Posts Tagged ‘training’
Episode 57: Ride with Faith…and training.
Stacy Westfall, a horse trainer, shares her thoughts on the relationship between faith and horse training in a recent podcast episode. The episode was triggered by a listener’s question about why well-trained horses sometimes exhibit aggressive behavior towards their handlers. Stacy reflects on her journey as a horse trainer and the importance of balancing faith…
Read MoreEpisode 55: Training aids or gimmicks? Martingales, draw reins, etc.
In this podcast episode, Stacy discusses various horse training aids such as martingales, training forks, draw reins, and their potential benefits or drawbacks. A listener named Maxine asks about their place in horse training, specifically for her hot horse with a high headset. Stacy explains that these tools can be considered either training aids or…
Read MoreEpisode 49: Q&A: Changing Horse’s Habits, Sell or Keep, Hobble Training and Riding Bareback
I tackle four different listener questions today. If you would like to ask a question or have a topic you would like me to expand on please hit the orange tab on the side and leave a voicemail. You just might end up in one of my future podcasts. Fun facts about today’s listener questions…
Read MoreEpisode 45: Whoa! Teaching Your Horse to Stop.
It’s important to be able to stop safely when riding. Having your horse understand different cues for stop can make riding more safe and make the rider more confident. In this episode, I explain the three cues I use for stopping my horse and the magic that it creates when the horse understands all three.…
Read MoreEpisode 42: Training HOT Horses
Hot horses are those high energy horses who want to run fast and don’t always do what you want. In this episode, I go back to my teeter totter example to explain the spectrum of hot horses. Picture a +10 on one side and a -10 on the other. A hot horse will run the…
Read MoreTraining Exercise: Circles inside of circles- Episode 17
In this video I share with you an exercise that I use to increase my horses strength, balance and understanding of aids. I call it ‘circles inside of circles’ and it involves a lot of, you guessed it, circles. In the video I show how I set up cones as points to ride to as…
Read MoreEpisode 31: Listener Question: Untraining a Horse or Adding Layers?
Subscribe For Free! This week I’m answering a listener question. First, I’m going to answer with the theory, and then I’m going to teach you all how to become a detective. The listener wants to know if she can ‘untrain’ the horse’s desire to run full speed during mounted shooting competitions. She wants the horse…
Read MoreEpisode 27: Horses Can ‘Learn how to Learn’
Subscribe and never miss an episode! (I listen in the barn and when I’m out driving) Subscribe For Free! How horses learn is an interesting topic that we will be talking about today. Horses are interesting because they are excellent at detecting patterns. They look for patterns when they are speaking and communicating with other…
Read MoreTeaching a horse to handle stress. Episode 4: The Trail to the World Show
The world can be a stressful place if you don’t know how to recover from challenges. This is true with humans and it is true with horses. There are two primary ways we can address stressful situations with horses. We can try to avoid stress We can teach the horse how to handle stress Those…
Read MoreTeach your horse to stand still: trail and arena. Episode 3: The Trail to the World Show
Question: Do you trail ride your show horses? Answer: Yes!!! In this video, I explain some of the reasons I trail ride. I also share how I ‘build a bridge’ between arena work and trail work. I explain what I consider ’emotional control training’ and show examples in the arena. Maybe the most interesting clips are…
Read More