big deal. I can just go over it just like he does.

Speaker1:
But that’s the difference between a more reactive thinking and a more regulated thinking. Later, when I worked with him, I saw the same pattern. His first reaction to something new, like the tarp was yikes! And then through systematic training, he learned how to pause. He learned how to slow down. He learned how to assess and how to make different choices. So the Tarp that once felt threatening enough to act as a barrier now became a training tool and then became nothing, which effectively ruined the whole game, because later on, when I would turn them out together, they would both go over the tarp, and then the colder horse had to come up with a different strategy. Okay, so far we’ve looked at how we can see the horses using this emotional regulation or not using it. So now let’s look at how it’s built through training. I use many tools and techniques to train this. Remember though, as I give you this example, the tool is not the key. You could go on to YouTube and find the same tool being used for many different results. You’ve got to keep going back to the lesson. The horse is learning not just what they’re doing, but how they’re thinking, how they’re processing. One of my favorite tools for teaching emotional regulation emotional control is the stick and string. Not because of what it does, but because of what it can represent to the horse.

Speaker1:
So I can use this tool to mean go, but I can also use it to mean stay stand. That’s confusing at first because the horses want to pick one meaning and stick with it, but the beauty of the stick and string is teaching the horse how to look at it in context. So the naturally hotter horse, or the really raw, untrained horse tends to react and go. They miss the context of reading my body. So when I want them to go, I’m going to raise my arm that’s holding the rope. I’m going to hold the stick and string out. I’m going to begin a tapping motion or a rapping motion. That means go. But the overreactive or hot horse is already gone. So that’s the horse that needs to be shown that my body, my stick and string can also mean stop. I can do this in many ways. I can do it in the way that I move my body. I can do it through rubbing them with a stick and string as they stand still through, tossing the stick and string over their back, standing still and in motion as they begin to see the context. Oh, wait a minute, this is something she’s just rubbing me with. Or okay, she’s been rubbing me with this for a little bit, but now it seems like she’s asking me to do something different.

Speaker1:
She’s using this tapping rhythm as they begin to see more context. This is where horses often begin to reveal their default state. So a lot of the quiet ones, when they see the option of standing still and you rub them and then you ask them to move, they’re a little sticky about moving. It’s almost like they’re saying, hey, I see that standing here is an option. So look, look at me. I’m standing, standing, standing really well. And this is great, except if you’re asking them to move, this is when it reveals that they want to stand, but they also need to learn to interpret when this is being used to ask them to go. But even when this isn’t working perfectly, what I really want you to hear is that moment when the horse stops assuming just run or just stand when they start checking in with you. That’s the beginning of this emotional control, emotional regulation. That’s when they stop reacting and they start thinking through the moment. And this is what most riders are really looking for in a riding partner, whether they recognize it or not. They want a horse that’s responsive to them, responsive to their cues, their intent, their timing, but not reactive to every shift in the environment. This emotional regulation or elasticity is what helps the horse tell the difference. It teaches them to wait for context before just reacting. It teaches them to assess the situation instead of just guessing and going.

Speaker1:
So whether you want a trail partner who can be quiet and responsive, or whether you want to have a horse that you can show who can switch from high speed to standing quietly, that ability to read the context and not get swept away in emotions is what allows the horse to be both responsive and grounded. And now, because I brought up the stick and string and a bunch of you are either seen it or you’re going to run out there and search YouTube for it. Here’s what often happens. A lot of writers get nervous. They start worrying and wondering, when I use this tool, am I just forcing my horse to comply? That’s a valid fear, but the answer lies in what the horse does next. So if you’ve ever worried that teaching a horse to control their emotions, asking the horse to stand still or pause or think, if you’ve ever worried that that will somehow shut them down, there’s a big difference between a horse who’s thinking and a horse who’s suppressed. A horse who’s emotionally shut down doesn’t feel safe enough to express wobbles or questions. Or if they do, they tend to blow up because they’re afraid of the consequences. A horse who’s developing emotional elasticity might feel something. Curiosity, hesitation. They’ve got a question, but they’re also learning how to stay present and process it. That’s why in last week’s episode, I used the example of embers stopping while I was leading her into the stall.

Speaker1:
That’s what I’m looking for. Present not 100% compliance. That’s going to come as I answer the questions. I don’t want a blankness when I’m using something like the stick and string. I’m not trying to erase the horse’s feelings. I’m helping them learn to sort through those feelings and respond with intention. That’s not robotic. That’s a horse who’s learning how to think. And I believe horses have the ability to learn how to learn. And I don’t just mean learning a cue or learning to perform a task. I mean, they’re learning how to think through situations. So when I teach something like the concept of the stick and string and read my body language, and you now need to be able to discern between when I’m whipping the ground around you, which is high energy, but you stand still. Or when I’m subtly asking you to move and I’m not actually using that much pressure, but you’re moving. That’s a big concept. And when I teach that and they really understand the concept, I will see them apply that thinking pattern in other contexts. So the way they interact with a tarp, the way they interact with a scary situation, I’ll know that when I start seeing them stop, assess, look to me for direction. Even in a situation that’s new, those aren’t signs of shut down. That’s a strategy.

Speaker1:
That’s a horse who’s saying, wait a minute, I see this pattern, I know how to figure this out. And once you see that happening, once you see a horse applying what they’ve learned in theory to a totally different moment, you know, they’re not just reacting anymore. They’re reasoning. Just like the horse in the round pen horses use these dynamics with each other in the pasture. Watch them. So now that we’ve looked at how the horses can develop emotional elasticity, let’s talk about the final wild card. You you are part of the environment in this quadrant. The horse’s mind. You are more like another object that the horse is assessing in this quadrant. The question isn’t, does my horse like me? Just like it isn’t. Does my horse like the tarp? The actual question would the tarp would be does my horse understand the tarp? When a horse understands a tarp, they’re no longer afraid of it. It’s not a like or dislike. In this quadrant, the two questions for you to ask are. Is my horse reacting from an emotion? Does my horse understand the cue or request or not? When you answer these. The one thing you’ve got to be careful of is you’re the one telling your horse’s viewpoint. You need to go with the interpretation that best helps both of you move forward. I consider myself good at this because I consistently predict horse’s behavior and I can consistently influence their behavior.

Speaker1:
That’s how I know my approach is helping us both move forward. It’s not just my opinion. The results that I consistently produce show that I am accurately reading the horse. So let’s go back to the example with Roxy. Another person might have seen her insecurity, which was truly there, and decided that she could never handle the pressure of being a reining horse. That would have been their interpretation of the insecurity. If someone else had seen that insecurity and chosen to believe that she was blatantly resisting, instead of being scared and having trouble processing, they may have forced her through reactions instead of teaching her how to think her way through. In last week’s episode, when I talked about Ember stopping while leading into the stall, I said I used a combination of empathy and accountability. Empathy, overdone would not have strengthened Roxy’s outcome because empathy overdone usually keeps backing off, backing off, backing off. It’s actually not believing the horse is capable of more. It was through accountability and strategically stretching Roxy’s comfort zone that her trust in me was built, and her confidence in herself was built. Accountability. Overdone tends to forget that the horse is on an emotional growth journey also. That’s where some empathy can help. So when I look at Ember stopping and I say, I get it. You’re smart and you don’t want to go into the stall and get tied up. But I promise in the long run this is something you are capable of doing and learning.

Speaker1:
This will open you to new ways of thinking. I believe you’re smart and you’re capable, and you can do this with empathy. I show up without confrontation. With accountability, I stay consistent. I allow her to ask all the questions that she wants and I consistently answer them. Emotional elasticity isn’t about eliminating reactions. It’s about helping your horse think through them. When you show up with empathy and accountability, you teach your horse that discomfort doesn’t mean danger and questions are allowed. And over time, that’s what creates the kind of partnership where pressure doesn’t fracture the connection, it deepens it. Okay, we’ve covered a bunch. If you want to learn more about this, I’ve been on a bit of a writing binge. I love podcasting, but I also really crave reading. So if you also like to read, head over to my website and take the quiz that I created about the four quadrants. At the end of the quiz, you’ll have the option to get two PDFs emailed to you, plus follow up emails that explain how all four quadrants work together and how one week area impacts the others. Next week, I’ll be talking about the Writer’s Mind quadrant. Your mind can be one of your greatest tools as a writer, or it can be your greatest obstacle. Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you again in the next episode.

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.

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