Episode 47: Locking and Unlocking Traits in Your Horse

“There are ways to make certain behaviors easier to access and ways to make certain behaviors harder to access.” Stacy Westfall Share on X



 

I know your horse is smart. Do you know that your horse is smart? I hope you do, because today I’m sharing something that will be incredibly useful to you if you think your horse is smart. If you’re not sure if your horse is smart, you can always go back and listen to episode 22 where I explain my views of going beyond prey versus predator.

In this episode, I’ll explain how to lock and unlock certain traits in your horse. Remember how the old school combination locks were difficult at first and then became easier over time? This concept is very similar, and you can use it to make a hot horse slow down or a lazy horse speed up or allow your horse to think at a higher level. 

“By making one thing really hard to unlock and another thing really easy to unlock, it is effectively childproofing the horse.” Stacy Westfall Share on X

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Speaker1:
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.

Speaker2:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to teach you how to understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. In this episode, I'm going to explain a concept that I find incredibly useful when I'm training my horses. But this comes with a warning for this to work, you're going to need to believe that your horse is smart. I know your horse is smart, but do you believe it? If not, you might want to go back and listen to episode 22, where I explain my views on moving beyond prey versus predator. Way Beyond. Let's get started. When is the last time that you unlocked an old fashioned combination lock? You know, the one where you turn the dial left and then right and then left. And you have to be really precise. When I was going to college, I had a tac box that had one of these locks on it, and I remember how hard I found it in the beginning. Spin the lock to the right to clear it. Stop at the first number, spin left past the first number. Stop at the second number. Reverse back to the last number. But by the end of my four years there, I could unlock the lock with my eyes closed, just off the feel of the lock and the familiar pattern in my hand. That is the image that I would like you to have in your mind when you think about this next concept. Keep in mind that this is a college level concept for the horse.

Speaker2:
Of course, the foundation for it, the consistency and the basic ideas. Start in kindergarten and build all the way through high school up to here. When people ask me questions like when did you start working on Bridleless? I always find it really difficult to answer because the early training builds to that point. It's hard for me to pinpoint this day. I started Bridleless because realistically, how I treat the horse from the time that I'm leading it, brushing it, saddling it, walking it, trotting it with the saddle and bridle on to the time that I'm working my way back out of that tack. All of it counts to working on Bridleless. Okay, here's the idea. When you're training the horse and you have the idea of rocking the teeter totter back and forth to bring the horse into balance, there are ways to make certain behaviors easier to access and ways to make other behaviors harder to access. So if we want an aid to be easy to access, I'm going to leave it more as the first response. For example, when I'm lunging a horse really early on, I value forward motion. So when I verbally make a kissing sound, I'll follow through immediately to make sure that the horse lopes off. So usually in the beginning the horse is trotting around me. I kiss hesitate for two seconds. In my head I count one, 1000, two, 1000. And then I hit the ground where the horse's rump would be.

Speaker2:
If he hasn't already left at the lope. If he's gone forward, he won't be there. This to me, is very similar to a horse in the field, pinning its ears as a first warning and then following through with a kick. If they pin their ears and the other horse leaves and they still follow through with a kick. There's no horse there to be kicked. Now let's jump all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum. Let's picture me riding one of my horse's bridleless out in a big open area without any fences. At that point, I want my horse to be responsive, but I don't want the horse to be overly reactive. I need this horse to be really balanced. So my lope cue on these horses would sound something like this. Hug and release with my legs. Sit deeper in my seat to keep them from going forward. Right leg slides back for a left lead. Departure a single kiss as a warning. Hesitate for one second. Double kiss. Slight squeeze with both legs to say. To keep me with the forward motion and to encourage the horse to push off. Did that sound really complicated? I hope it sounded really complicated because I want it to be really complicated. And do you know what my slowdown cue is? I release my legs. Does that sound complicated? I hope not. Can you see how I've made one thing really hard to unlock and the other thing really easy to unlock? By doing this, what I've done is I have effectively child proofed my horse.

Speaker2:
And the cue that could lead to something dangerous, which would be loping off or running off or going too fast. I've made that hard to access, and I've made the default setting something safer, and I've made that easy. So in the past, when I've let people get on my bridleless horses, they often have more difficulty finding all the buttons to do really precise things, but they can do really simple, basic things really well and very safe. And really, this is what I want it to be like. If the person is unsure and they quit using their legs, my horses default to stopping. This is pretty safe mistake for the horse to make, and I don't really care whether or not somebody can get on my horse and immediately do a lead change. I want to know that they're really going to be safe and then we can work from there. But what's really interesting is I'd have to think back to how many years ago, it probably was around 2008 or so. I actually went down to the reigning Futurity and let a youth rider. I did a demo and I let a youth rider ride Roxy, and she had written into me. She had bought the Bridleless DVD and she had asked me some questions and I asked her if she was going to be at the reigning Futurity and if she wanted to participate in my demo.

Speaker2:
And she said yes. And I let her ride Roxy and I tied the reins up, and I talked her through all the different cues. And because this youth rider already rode reining horses, even though she couldn't ride her horse Bridleless and had never ridden any horse bridleless, I could talk her through all the cues and it was a little bit rocky at the start, you know, it kind of looked like a bad clutch here and there because again, Roxy was going to default to stopping if she was going to make a mistake. But within less than 15 minutes, with the bridle on but the reins tied up, she had gained control and gotten fluid. And those two Roxy and this youth rider had gotten on the same page, and I actually pulled the bridle off, and they rode bridleless right there in the demo, because I want it to feel complicated to get to, but it's not like it's completely inaccessible. But it does take someone with skill to be able to access those higher level things. Are you still following me? What I want you to do is I want you to picture that that lock is keeping all of your valuables safe. Another way to look at it would be, what about your horse? Would you like to make a little more complicated to access? What would you make a little bit easier to access? Now, typically it is the opposite of what your horse is naturally giving you, which is why the teeter totter analogy works.

Speaker2:
So if you have a really hot or forward horse, you might want to put a padlock on the gas pedal, and you might want to make the brakes really easy to access. If you have a lazier or maybe I should say colder horse, but I'll just stick with lazier. We all know what that means. You might want to make the gas pedal really easy and the brakes a little less prominent. Basically, what I'm saying is that at some point, you might want to consider not treating all the cues exactly the same. I think that people often work equally on the whoa and the go, not recognizing that the horse has a natural leaning towards being either hot or cold. And because of that natural leaning, they tend to do what they want to do a little bit easier, and they tend to ignore what they don't want to do a little bit more. Again, popcorn is about a plus seven so early on and I'm talking for a couple of years. I mean, he was really and he probably would still be a little bit like this. Now I'll have to test that out sometime. But he was very easy to get to go and not so easy to get to stop. So the verbal cues, if I said whoa, it's it was like he was deaf. He had no recognition of it.

Speaker2:
And I would even say that out loud. It's like he's deaf. Only watch this. And I could kiss and he would be off as fast as could be. And that's because he naturally wanted to lean to the way that he wanted to be, which was hot. And he naturally wanted to resist that slowing down cue. So what I did was I started to put a padlock on the gas pedal and started to make the whoa, cue a little bit more easy to access. So basically what I'm doing is I'm asking you to reverse what the horse naturally wants to do build your cue system so that what they naturally want to do, but you're kind of wanting a little less of make that the thing that you need a bit of a combination lock to unlock and then make the thing that they resist doing the first answer they think of. Let's do a few more examples on a lazy horse. I might install three or more separate go forward queues and expect each one to work without the other. On a lazy horse, I would expect the kiss to mean go without anything else being required. I might make the leg queue a squeeze. The only thing required I might make the seat just simply the motion of rocking my seat. I make that one queue be strong enough to move my horse. What most people do is they have the lazy horse and they do all of those together.

Speaker2:
They move their seat, they move their legs, they kiss, they do everything and barely get a response. I'm saying you're going to do the opposite. You're going to make each one of those stand alone as enough to make your horse go on a hot horse. I might actually make them wait for all three of those cues to be applied at the same time. So on the hot horse I might kiss, and if they went, I would actually pull them back down to the walk and say, no, you're only allowed to go if I kiss and squeeze and use my seat. So do you see what I'm doing there? On the hot horse, those same three cues have to be used all together to unlock the ability to go. But on the lazy horse, I'm making each one of those cues independently. Make the horse go. Can you hear it? What I'm doing. I'm putting a padlock on the thing that could be unsafe. I'm making that a little more complicated. And I'm making the easier the thing I want them to do, I'm making that easier, making that very simple. Now keep these two things in mind. This is a higher level concept for the horse and for the human. If you're struggling to understand this right now, do not run out to the barn and try to apply it. Maybe you'll listen to the podcast again. Maybe while you're watching somebody else ride, you'll start to see how they are using this system, or how they're not using this system and how it's working or not working.

Speaker2:
And then right about the time that you start to think, I think Stacey's losing it. She's now gone way too far. I actually want you to remember, this isn't quite as complicated as you might think, because it's really an extension of grandma's rules. I often find that horses Says benefit from this tremendously, especially if they're really bored with their routines. I think a lot of horses appreciate moving to a higher level of thinking. Back in episode 27, I talked about my idea that horses learn how to learn, and this is why it's very important how you train them, especially when they're younger, because intimidation will shut the horse's desire off to interact with you. They'll just simply learn to avoid you. And teaching them a habit without a thought pattern. Just teaching them a pattern. The horse doesn't actually volunteer to help think through things. They kind of just shut off and go through this pattern. So it does get a little bit complicated, because we're trying to teach more complicated thoughts than what a lot of people even think horses are capable of. One way to simplify is to think in the beginning. In kindergarten and elementary school, I want things to be really structured. I don't want a lot of backtalk from the horses in these grades. They're allowed to ask questions, but they have to do it really respectfully.

Speaker2:
And then in high school, I'll ask for a little bit more, and I'll give the horse a little bit more freedom to express themselves a little bit more with their thoughts. So, for example, if you watch the Jacques video series and you come to the episode where I was videotaping and I asked him to move, and he spontaneously started spinning and then spontaneously started backing up, I explained very well in that episode that I was letting him express just a little bit more of his thoughts. He was still super respectful, but I was starting to let him volunteer little tiny things. And then I got to decide whether they were respectful or not. So for sure, there's a place for them, but you got to be careful that it doesn't cross that line from respect, because I see that mistake made a lot. If you work on this in kindergarten, elementary school, high school, then when you get into college, then the horse gets even more freedom from me to discuss things with me. But the idea that it's respectful never goes away. There's never a day from the beginning all the way to the end. There's never a day when they're allowed to be disrespectful. When we are having any of these training discussions, obviously in the beginning, if the horse is really wild and unhandled, there might be lines that are crossed. But again, it's like the kindergartner when they're making mistakes. You do have to keep yourself safe though, because this is not exactly the same thing as a small kindergartner.

Speaker2:
I think a lot of times people are afraid of intimidating the horse or patterning the horse, and what they do is they don't allow that horse to learn that respectful foundation of following simple directions without complaining, more often than seeing horses that have been intimidated. I see horses where people were afraid to follow through, and they were afraid to hold the horses accountable for simple directions without complaining. If this were a human elementary school, we would expect kids to walk in a straight line and sit at a desk and raise their hands to ask a question and not interrupt the teacher. But when we turn this into a horse, a lot of times people are afraid To make the horse respectful because they're afraid that they are patterning them, or they're afraid that they are intimidating them. And when I say patterning, that just means habitually using or making something a habit. Well, for sure, in kindergarten, in those lower grades, I kind of want the kids to have a habit of sitting in their desk until they raise their hand and ask for something else. I want some of these habits of not interrupting the teacher or staying in a straight line. I want some of those habits there, so for sure it might look at times a little bit habitual. But respect is key all along the way. Because if you let your horse be disrespectful by asking questions like pushing into your space or asking questions like swinging its head to look at another horse and practically knocking your teeth out, or wheeling around a run when something happens, when you let those happen.

Speaker2:
What you're doing is you're setting your horse up for future failure, because it's like letting 1,000 pound toddler make decisions with your life, even when you're leading them around, but especially when you climb on their back. So I would highly encourage you to take a look at how you're working your foundation so that you can start to think, how would this work? When I move this horse up into high school and up into college and wow, are these horses ever smart. Where am I underestimating what my horse is capable of? Another way that this turns into an extension of grandma's rules is that even if you go ahead and train the horse up through elementary school, up through high school, and up to college, and you're doing some really advanced things. The nice thing is, if the horses haven't been trained through intimidation, then what happens is the horses are still fully capable of making decisions, and if anything, they actually ask a lot more questions because they're used to the interaction. This always makes me smile because I think of my horse, Newt, and you may have seen him on my YouTube channel. He's the one that I was riding through McDonald's and Starbucks and a bunch of other videos.

Speaker2:
But what was so fun about Newt was that he was really, really fun to let other people ride him because of how he would move up and down the scale so quickly and easily. He was very highly educated and could be ridden bridleless or bareback and bridleless, but at the same time he also was super happy to slide back down the scale to being a very simple Walk, trot. Plow. Rein, kind of a horse. And he very perfectly illustrated the horse's ability to both contain all of this high level information and yet be incredibly safe, because he could sense and tell what level of rider was on him. And to his credit, he was actually kind of using grandma's rules just a little bit to his advantage, meaning that if you put a kid on him, he wasn't going to volunteer to spin as fast as he could spin, he would just slow it all down, which kept the kid safer. But realistically, was also just Newt being a little bit like, this is all that's required of me, so I'm just going to only go this fast. But as the person learned to do more, they could easily unlock more from Newt. So it's very interesting that even if these horses get trained to a really high level, it doesn't mean that they are then impossible for other people to ride because they can actually very fluidly move up and down the levels of training.

Speaker1:
Supporting companies make this show sustainable. Thank you.

Speaker2:
I'd like to thank EC3 for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. I use equine joint pellets, which contain resveratrol. And back in episode 36 of this podcast, Doctor Marni Mcinturff joined me and he described how that works. What I liked was understanding that he said basically bute and things that work like that block the pain from the inflammatory enzymes. But resveratrol actually turns down the production of the inflammatory enzymes, which is why it works as well as it does for like I was describing in that episode, it's affecting more than just the joints, which is awesome because it's doing like kind of a whole body turn down that inflammatory response. I was really impressed when Doctor Monti said that after 30 years in veterinarian practice, it's the only oral joint supplement that he recommends. If you'd like to learn more about the products from thrive, you can visit thrive.com. And if you decide to purchase something, use the code Stacy Stacy in the checkout to receive 10% off plus free shipping. Thanks for joining me and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.

Speaker1:
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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“If you have a really hot horse, you might want to put a padlock on the gas pedal and make the brakes really easy to access.” Stacy Westfall Share on X

Links and Resources:

Equithrive Use the code STACY for 10% off and Free Shipping

Episode 22: Beyond Prey vs Predator: You’re Underestimating Your Horse

Episode 27: Horses Can ‘Learn how to Learn’

Stacy’s Video Diary: Jac-Episode 1-First Day-Part 1-Evaluating Jac

Starbucks Pony Espresso: Riding My Horse Thru the Drive Thru

 

Have you ever wondered what a live version of this podcast would be like?I’m hosting some live, online video calls that are like a live version of this podcast. I teach on a subject, answer questions and for those who are brave, I’ll turn your video on live too and you can join me for a conversation!

 

If you want to learn more about this you can visit https://stacywestfall.com/live/ for more information!

1 Comments

  1. Leah smith on January 13, 2022 at 11:22 am

    Stacy, I am beginning to ride bridleless and am working on shoulder in on the circle. My gelding is lazy and sticky partially I believe to me doing Clinton Anderson disengaging hindquarters for so long! Yuck!!! I want to make sure I understand. So I want to create more impulsion so I need to make forward motion easy to unlock. To do that I need to isolate my cues. So first would I try and ride with more energy in my seat? What if I don’t notice a difference? Do I then wave with my legs? If I still don’t notice a difference then use the whip? I would need to follow through so then I would be using all three cues? How would I go about isolating each one?

    Ok second question… this relates to the previous podcast. You stated that if a horse is lazy ride with intentional energy, ride for a shorter duration and get off of him when he is still energetic to keep motivation, exaggerate upward transitions….. ok this is where I’m confused. When my gelding is asked to go from a trot to a canter and he is balanced and forward i only ask for a few steps and then I have been melting down to release the pressure to motivate him. Is this not correct? I thought I should ask for fewer steps at the canter and when his energy is forward then I reward by melting down? I am working so so hard to learn!!!! I absolutely loved your podcast on engaging vs disengaging hq! All I knew was Clinton Anderson and I did soooooo many one rein stops! It has led to lack of forward motion and heaviness on the forehand. I appreciate your podcasts so much!! Thank you!

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