Episode 339.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Especially if we don't label it as a good or a bad. We just say there are external energies that are happening. There are internal energies that are happening. The question I want to ask you, whether you're showing or whether you're trail riding is, have you been training with energy?
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. I'm actually sitting in my pickup truck right now outside of a horse show, and I've been here for several hours watching different writers, and I've had a few thoughts that I thought I would share with you. The first one is the idea that when you are with your horse, there are a couple types of energy that I want you to consider. There's the external energy that comes from the environment, which as I sit here looking around, can include other horses or the tents that are set up around this particular showgrounds, or the tractor in an upper arena that's dragging a one of the arenas while the horses are showing in a lower arena, or the little corral type area that's set up that it's actually for spectators to sit and watch has actually been catching the attention of many horses, not to mention the nearby parking lot that I'm sitting in. So for the horses, there's a lot of external energy. When you're in an environment like this. The same thing happens when you go out on a trail ride, when you leave your property, when you're on your property, you have known external energy sources, but especially when you leave your property, you go out onto a trail and there are external unknowns. When I go trail riding, things that pop up are, well, the wildlife, like the deer and things like that.
Speaker1:
But there's also maybe somebody camping at one of the campsites. And so that can mean any different type of thing. It could be multiple tents, it could be hammocks, it could be fires, it could be dogs. So there are lots of external sources of energy that happen in different situations with horses. And then as I was sitting here watching riders in the warm up arena, and then when they actually went into show, I was thinking about the internal energy. And I'm going to say that the internal energy happens inside the rider and inside the horse. And I put those in different categories, because if you've ever been in a situation where you felt either nervous energy, the butterflies in your stomach or excited energy, which is very similar to butterflies in your stomach, but slightly more organized, you have felt an internal energy. And then the horses have an internal energy of their own. Oftentimes, I think when horses change their energy level, whether it is appearing to be due to external circumstances or whether it appears to be for internal circumstances, I think it's interesting that sometimes it gets labeled a problem when horses do that, where it's totally natural for us to come into an environment like this and expect to feel something slightly different. So what if we give the horses the same benefit of saying that they could have the nervous butterfly energy, or they could have the more organized. I'm ready to go. Excited type of an energy.
Speaker1:
Sometimes I'll also call it game on. I'm ready. Kind of an energy. And that to me is a higher energy. But it's a very organized feeling energy as opposed to a nervous energy that feels very scattered. So as I sit here in the truck at this early spring show, a few other factors that I see would be something like the cool weather and the new environment. I know that particularly for the horse and rider that I came to watch, it's the first time they've ever been here. And for me, it's the first time I've ever been here. So there's a newness to the environment that brings its own energy. And the reason I wanted to start talking about energy at the beginning of this is because when we look at it like energy, especially if we don't label it as a good or a bad, we just say there are external energies that are happening. There are internal energies that are happening. The question I want to ask you, whether you're showing or whether you're trail riding is, have you been training with energy? When I look around this facility, there are one, two, three, four, five, six tent type situations going on where they have these tent roofs set up to shield from rain or sun. What energy level is it when the tent flaps start blowing in the wind? I'm going to make up a number for me. I'm going to say it's maybe a four.
Speaker1:
It kind of depends on the size of the wind and how bad the tarp thing gets flapping on the tent, but it's something. It's not nothing. So what energy level is the tent blowing? What energy level is it when you have to ride in a warm up arena with. Let me glance over there. Looks like there's about 8 to 10 horses in the warm up arena, mostly at a trot, but at varying levels of transitions. What energy level is that? And for me, I have a certain way that I categorize that. But if I take a new horse to a facility and they've never been in that situation, that horse's opinion of what it's like to be in the arena with 8 to 10 strange horses they've never seen that are all individually working at a somewhat high level of energy. Because remember, these other riders are prepping to go in and ride tests. Each one of those horses is bringing energy there. And if my horse, my pretend young horse I bring doesn't know what to do with that energy, then although I might perceive a warm up arena full of, you know, 8 to 10 horses as a certain energy level, that horse is opinion of it. That might be an eight for that horse. That's just something interesting to observe. But at the end of the day, here's the question what energy level have you been training at? Because in my opinion, you're going to be most successful when you can handle the horse at an energy level that is at least the same as, if not more than what's going to come at them externally.
Speaker1:
So what this means to me is, can I extend my energy bubble enough to encompass my entire horse? So let's go back to this imaginary world where I bring a young horse to the show that I'm sitting here looking at. If I bring a young horse to a show like this, or let's just say an inexperienced horse, I want to know because I've been to a show before, that there is likely to be a certain energy level that happens in the warm up arena. And let me give that a number. Let's say that's going to be six. Now the warm up arena energy level by the way can go all the way to a ten. But on my scale of ten, that happens when somebody else's horse loses control. And I have seen horses pull away from handlers and be running free. If you are in warm up arena with a giant horse that is running, dragging a lunge line and it is ping ponging off from all the other horses in the arena, that's a ten. I'm hoping that doesn't happen, but if it does, I still want to know this answer. Have I been training at an energy level that's high enough that I can drive that horse away from my horse, that I can protect my energy bubble and my horse's energy bubble, and literally keep that horse out of my bubble.
Speaker1:
And when I put it in such an extreme example, I think the visual is useful for what you would have to do to potentially drive that horse out of your space, because nothing good happens if that horse comes and runs you over or runs into your horse, which horses that are very scared will often do. So if you think about what it would take to drive that other horse out of your bubble and your horse's bubble, when I'm riding, it's a very similar feeling. My horses feel very confident when they are mixed in with other horses, not because they're confident about the other horses, but because they're confident about me and they're confident about me because they know me in a high energy kind of a way, they don't associate my energy going to a six, seven, eight, nine, or ten as a negative. They associate my energy going high as focus. They associate my energy going high as. Powerful but powerful doesn't have to be scary to the horse that understands me, my energy and what I'm asking or not asking with that energy. Let me give you an example. Many of you have probably seen groundwork where the handler is standing in front of the horse with a stick and string whipping the ground on the left and right. I do that as a training exercise very frequently when I'm doing groundwork, and in that example I want to know that the horse can stand there looking at me, and I can whip the ground around them, swing the stick and string above their head, never touch them, and I can go to a ten as hard as I can hit the ground, and the horse knows that.
Speaker1:
I'm not asking them to do anything. That would be a great visual of how to extend your energy bubble to encompass your horse. This is the same thing I'm doing when I'm riding, and this does a couple things for the horse. It gives them the feeling that I can control my energy and dial it up and down without being threatening or angry. It gives them the feeling of protection because they know they're inside my bubble, and they know me, and they know that I'm not talking to them. So I could drive that loose horse away and my horse wouldn't be driven away from me because my horse would understand they're driving that horse. Not me. So, do you see how all this energy starts to make a lot more sense when you start not just thinking of energy itself as a problem, but you start looking at the different ways you can view it. So I view being able to work at a higher energy as a benefit at home, and even a necessity if I'm going to take my horse into situations, whether that's a trail or whether that's a show where external high energy might happen and I need to be able to match it, to be able to bring my horse, that steadiness and that confidence of I've got this.
Speaker1:
Then switching gears, the other thing that really struck me here at the show was the benefit of having constraints. I'm sitting here at a show where the riders have a set challenge. The challenge they have signed up for is to ride a test. And in this signing up or acceptance of the challenge, they have a set time and a set pattern. They know exactly what they're going to be expected to do. And I'm going to label these constraints. And I think on the surface, sometimes when riders again think about doing something and I purposely am using the word constraint and it feels constraining, it feels restricting. What if looking at these constraints as far as you need to go into this arena at 10:07 a.m. and ride this exact pattern that can be viewed as constraining or restricting. It can also be viewed as precise and accurate. And what I find fascinating is that the rider who accepts these constraints as not a problem, but as a challenge, as something that they can set out to achieve, will approach with a completely different energy than a rider who accidentally ends up in a situation where they face a challenge. How does that happen? It happens all the time. In general, riding that means on the trail or just while you're cruising around at home.
Speaker1:
What it means to me is you will often encounter unknown challenges at an unknown time, and what comes out when you face an unknown challenge at an unknown time is whatever the foundation is that you have. So for these riders, they instead are choosing a set challenge and a set time. And I believe that in doing so, the work they have to do to be able to accept that challenge and be able to be successful at the show is the same exact skill set that would prepare them better for the unknown challenge at the unknown time. And one last thing before I go. When I came here today, I did not expect to record a podcast. But I was sitting there watching and I thought, I'm looking at riders who are approaching this from two different thoughts. Some riders are riding the tests and they're riding in the warm up arena. And I can see the thought that they're riding with is I need to be careful. I might be causing this problem. And then I see other riders who are riding with a completely different thought. They're riding with the idea of my horse needs support. Now, is that literally what they're thinking? I don't know what they're literally thinking. But what I see is the rider who's being cautious because they're afraid they could be causing. And I can also see riders who are clearly taking what's happening and saying, I can support this horse.
Speaker1:
Now, I actually am not claiming that I know exactly what they're thinking, but what I can see is I can see when a rider is riding in the energy of oh no, I could be causing this or making this worse. Versus a rider who is riding with this means my horse needs support. I'm stepping in to help support. And it's fascinating to me that that very first division, just in the way that riders are approaching it, just in the thoughts that they're having about what needs to happen in the situation. I could be causing this problem or making it worse versus my horse needs support. Just the Thus, the difference in those two energies makes a huge difference in what's going on right here in front of my eyes as I'm watching this show. I've worked with enough writers at this point to know that, as I explain it as a thought, some writers are going to really resonate with that, and they're going to immediately know that they fall into one of those two categories. But I also know that there's another group of writers that aren't going to immediately identify. I'm definitely thinking I could be causing that, or I'm definitely thinking my horse needs more support and I know how to support my horse. If you're not sure, the next time you face a challenge, the next time you're riding your horse and something starts happening, watch what you do with your body. If you start shrinking, if you start doing less, if you start feeling like you need to remove your legs.
Speaker1:
Remove your hands. Remove. Remove. Do less, do less. And your horse is escalating. Check with your body because you might not identify with the thought of causing it, or the thought of needing to support your horse. You will, however, find the answer in your body when a challenge arises. Feel how you physically respond. Let's say as I'm watching this rider ride around and the horse is escalating just a little bit as it gets to the far end, because it's clearly hesitant about getting down near the judges end of the arena. How the rider rides. That is what tells me which way they're approaching it. When the horse has the question, does the rider support the horse with the aids and guide them through it? Because if they do, that means the horse is being supported in that moment? Or is the rider releasing and shrinking, doing less and letting the horse go because they're afraid they're participating in causing the very problem that they're afraid of? These subtle things happen every day when you're riding your horse. Depending on which one you practice will depend on how you will respond in sticky situations or challenges. But the very first step is simply becoming aware of which one you tend to default to right now. That's what I have for you this week. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.
Speaker2:
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