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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall — Outdoor
Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall

Stacy Westfall teaches people how to understand, enjoy and successfully train their own horses. In her podcast, she shares all of her knowledge in her area of expertise: horses. She offers insights into issues that riders face in their own minds as well as the way they are viewing the challenges and goals they have with horses. She shares tips on becoming a better rider as well as a better leader for your horse.
Discover how you can understand things from your horses point of view so that you can enjoy the learning process with your horse. When you are able to understand what your horse is experiencing mentally and physically the process of learning new things becomes more enjoyable.
Your goals may be showing, trail riding or simply enjoying life with horses-all of which Stacy enjoys herself.
She shares her own struggles and successes to allow listeners to understand that everyone experiences ups and downs.
Through her podcast, website, YouTube channel and social media Stacy answers questions about: Fear, when to sell a horse, goal setting, safety, ground work, trailer loading, lead changes, reining, spins, stops, western dressage, ranch riding, when to get help, lessons, clinics and improving your safety, success and enjoyment of horses.

Copyright: © StacyWestfall.com

Latest Episodes:

Episode 184-The benefits and challenges of learning to evaluate your ride May 25, 2022

Show notes

Have you developed the skill of evaluating your rides? The skill of evaluating yourself is highly valuable. It improves your ability to be fully present during your ride, it makes you more coachable when you receive instruction, and you get results faster. If all this is true…why do people resist evaluating themselves? The main reason people avoid it is that they haven't learned how…so they default to criticism and self judgement. Evaluating yourself is a SKILL that you can develop. It is a process you can learn. In this episode, I explain the value, the challenges and offer two tips for overcoming the resistance to evaluating yourself.

Episode 183-Creating building blocks or rearranging the blocks you have to create something new. May 18, 2022

Show notes

A listener asks a question about changing her horse's pushy, fidgety behavior on the ground. She asks, "How can I deconstruct a behavior or a reaction and rebuild a more favorable behavior?" This podcast discusses the difference between training (or retraining) and deconstructing or rebuilding. During training or retraining, the horse is often learning the building blocks that create a solid foundation. Once the horse understands these building blocks, the concept of deconstructing or rebuilding is the idea that those foundation ideas can be rearranged to create many things. Listen to learn more.

Episode 182-How to deal with a mouthy horse and prevent biting. May 11, 2022

Show notes

A listener asks how to correct her mouthy horse and how to keep mouthiness or biting from happening in the first place. In this podcast, I explain why biting happens, the most common problem I see people making, and I give actionable instructions on how to be more engaging, interesting and clear. Learning how to prevent this behavior will also teach you a skill that is useful and transferable from groundwork into ridden work too.

Episode 181- Three reasons it can be challenging to sit a horses lope May 04, 2022

Show notes

A listener asks how she can sit the lope or canter without popping out of the saddle. She says, "I seem to pop out of the saddle quite a bit…Some people ride so quiet in a saddle, others seem to come up out of the saddle as their horse moves. I can't seem to sit to him as much as I try." In answering the question I discuss: how the horses build affects the rider, how the horses training level impacts their ability to 'lift' or carry a rider…and how if this is lacking it makes the horse difficult to ride smoothly, the stages where it is more approprate to sit lightly vs deeply...and several ways you can improve your seat.

Episode 180: Help, my horse started laying down while riding Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

What would you do if your horse started to lie down while you were riding? Here are some reasons a horse might try to lay down when riding:

Horse is interested in rolling in water, mud or sand.
Horse is itchy from sweat or bugs.
Horse is colicky.
Horse has discovered that laying down is rewarded.

In this episode, I cover these and a few more possibilities and I share the cue that both discourages, redirects…and is the 'end' cue for horses that are trained to lie down on purpose.

Episode 179: Getting forward motion from a horse without negative tension. Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

A listener calls in, "My question is about how to create forward without creating negative tension." This starts a discussion on how riders often bring tension to the session, including both their worry about causing tension AND in their cue system application. I discuss how my cue system changes between colt starting and more advanced movements, including the idea that sometimes the 2nd grade version contains more energy.

I include an actionable 'test' you can perform the next time you lead your horse from the pasture or the stall, as well as a discussion on stretching the horse's comfort zone. Finally, at the end, I pull it all together by describing how I use relaxation as a base I return to.

Episode 178: My mare goes from calm and sweet to disconnected: self awareness, anticipation, and adjustability Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

A listener asks a question about her mare, who at first appears, "…very good and calm, until she's worked out what it is we're doing and starts to anticipate." The answer involves understanding the riders' role in both the calm and the anticipation, identifying how anticipation can look different between hot and cold horses, and a training exercise to help adjust what the horse is anticipating.

Episode 177- Rein contact: does your horse think support or correction? Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

A listener asks a question about the different levels of contact between dressage and reining. On the surface this seems like a question about a horse accepting the change between the two…but I took the answer much deeper than that. I explain how the rider's opinion of contact changes the horse's experience, and two specific reasons I think riders feel challenged around contact. I give many examples of how horses can report their experience of contact, and I share the specific order that I train my horses in that allows them to view contact as support…not correction. I also touch on bridleless riding and the idea of self carriage and the feeling of riding a fully adjustable horse.

Episode 176: But is this really what my horse likes doing? Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

A listener expresses a desire to build relationship and connection with her horse and asks, "what does my horse really like to do?" In this podcast, I discuss my views on the learning process in general, what role physical talent plays in the enjoyment of learning (hint: it's not what you likely think), and the idea that the concept of what is 'hard' and what is easy might be something to take a closer look at. Why do I pursue so many disciplines with my horses? I answer that in this episode too.

Episode 175: Why horses might put their ears back during work Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

What is the first thing that comes to mind if you picture a horse keeping its ears back? Do you think aggression? Pain? Doubt? In this podcast, a listener asks for advice on working with confident young horses that often keep their ears back. I outline two groups of words that I typically use to describe these horses including skeptical and focused. I also share two rules I use to keep myself safe while creating a situation that encourages the horses to have more pleasant expressions during work.

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