Episode 345: 4 Reasons Riders Don’t Teach Focus

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Episode 345.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
The next reason someone might not teach a horse to focus is they assume focus comes along with the training of the body.

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, I want to discuss the topic of focus and at the end of the podcast, I’m going to contrast the idea of focus with distraction. This is on my mind because I just had a live event here at my house last weekend, and during it I taught quite a bit on the importance of focus. It came up in groundwork and under saddle. It also could be seen originating from the horse having a lack of focus, or the rider or handler having a lack of focus. There are so many angles that I could teach this from that. Ironically, I was actually having trouble picking an area of focus for this podcast. Now, I’m guessing you’ve probably had a similar experience before where you have a lot of ideas. Maybe you read three articles on the internet and then watched five YouTube videos, and now you have so many ideas that you have no idea where to begin. In that moment, how do you decide what is your process? For me, the first step is realizing that I have a lot of ideas but no clarity. So as soon as I realized that was happening for this podcast, I asked myself these questions. Do I want to get more ideas or do I have enough ideas to choose from? Notice I gave myself two options and they’re both equally valid.

Speaker1:
Also notice I asked myself questions and I expected myself to answer. In this particular case with the podcast, I decided I have plenty of ideas more than will fit into one episode. So in order to move from ideas into executing and actually record the podcast, I knew I needed to narrow down what I was going to talk about. So I asked myself another question. If it is possible to teach a horse to focus, why might a rider or handler not do this again? Pause for just a moment. I’ll repeat that question again before I give you the answers, but I want to point out the process that I just used to focus myself. I asked myself questions. Questions are a great way to bring things into focus. So let’s go back to the question that I asked myself, because after I asked it, I came up with four answers. As I share the answers with you, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to ask yourself if there’s an area that feels really true for you. The answer might be, yep, that sounds exactly like me. Or nope, that’s not me. Or maybe I’m not sure I’m going to have to wait and see next time I’m with my horse. Ready? Let’s go back to the question I asked myself and the four answers I came up with. The question again was if it is possible to teach a horse to focus, why might a rider or handler not do this? The first reason someone might not teach a horse to focus is they don’t know what’s possible, or they don’t believe it’s possible.

Speaker1:
The question I actually asked assumes that it is possible because that’s my way of thinking. But the most basic reason why someone might not teach a horse to focus mentally focus is because they don’t even consider it possible. It’s a simple lack of awareness. A person might just assume that horses are taught to behave or follow instructions, and it’s also very possible that somebody just focuses on the horse’s body. Not really considering the mind as something that can be trained along with the body. Don’t worry, we’re going to talk about that more in another one. Another example of a reason why someone might not even think it’s possible is they might think something like a horse is either born with the ability to focus or not. It’s not really trainable. They’ve either got it or they don’t. So what do you think? Do you think a horse can learn to be mentally focused? Do you think it’s a trainable trait, or do you think it’s something that they have to be born with? Or do you think it’s a mix? Or is this the first time that you’re really considering it? You’ve probably considered it if you’ve been a long time listener, but it’s still worth asking the question and listening to yourself for the answer.

Speaker1:
The next reason someone might not teach a horse to focus is they assume focus comes along with the training of the body. As in, if the horse’s body does a thing, then the horse must be focused while they’re doing that thing. You can kind of see where that one could come up, but here’s what I want you to picture in your mind. I want you to imagine a teenager walking and texting because they’re really good at it. Imagine the teenager is typing a mile a minute. It’s amazing how fast they can type. And while they’re walking and typing, they walk over a tarp. Somebody’s laid out a tarp and this teenager walks straight across it. They were not focused on it. They did the bare minimum needed not to trip on it because technically their focus was elsewhere. In this example, they were texting. They might not even know the color of the tarp later if questioned about it. So in this example, was the teenager focused on the tarp that their body walked across? I would say no. Now it’s not only teenagers. You’ve likely done the same thing when you were driving. Somehow ended up at the grocery store or a friend’s house without a lot of awareness of the trip. That’s another example of your body kind of going into autopilot and going along, but you don’t have a lot of focus, and horses can do the same thing.

Speaker1:
They can perform to a certain level while their mind is elsewhere. So I can make a strong argument that there are lots of times where the horse’s body might be doing something, but they’re not really focused. So this actually leads me to the next reason. The next reason someone might not teach a horse to focus is. They think the body is mostly there, and that’s good enough. Again, here’s the sneaky part. It’s nice that the horse’s body is mostly there, meaning you go out there and you lunge them, and even though they’re distracted and looking around and they pull on you, sometimes they don’t really pull away. So you just kind of live with it. Or you can ride them and they steer mostly okay, and they stop reasonably well. And even though they don’t stand still great, they’re pretty much okay. So they’re mostly there. See where I’m going with this and the fact that the body is mostly there? Again, it’s good, but I would encourage you to start thinking about the level of mental engagement that is happening there, because that’s what actually creates that true connection or relationship that so many riders are after. And the other side of this problem, where there’s a lack of focus, but there’s just enough working that it’s easy to ignore. In this situation, the chances of this horse responding. Undesirable under pressure is a lot stronger. So that mostly okay, steering or stopping might unravel under pressure.

Speaker1:
Like if a deer startles them or something surprises them. So that’s the challenge of accepting that. Are the bodies mostly there? Do we really have to pay attention to the mind? The next reason someone might not teach a horse to focus is the person waits until they, quote unquote, need it. A great example of this would be, well, the deer in the last example, but also hauling to a new environment that’s a very common one. So the horse is okay at home, and then the person loads them up, hauls them to a new environment. Maybe it’s a friend’s house, maybe it’s a trail ride, maybe it’s a horse show. And when they get there, they realize how distracted the horse is. But because they haven’t prepared the horse at home. They start trying to get the horse to focus on them while they’re in this new environment. But the horse is surrounded by distractions, so the training doesn’t work, which gives the human the impression that this type of training doesn’t work, when in reality the horse at home is probably a little bit distracted, but it only shows up as 10%, 20%, 30% distracted at home, and it shows up in the category of it’s mostly okay, it’s working. But then when you haul the horse to the new environment, the place where you now, quote unquote need it, instead of it being at the ten, 20, 30% with all of the distractions, that steering probably drops down because the horse is more distracted.

Speaker1:
They’re distracted 30, 40, 50%. And now you’re feeling the problem of a lack of safety. This is not the best time to start teaching a horse to focus. So now that you’ve heard the four reasons why I believe riders often don’t teach focus. I actually want to replay an older podcast episode that looks at the other side of the coin, which is distraction. In this past episode, I used the analogy of guiding a child through a candy store to show you how you can be proactive as a rider. A proactive rider has a clear vision of what the goal is, and then is able to guide the horse’s attention to focus on not just the body, but the mind, what the horse is looking at and focusing on. Also, again, this is big for so many listeners. Pay attention to how a proactive version of the person in the candy store game is much more fun for the child. In this example, it translates to your horse to the adult in the candy store. Who wins? This $100,000 would need to be playful, interesting, and highly engaging, not punishing and restrictive. Listen to the rules I give. The focus I’m describing here is about connection. It’s about creating a conversation that’s engaging for both you and the horse, one where your horse wants to stay mentally present because you are more interesting than the potential distractions.

Speaker1:
And that all starts with your focus. Now let’s listen to the replay of episode 287 distracted. In today’s podcast, I want to return to the subject of distracted horses. I recorded a podcast a couple of weeks ago talking about five levels of distraction that I see in horses. Today I want to talk more about what to do with the distracted horse, or rather, the options. I see that people have to choose from when the horse becomes distracted. But before we jump to the horse example, I actually want you to imagine a situation. I want you to imagine that you and I are standing in a parking lot, and I have a toddler with me, and this toddler is able to walk and talk and really needs to use the bathroom and loves candy. And I want you to imagine that there’s a candy store. And I say to you, for $10,000, I want you to take this toddler in through the candy store. Get all the way back to the bathroom. And back without the child. Touching any candy without the child. Crying and without saying the word. No. Or any version of no. Could you do it? Take a moment. How could you get this toddler who, upon entering the store is going to start reaching for the candy bars, is going to start pointing, is going to start asking how are you going to get them back to the bathroom, do what needs to be done back there and back out of the store.

Speaker1:
And no, you cannot blindfold them. The answer to how I want you approaching your horses Forces when they’re distracted is contained in this challenge. So when I see horses that are distracted. First of all, if you haven’t listened to the episode, go back and listen to episode 285 and The five Levels of Distraction. Because typically what most people want is they want the rooftop experience. They want the experience I’m having right now where I’m riding down the trail on Willow. Slightly distracted myself while I hold my iPhone and record this podcast. And she is highly responsible. And even when she becomes momentarily distracted by a squirrel, a chipmunk, or a falling branch, she’s quickly able to recover pretty much on her own. Before I even get a chance to step in and help her. But the question is, how do we get to this rooftop ideal? And you’ve probably heard me talk in the past about how jumpy Willow was on the trail. On an average trail, I will see hundreds of chipmunks out here. No exaggeration. It’s amazing how many chipmunks and squirrels are in the woods out here. And she used to jump at every single one, and she used to alter her gait and break her rhythm every single time. And now she might flick an ear every once in a while. She might lose the rhythm.

Speaker1:
If something’s really close to us. Just the other day we came up over a hill and there was a deer standing stalk still, and it didn’t move until we were within about 25ft of it, which jumped both Willow and I because neither one of us saw the deer and it was so close to us when it did move. So it’s not that she never has moments like that. It’s that in that moment it’s a shudder in her body. It’s not a checking out. Rolling back and leaving town moment. And if you go back and listen to that episode. The other thing that’s really characteristic of it that puts her into such a high category, is that she’s actually recovering before I even have time to step in. My muscle memory is there. I’m beginning to step in, but her recovery is faster than I can step in. But it wasn’t always like that, so there had to be a plan to get here. So have you come up with your plan to get the toddler through the candy store yet? The number one tool that I would recommend in that instance would be to become very interesting. Imagine if you entered the candy store and maybe I’ll bump it up even more. Maybe it’s $100,000. How do you get in and out of the candy store? And you will get $100,000 if the child is laughing at the end of it. If the child does not have the candy bar, was not blindfolded, and is actually enjoying the experience of going through the candy store and not getting the candy they very much desire.

Speaker1:
How is that possible? It is possible if you become more entertaining and engaging than the candy. So imagine entering the store and you’re probably moving somewhat quickly, not running and dragging them, but you’re moving somewhat quickly and you’re directing their attention. Where are you directing their attention to? Maybe you’re directing their attention to the floor tiles. Maybe you quickly make up a game of hopscotch. Maybe you start telling a story about the cracks in the floor between the tiles and what they mean. Maybe you engage the child with a story about the ceiling tiles and the floor tiles, because to win the game of getting the child back to the bathroom and back out of the store to get a pile of cash, it’s going to take you being very engaging, very creative and keeping them busy enough that they don’t notice the candy bar, which is the most fascinating thing about the whole story, is that you don’t even have to use the word know if you’re actually pointing them in a direction of what you want them to look at. So can you imagine it a little bit more clearly now? In the very last episode I recorded, I talked about the value of having someone see a video of your ride, and what I have the privilege of doing now is watching a lot of video, of a lot of riders.

Speaker1:
And when I see riders with distracted horses, I often see riders who are waiting to see what happens. They are behind the game. The child is already reaching for the candy bar. Maybe the child already has the candy bar in their hand, and now you’re trying to pry the candy bar out of the child’s hand. And if you’re still trying to win the 10,000 or $100,000 prize, you might be trying not to make them cry. But once they have their hand on the candy bar, your odds of winning are going to go down very quickly. So how does that equate to a horse? Well, it does matter whether we’re talking about riding or groundwork a little, but the concept is the same. The concept becomes, in the very beginning, the horse may not have enough layers of training for you to be able to quickly switch gears like that. Now imagine this example that I’ve used in previous podcasts of getting your horse to focus. Imagine that when you’re coming in from the pasture, you begin asking the horse to stop asking the horse to back up three steps, asking the horses to trot forward 12 steps. Asking the horse to stop. Asking the horse to pivot. Can you see where that is? A version of the candy bar store. Now it is a version of the candy bar store, but it’s not a version that I can use right now with Lefty and Stormy.

Speaker1:
So for a reminder, I currently have two orphaned foals at my house that are about two months old right now. So they’re very young. I also have a two year old or almost two year old. She’ll be two next month. So a two year old horse. And then I have some older horses here. So I have a really great mix of ages that I can talk about. So the two orphans, Stormy and Lefty, they can’t play the level of the candy bar game that I was just describing. When you’re leading your horse from the pasture to the barn or the barn to the pasture. They don’t have enough training to be able to use that as a tool. So we start to see the overlap between the concept of keeping the horse busy and the skill set of what you and the horse both currently have the ability to do. Because there could be some of you who are listening to the podcast who, if I give you that assignment and I hand you one of my horses, maybe your skill of being able to execute, counting the steps, being able to execute the halt to the trot, maybe you’re a little bit rusty in doing some of those different things. So we start to see that there’s your skill set, the horse’s skill set.

Speaker1:
And then we have the situation. So very often when people are talking about their horse being distracted, it could be something as simple as you need to build the skill set in an area that’s not heavily distracting. Maybe you begin to build the skill set without going down the candy bar aisle. Right now, when you are riding the horse, it is the same concept, except again, I have to think to the horses that I have in my barn. And so I think about Ember, who I haven’t started riding yet. When I first start riding her, I’m going to stay in a relatively distraction free area, so I will start riding her in my indoor arena. And because I’ve owned her for several months and she will have been in there a fair amount, that will be a relatively neutral place to begin. And that’s where I’ll begin teaching her the cue system, or the language that we can use to communicate. So she’ll learn to turn left. She’ll learn to turn right, she’ll learn to go. She’ll learn to stop. But just like Stormy and Lefty, they can be led from the barn to the pasture. But they would not be able to go from a walk to a trot, to a halt, to a pivot. They don’t contain that level of training yet, just like they don’t contain that level of training. Ember won’t contain that level of training initially during the beginning rides.

Speaker1:
I will not feel comfortable trail riding Ember until I can do a version of that leading example that I just gave you from the barn to the pasture. So she’s going to need to be able to not just kind of follow the directions, but she’s going to need to be able to follow them in a relatively quick, not crazy fast, quick, but it can’t be super slow. It’s got to be in a relatively snappy fashion because in my opinion, trail riding is relatively challenging because when you’re out trail riding, there are a lot of variables. And for me to be able to keep her attention, she’s going to have to have enough skills that me asking for transitions of gait move up to the trot, move down to the walk, move over here. Move over there. In order for this game to be fair for Amber, she’s going to need to be able to understand those cues relatively well. I need her to understand those bass cues well enough that the cues themselves are not confusing to her. That’s when I’m going to have enough language built that I can go out to somewhere, like a trail ride, and she will be set up for success. One spot that’s often confusing for riders is the question of should I let my horse stop and look at this? Or should I keep my horse moving and keep my horse busy? And one of the reasons that this seems like maybe a little bit of a confusing area is because there’s not a 100% right or wrong way to do it, and that’s why I think it gets confusing to people.

Speaker1:
But just for fun, let’s pretend that we can make up some numbers around this. Let’s just, for the ease of math, pretend that in the horse world, half of them are hot and half of them are cold. So that means the hot ones are more reactive and they think quicker, and the slow ones are a little more lazy, and they don’t think quite as quick. This is just broad categories just so we can have the conversation. So we’re just going with a 5050 divide there. And then inside of that 5050 divide we also have the level of distraction that we’re talking about. That’s why I recorded the five levels of distraction. So then we have a horse that has given us an idea of what level of distraction they tend to go to, which is very often going to align with that hot and cold, but not completely, because colder horses can become spooked and big things can happen. So now we have the idea that half or hot half are cold, and then you start gathering information about how they tend to react. And then we’re going to add in another layer of thinking. And that is their responsiveness to your cues. And let’s pretend this is not the first day you’ve met the horse.

Speaker1:
Let’s say you’ve owned the horse for a year or two. It could really be a month or two. It really needs to be a number of rides or interactions with the horse. But just for fun, let’s settle on a year. So over the last year, as you’ve been working with this horse, what have you noticed about the horse? What’s interesting about this whole conversation for me is that I don’t see any negative to keeping all of these horses busy. If I keep them a little bit busy, like I’m playing the candy bar game, this works across the board for horses. If you happen to have a horse that tends to think slower, tends to not overreact, and you let the horse stop and ponder it. You can win. You can be successful in some of those situations. One thing to keep in mind when you’re making these decisions is when you stop and you allow the horse to ponder the thing that they’re concerned about, saying to the horse, hey, horse, what do you think? What’s your opinion? If you know the horse well, you can roll the dice and find this out. But the less you know the horse, or if you have any evidence that the horse is going to make the choice of. Thank you for asking me what I thought. I now need to leave town. This would be not a good horse to ask. What do you think about this? One of the situations that I hear frequently from riders is I stopped and I let him look at it, and then he decided to leave.

Speaker1:
What do I do? And my answer is. Act like you’re playing the kid in the candy store game. What would happen if you took the opportunity to keep the horse just a little bit busy? Now, don’t get this confused with intimidating the horse, because never in the candy store example did I suggest intimidating the child. What I’m saying is, if you build the skill set up to where you can ask the horse these quick questions. Like the child, you can make up the game about the hopscotch and the moving and you can do all the stuff. You can keep them so engaged that they don’t get as worked up about it, as if you stop and you say, what do you think about this display of candy? And then when the child reaches for the candy, you then tell them no. Or you then react to try to recover from your horse saying, thanks for asking. I think I need to leave now. The thing that’s confusing is that not all horses will do that. But the challenge is you must know your horse if you’re going to do that. I would highly suggest that if you’re going to choose that route, that you also have looked around to try to decide what some of the options you’re leaving open for the horse are.

Speaker1:
For me, when I’m doing groundwork, there’s a stage I take the horses through that I call splitting attention. And if you’re interested in learning more about that and my groundwork program, I have a waitlist over on my website, Stacy westfall.com, where you can sign up to learn more about my groundwork. But teaching a horse how to split their attention is a magical thing, because at the end of the day, I don’t believe in robbing the horse from the ability to look around, but I also don’t believe in saying, hey horse, what do you think? A wrong choice. Don’t go there. I’d really rather not be dragged down the trail. I’d really rather not be run away with. I really don’t want to be dragged across this field. I don’t want to necessarily leave the horse free to make the choice, only to then have one or both of us in some kind of physical danger. When I look at the five levels of distraction that I outlined back in episode 285, when you were operating somewhere near the safety line, or if you’re slipping below the safety line into where a horse would panic but would recover, it’s in this zone that it is most important for you to decide how you want to handle distractions. Because when I think about a distracted horse, like what Willow was when I first started trail riding her out here, the reason she has become the trail horse she is now is because I was holding her hand with my Aids, because I was able to predict there will be chipmunks the whole way down this trail, and I am going to use the distraction as an opportunity to focus her, to be able to ask her to do this, to be able to ask her to do that.

Speaker1:
And I was actually able to use those distractions to show her that I am not intimidating. But I am clearly directing you because I refocused her so many times. Now she is able to refocus herself. Now, this podcast should come with the same warning that I explained in last week’s podcast, which is there’s what I’m saying, and there’s what I mean when I say keep the horse busy. And then there’s what you’re imagining when I say keep the horse busy. So it is important and I have put out quite a few videos. Things like the Stacy’s Video Diary Jack YouTube series that you can go watch, where you can see me doing groundwork with Jack. And that video series has excellent examples of keeping a horse busy. If I had just one main point for you to walk away from this podcast with, it would be this when you have a horse that is exhibiting levels of distraction, you need to assess if the horse is on top of that, having a reaction to your cues.

Speaker1:
So sometimes horses that are not confident with your cues, whether you’re on the ground or whether you’re riding them, if they’re already not confident with your cues and then they become distracted. A lot of times this is when things snowball into a more dangerous cycle, because at first the horse may be Reacting to an outsized stimulus. But then when you go to use your aids, if they also react to your aids, now you are in a downward snowball. That would be one of the first things that you need to think back on. When you think about your horse that you are riding or leading that is distracted. How is your horse’s understanding of your cue system? Are they reacting to you when they’re in that kind of a situation, or are they responding to you? In addition, you need to assess if you want to leave the horse and say, what do you think about this situation? And then leave a blank space for them to fill in their thoughts, which may be standing or maybe leaving town or something in the middle? Or do you want to develop a way to communicate with the horse where you say, hey, look over here, look at this. Look how we can do this so that you are keeping them more busy. And that tends to be my approach. One challenge I see with asking the horse the question, so what do you think about this? And then leaving that gap is that when they are right around the safety line, if they are feeling insecure and they decide to exit stage right is what I often like to call it.

Speaker1:
Unless they go left, then I call it exit stage left. But if they decide that flight is the best idea, the challenge becomes it is much easier to interact with a horse that’s above the safety line, rather than one that has begun to panic or has checked out. So, especially if your horse has the tendency to check out or has the tendency to leave town, you really need to assess whether or not you want to ask them their opinion. Because if we want to go back to the candy bar analogy, it’s a little bit like, what do you think of this display of candy bars? That’s much more like putting the child in the position of letting them stop and stare at the candy display, and hoping they don’t make the decision to go after the candy. Another thing that’s really interesting about the idea of how you might win this game of getting the child through the candy store is that with horses, we tend to be doing one of two things. We tend to either be helping them, let’s say, not get distracted by the very green clover beside the trail right now that could distract Willow. So she could be drawn to something that was very similar to the candy bar.

Speaker1:
Or we’re trying to keep the horse from getting very distracted by something that’s actually fearful. That would be much more like taking the child into a quote unquote, funhouse of mirrors and having the child get panicky. And again, in that situation where the child might be afraid at a carnival or a circus, and you need to get them into an area where they feel more comfortable. I still think the method of keeping them highly engaged is still very effective in that situation. So if your mind starts to offer you. Yeah, but it’s not candy that my horse is after. It’s my horse being afraid of something in the distance. I still think the analogy works. My approach to training is much more similar to the way that I would engage in the game of how do I get the kid that needs to use the bathroom through the candy store? Without saying no, without blindfolding the child and without them wanting any of the candy on the shelf. I’m going to make a very, very interactive, interesting game of getting to the back of the store and then back out the front again. If you’re interested in learning more about how I do this in groundwork and in written work, be sure that you go over to my website and sign up for my email list. That’s what I have for you this week, 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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