Epsiode 303: Consistency is Key: Transitioning from Arena to Trail

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Speaker1:
In that moment. You really must answer the question a lot of times to keep you and your horse safe. Or you could skip answering the question, but you've got to remember, when you skip answering the question, you still answered the question.

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 am out on the trail. Okay, technically I'm still on the road. Headed to the trail with my new horse Luna. And I'm not riding. I'm actually leading her out to the trail. As I was getting her ready back at the barn, I was thinking about the challenges that I might face out here on the trail and how they are similar or different from the challenges that I would face in the arena. And as I navigate the trail, I'm going to tell you some of my thoughts about what I'm doing with her, why I'm choosing to lead her if I choose to mount up and ride, and how I'm making some of those decisions. But the first thing that I want to open with is the idea of what stays the same between the trail and the arena. For me, what stays the same between riding in the arena and riding out on the trail is how I'm going to handle the questions that come up. We can also phrase this as how I'm going to handle the challenges or problems that occur. And the first thing that makes me want to remind you of is that embracing the challenges, understanding that the questions or the problems or the challenges that you encounter are the path forward is actually a big mindset shift.

Speaker1:
Because if you go out and on your next ride, you notice that you're trying to avoid problems. Just take note of that. Because if you ride to avoid problems, there are places where that's going to be okay. The problem with that thinking is that it will often lead you to a smaller and smaller area where you can work with your horse, because if you shrink away from facing problems or challenges, you're going to have to shrink away from places that bring up challenges or problems. As I was saddling Luna up this morning, I was thinking about how I am deciding when I feel comfortable heading out of the arena onto the trail, and everyone's going to have a different way that they determine the answer to that question. And for me, it's going to be a few different layers. One is going to be what challenges or issues or questions I have actually answered in the arena. So if I phrase it another way, I'm actually riding in the arena looking for problems handling those problems, and then using how that whole thing went down as as something to evaluate as to whether or not this horse is ready to go out into what I'm going to label a real life situation. So with Luna, when I think about the things that are missing, there's still a lot more refinement and training that I want to have done with her.

Speaker1:
But for me, there's just enough of the baseline that I believe I can keep myself safe. And yet, as you've been listening, I've already said I'm leading her. So why am I leading her if I think I'm near that baseline? Well, one way to think about it would be this. I've said before that I think there's a safety line when you're training horses, and that the more training that you put into the horses, the further above the safety line you can get. So with Luna, I feel like I'm above the safety line, but not really far above the safety line. So out here. Leading her on the trail is another evaluation point for me to determine. How far above the safety line she really is. So this is the first time she's been out here in the woods in the state park without another horse. So what changes or what stays the same when it's just the two of us? The answers to that will help me determine how much of the arena work is going to carry over to out here on the trail. Also, when I'm out here on the trail, there's more of a likelihood of a challenge occurring spontaneously, whether that's deer or hikers or other horses. And then there's also, if you listen I just jumped and she startled in place. So I'm actually gonna manufacture some issues, some challenges, and see how she handles them.

Speaker1:
So for example, right there, she was a little bit jumpier than she is in the arena, but not as jumpy as she was when I first got her. So she kind of squatted and splayed her feet a little bit. But that's the first time that I've done it out here, so I'm actually just going to take that as the first evaluation. And I'm going to do that several more times, and I'm going to see whether that first one just kind of caught her off guard in that new location while she's looking around, or if she's actually just a little bit more amped up or distracted because of the location. Okay, that second one didn't get her at all. So these are the little tests or challenges that I am actually setting up on purpose, which is something I do in the arena and something I'm going to do out here on the trail. So I'm going to circle back to something I started with a minute ago, which is on the trail and in the arena. One thing stays the same how I answer or handle the questions that come up. The biggest difference between the arena and real life, which in this case I'm going to call the trail. The biggest difference is that oftentimes in the arena, it will feel like when you're working with your horse, that you are part of the problem and part of the solution.

Speaker1:
Let me explain it another way. When you ride your horse in an arena, it's often a much more controlled environment. So the exercise or pattern or thing you're doing will most likely be the challenge that you are facing. So in a way, when you are the one setting up the challenge by riding a specific pattern with specific transitions, specific gaits, whatever that is, what it will feel like often to riders is that they are the one making it hard, and so therefore they are the one causing the problem that they are about to need to handle. And there's some truth to that, but what I want you to think about is that there's also some beauty in that, because you have a lot of control in that controlled environment. When you go out into the real world, whether that's the show or the trail or anywhere that you go out of your normal, everyday, controlled environment situation. The thing that's different out there is that oftentimes the environment is what sets up those situations. The environment brings up the energy level the environment causes the challenge or the problem that you then must address. So in a way, the thing that changes between the arena and say the trail is that on the trail it might feel like you're the one who's trying to solve the problem because the horse startled because of deer or because the horse didn't want to cross mud.

Speaker1:
But that's your viewpoint. Your viewpoint is that on the trail, the problem, external problem happened and now you are the solution. But is that really what your horse is thinking? Because if I see horses out on the trail that don't understand the rider's aids, and they don't look to the rider as the solution, then when the horse startles or doesn't want to cross the mud, and the rider then begins to handle the horse to try to guide the horse. Oftentimes in that situation, you really didn't avoid the challenge that is real in the arena. You guiding the horse, slowing it down from bolting so that both of you are safe. Asking the horse to cross the mud because it seems like a realistic thing to do and not like too much in those moments. If the horse hasn't been properly prepared in the horse's mind, you're still part of the problem. So go back to the horse that bolts when the horse bolts and it thinks, I need to flee from this situation and you begin interrupting that fleeing. That might feel like the most logical thing to you. But if the horse is not prepared, they feel their balance being threatened as you pull on the bridle reins. So again, on the trail or in the arena, the one thing for me that stays the same is that I must be consistent about how I handle the challenges or the questions that come up.

Speaker1:
Out on the trail in a manufactured situation like me. Startled. Jumping. I'm manufacturing it while I happen to be out of the arena. But the real big test are the ones that I don't manufacture. The deer that jumps out through, or the tree branch that falls, or whatever it is that startles the horse. Those are the moments where there's actual real risk for the horse and the rider, and it's a challenge in an area that I didn't necessarily choose. So my advice to you there is be prepared, because in that moment, you really must answer the question a lot of times to keep you and your horse safe. Or you could skip answering the question, but you've got to remember, when you skip answering the question. You still answered the question, you just left it blank. And there is a consequence to doing that repeatedly. Right now I'm about a mile into my I don't know, what do we call it, my trail walk with Luna. And as I could predict from knowing the trail, we've already encountered many of the most challenging things for me. Leaving my house, going up the road and going past the Airbnb that's near my house that has goats and ponies and alpacas. That's one of the most challenging pieces of the ride, and it doesn't even really feel like you've gotten to the trail yet.

Speaker1:
Then when I first enter the trail, I do notice that a lot of times it's around that one mile mark that everything starts to settle in. That was one of the benefits of doing the Tevis challenge earlier this spring was tracking the distance so regularly. And what I noticed is that a lot of times it's about that one mile mark when everything starts to settle in with the greener horses, the more experienced horses feel settled into me even faster than that. But I also find it interesting because I still do, running as one of my chosen exercises to keep myself fit for riding. And I also noticed that I tend to on my own without a horse involved. I tend to get into a better rhythm around the one mile mark on my own. Which brings up a question who's the one relaxing at the one mile mark? Luna's not answering. She's just looking around, enjoying the scenery. And now, based on how she's acting, I'm going to go ahead and at the bottom of this next hill, I'm going to go ahead and mount up, and I'm going to ride her further up the trail. Keep in mind, I know these trails really well, so I'm going to ride her further up the trail to a specific point that I have in mind, and then I'm going to reevaluate up there. What I want to do, whether I want to stay mounted or whether I want to dismount and continue leading her.

Speaker1:
Okay, I've got two feet on the ground walking again, and here are a few of the things I noticed when I mounted up and I started riding. One of the things I noticed was how much of a plan I had for what I would do, and if you had been watching their actual physical symptoms of the plan. So there's physical signals that would give away my plan. So when I mounted up, I chose a slight direction of bend, even though I'm riding essentially on a straight trail. And because of that, that tells me. Or if you were watching or Luna, the one I'm riding, I have a plan for which direction I'm going to take her head if something were to happen. So little things like that. I remember growing up when I would do a lot of trail riding and frequently ended up out of control. I never had a plan. I was trying to create a plan in the middle of a disaster. So if you're in the middle of the problem happening, that's not the best place to begin making your plan. A lot of times I did a podcast on it. A lot of times you start learning about things after the fact. So let's call it after the problem, and then you'll start to gain awareness to, okay, this is what the problem is when it's happening.

Speaker1:
And then you can get to the point where you're ahead of the problem. So even though I don't even see a sign of a problem, I'm ahead of it in that I'm prepared for it before there's any sign of it. And that stood out to me. The other thing that stood out to me as I mounted up right before a place where I really typically trot or canter on my horses, and there was that temptation in me to want to go faster at that moment. But then I reflected and thought about this particular horse. And what does this horse need? And this is her first time out here alone. And she's already a quick thinker. She's a quick thinker. Her brain wants to go a little quick. So I actually don't want to add to that right now. I want to, if anything, counteract that. So I had that temptation because the trail is just beautiful right there. And it would have been easy and most likely very safe. It's just a great area on the trail. And yet I chose not to do that because I think it's in her long term best interest. Just because it works today doesn't mean it's in the horses long term best interests. Think of that more like a habit pattern thing. If her brain already wants to spiral, I don't want to add to that right now.

Speaker1:
And one other thing that I noticed as I was riding down through the trail is I'm riding in dappled sunlight. And what that means is that as we're moving down through the trail her shadow is appearing and disappearing, and she had ever so slightly a little head cocked to the right, like what they do if they're kind of trying to look at something a little bit different. And the reason I point that out is because I actually noticed that a couple of times while riding her in the indoor arena, and it was, again, her looking at things on the ground, like when we had watered the arena and there was a mark from the hose, sort of a straight line, or when the dirt was disturbed in a particular manner, meaning like if we'd done a sliding stop and it was dug in those giant 11 marks where it looks like two side by side skid marks that are dug a couple inches deep, and it's an unusual marking in the footing. And I just noticed her observing it both in the arena and out here on the trail. It wasn't enough to disturb her rhythm of her footfall, but these are the things that I'm paying attention to. These are the ways that I get to know her better, because I'm paying attention to those things, even though they're not necessarily in the problem category. For those of you who are interested in doing something like this, I will also highly recommend that you find a pair of boots that are really comfortable to walk in.

Speaker1:
So these are areas that are the lace ups, and they look a lot like a hiking boot. And they feel a lot like a hiking boot. And I actually went into the house and intentionally changed out of the boots that I normally ride in into these, because I knew I was going to do a lot of walking on today's trail, and it is so much more comfortable if you have a shoe or boot that is designed for walking as well as for riding. So although I love my classic cowboy boots with that classic heel, and I think my spurs fit on those a little bit better, I'm not using Spurs and I'm doing a lot of walking, so I've changed my boots. And since I'm on that subject, in case you're curious, Luna is in a snaffle bit and she has a rope halter on underneath that with a lead rope attached, and when I mount it up, I tied the lead rope up to the saddle horn. I don't like it when I see them really loose, because I don't like the idea that the horse could step over it. She's not going to be doing anything where I need her to drop her head really low. So just to give you an idea, it was almost as snug as the rein, so it wasn't like a direct.

Speaker1:
It had a few inches of play, but it wasn't super loose because I don't want her putting her head down while I'm riding her out here these first times. And I really, really don't want her stepping over that rope. So if I knew the horse better, it could be a little bit more loose. But that's where I'm at right now. I'm also carrying a dressage whip, so when I dismount and I have my lead rope, I actually have that extension of my arm, which is very similar to when I've been doing groundwork in the arena with a lunge line and a lunge whip. Now I happen to have a lead rope and a dressage whip, but it's similar enough that I can do the same stuff that I could do in the arena, because this is a much smaller area to work in. This trail that I'm walking on right now is about five feet wide, and then there's a drop off on my left. I could live through riding down that, but I wouldn't want to. And then it's kind of gradual off to the right. So if I were riding this horse right now, my plan would be to go to the right if anything bad happened. Not to the left. So now I'm about two miles into this trail walk, and I've ridden for less than a half a mile of it.

Speaker1:
And one thing that comes to mind is that I often get the question of I lead my horse places and they tend to be pretty good, but sometimes if I get on and ride past that same exact area, the horse behaves differently. Why is this happening? And in my experience, that tends to happen for a couple different reasons. Number one, when you're leading the horse, like I'm leading Luna right now, she's following me. She's literally following someone else. So she's got that following energy. She is the follower. And that for a lot of horses, especially if they're insecure, is a really comfortable place to be. So if you think about it, she literally is physically following me. But when I get on her back, she's no longer physically following me. Now her head and her neck are ahead of me. So in that moment, she's actually the leader. That's a bigger change than a lot of riders recognize, but the horse will recognize that now that they're head and neck is out in front, they are the leader. And that tends to bring up different questions for different horses. Another thing that tends to change is that it's literally a different cue system, because again, when they're following you like right now I'm almost not even using cues because she's just sort of drafting along behind me, and because she knows how to lead.

Speaker1:
Well, she's not exactly getting a lot of cues for me. When I mount up and I go to ride her, it's going to be leg cues and rein, cues, and the fact that her head and neck is out in front of me. So now we're starting to see more of the reasons why it's going to be different for some horses leading versus riding. And in a similar vein, the other thing that changes sometimes is you, your perception of how this is working. For me, what that means is that I have a certain confidence level or feeling in my body down here, and let's even just label it like a feeling of safety. Because really, if something happens, I don't want to lose hold of Luna. But if I do, most likely my physical body wasn't threatened. But as soon as I mount up on Luna, I'm much more aware that her decisions impact my physical well-being, and because that's a potential thing that can cause a lot of riders to behave differently when they mount up. So if you're having a challenge like this, be sure that you pause and notice the difference between you when you're on the ground leading the horse like I am, or you when you mount up. So that's one of the other things that I'm doing when I'm on a little walking adventure like this with my horse is I'm not only watching them and what they're going through, I'm also paying attention to me and what I'm going through.

Speaker1:
Meaning, when I get ready to mount up here again in a minute, how am I experiencing the difference between being on the ground or being mounted? Do I have a different level of doubt when I get mounted? That would be much more common in people, but if that's where the horse is going to know they're really good at reading your energy level, they're really good at reading your body language. And if you have those doubts and insecurities, more so when you ride, they're going to ride different than they lead. Ready for another ride? Okay, time to mount up again. Okay, I'm off again. And this time I rode for closer to a mile. And three more observations. First one is that shortly after mounting up as we were walking along, if you had asked me, I would have said that I was feeling positive tension in my body. There's a podcast episode on that, and what that means for me, in short, is that yes, I am ready and I'm aware, but I'm not over the top full of tension. It's not a negative tension, it's a positive tension. But interestingly, she slipped just a little bit in her hind end as we were going through some mud, and I felt kind of that grab in my stomach and a little bit in my chest.

Speaker1:
And that tells me that although I was perceiving it as positive tension, There's a little tiny underlying vibe of unsure because when that little challenge, that little problem that was gone before I even had to do anything, it was just a little misstep. That is what gave me more insight into me. My reaction to that. That was the first thing that I noticed. The second thing that I did was there was a very long, gradual hill that I had walked down leading her, and I chose to trot back up it because although I already mentioned I want to keep her mind quiet, the thing I have working for me out here is that the terrain actually helps influence her also. So being able to ask her to trot up that long hill, my odds were much better that she was going to ask to slow down so that long, gradual uphill after we've been going for over two miles in my guesstimation was going to be a very good place to introduce the trot, because she'd be more likely to trot, but also find it a workout and ask about slowing down. And that's exactly what happened. So that went really well. And then as I was walking along before I decided to dismount again, there was a little rogue chipmunk on our right, and he was acting some of these chipmunks out here, some act classic chipmunk, and some are a little weird.

Speaker1:
And this one was a little weird. So he was darting around and it was actually looking like he was going to dart across the path, but he ended up following along beside us for just long enough that I thought, well, she's probably going to notice it at any moment. And she noticed it. And interestingly enough, she didn't startle and even her little head tilt that she did, or the acknowledgment with her right ear that she saw it was even less than her acknowledgment of the sunspots on the ground or the hose mark in the arena. So that's just good information to know. She wasn't very startled by the small critter. And then another important thing to keep in mind is that whatever you value, you really want to start preserving that as soon as possible. And growing up, my horses that I trail rode did not stand still well on the trail, and my arena horses learned to stand really well. And now my trail horses stand really well on the trail. So that's something that I highly value now, because I didn't have it for so long when I was growing up. So I actually stopped and stood, and when she offered to move, I had her stand longer. And then when she was feeling pretty settled, I dismounted and she actually exhaled. And that alone is one of the reasons why I will stop and dismount.

Speaker1:
Much further past when it's quote unquote needed or necessary, I will be willing to stop stand for quite a while. Maybe that's 30s right now or 60s, but later it might be five minutes. Why not stand, look around and teach that horse to relax and then dismount and lead them? And I can take a horse like Luna, who can tend to be a little bit more tightly wound, and I can start to change her behavior pattern significantly by changing my behavior pattern. Well, I'm hiking up a hill, so rather than continue talking and hiking, I'm gonna jump off here and enjoy my time with my new trail horse, Luna. Thanks for listening. I hope you found this episode helpful, and I'll talk to you again on the next podcast One last thing I forgot to mention. I am actually leading her from both sides. So when I switched back over to leading her on the off side, I realized I forgot to tell you that. So I've noticed that in general, Luna is much less comfortable with her off side, and that includes doing groundwork and even my right leg when I'm riding versus my left leg. So I'm definitely intentionally spending more time on this side of her body, her the off side, the side you don't normally mount and dismount her right side. So keep that in mind when you're doing this work. Be on both sides by.

Speaker2:
The way, 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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