Episode 283: Switching Gears: Mastering A number of Roles with Your Horse

Can your horse work out how one can use its physique in a extra collected approach? Which means it really goes to be extra more likely to be exhausting to get going, but additionally rather a lot simpler to cease.Podcasting from slightly cabin on a hill. That is the Stacy Westfall podcast. Stacy’s purpose is easy to show you to know why horses do what they do, in addition to the motion steps for creating clear, assured communication along with your horses.

Hello, I’m Stacy Westfall and I’m right here that can assist you perceive, get pleasure from, and efficiently prepare your personal horses. I’m out on the path once more with Willow, and we’re racking up miles for the Tevis Cup digital problem and recording a podcast. On right this moment’s podcast, I need to speak to you a couple of problem that I typically see riders face, and also you principally fall into certainly one of two classes. You’ve recognized this problem, and also you’ve provide you with a technique to to navigate it, otherwise you haven’t recognized this problem as clearly as I’m going to clarify it in right this moment’s podcast. And should you haven’t recognized it, it’s going to typically trigger you to really feel conflicted if you’re working along with your horse. And the problem that I see is that if you’re working along with your horse, you’re typically needing to modify roles relying on what’s occurring. And should you’re a listener of this podcast, there’s a superb likelihood that certainly one of your favourite roles to be in along with your horse is the position of, we may name it a number of issues the position of the cheerleader, the position of the supporter, the position of the advocate, individuals who observe me and hearken to the best way that I educate and determine with the issues that I discuss typically need to be the advocate for his or her horse. They need to assist their horse. And so this position tends to be the one which we need to default to. And it’s an important factor to do.

The problem turns into if you additionally must be the horse’s accountability associate or educator or instructor or coach, as a result of generally if you face the problem of holding the horse accountable or deciding what the foundations are and what’s allowed and what’s not allowed, generally that position will really feel prefer it conflicts with the position of the cheerleader. So earlier than I’m going any additional, I’m occupied with a good friend of mine who actually doesn’t just like the phrase the cheerleader, and I’m okay with it, however I acknowledge a few of you might not be. So in fact I googled it. And a cheerleader is outlined as an individual who encourages and overtly helps the success of an individual or a trigger, on this case, your horse. So I’m okay with cheerleader, however should you’re not, strive certainly one of these different ones on supporter and adherent follower backer advocate. Or you might use advocate an individual who pleads for or in behalf of one other. Now I really like it. Should you pictured any person who was a raving sports activities fan once I began relationship my husband years in the past, I didn’t know he was such an enormous Ohio State Buckeyes fan, and I really met him and was hanging out with him for the primary time the weekend of Ohio State. Michigan. Yeah, so I bought to study rather a lot about what a raving fan seems to be like. Later, once we have been married and had babies, I might say, do you suppose you might perhaps not scare the youngsters as a result of he was so obsessed with his assist? However once I give it some thought, it’s a very attention-grabbing factor when any person is supporting a sports activities group or afterward when our kids have been taking part in sports activities and also you’re supporting a person participant, there are occasions that you simply’re actually rooting for them.

Come on, you are able to do it, and also you’re saying issues like that. And I additionally need you to consider the way it sounds. In the event that they let’s say I’m picturing our son taking part in basketball, in the event that they miss the basket, that’s okay. That’s okay. Come on. Subsequent one. One thing to that impact. And so it’s an attention-grabbing factor to consider how any person who’s a supporter, any person who’s a giant fan of this one that’s taking part in sports activities, how that language comes throughout. And for only a second, I need you to modify gears and take into consideration the way it feels to be the coach. Once I take into consideration the coach or the educator or the instructor, one factor that comes up in my thoughts is that the coach oftentimes has some type of accountability. 82 educating the participant. And so once I lookup the phrase accountability, it says the state of being accountable, liable or answerable. And one of many examples it provides is training, a coverage of holding faculties and lecturers accountable for a scholar’s educational progress. And what’s very attention-grabbing to me concerning the thought of accountability on this specific definition is that if we are saying that the instructor or the varsity goes to be accountable for the scholars educational progress, or we take a look at the teaching of a group and we predict that it’s the coach’s accountability to do their finest to develop a participant who can go on the market and achieve success to their stage of functionality, however that coach is liable for teaching them as much as their functionality.

And what this makes me consider is when riders are driving their horse. I feel it really takes some observe to have the ability to maintain each of these roles on the identical time. And I really suppose that at first, it’s simpler if as an alternative of making an attempt to do each of these roles on the identical time, you really permit your self to be in a single position after which swap into the opposite. Now once I say permit your self, I really imply schedule your self. Educate your self, prepare your self. Maintain your self accountable for spending time in each of those roles. In order the encourager, the best way that I really feel that becoming in to my horse coaching is that there are occasions that once I’m coaching the horse and the horse isn’t simply getting it, there are occasions that I’ll even hear myself saying, okay, come on, you are able to do this. And it brings up an power in me of a, we will do that, you are able to do this. That is potential. It brings up a distinct power. Say, I’m asking the horse to maneuver ahead to load in a horse trailer.

I nonetheless have the queue system. I nonetheless have regardless of the language is that I’m utilizing. That’s a that’s a bodily queue system with the horse. However I carry up my power on this very encouraging sort of a approach, and it might be similar to encouraging our sons after they have been taking part in basketball and so they have been struggling. And also you’re saying, come on, you are able to do it. That sort of power. In order that sort of power could be there. And a completely completely different position is that I’m additionally the one which’s holding the horse accountable. And why I feel this generally causes folks to have a battle is that though I like the phrase advocate, hearken to the definition once more, an individual who pleads for or in behalf of one other. Nicely, once I learn that, it makes me suppose that you simply’re pleading for or in behalf of one other in opposition to one thing. Now let’s take a look at the coach for a minute. So in my thoughts, the coach seems to be on the group and the person gamers and determines how they’re going to put together each the group and the participant. That may very well be from a health standpoint. So if you consider the entire group understanding collectively, whether or not that’s working or dribbling or no matter is acceptable to that sport, there’s a sure health stage that the coach goes to be engaged on getting particular person group members and the complete group as much as and in that teaching for health, a whole lot of instances it’s going to be exhausting work since you’re going to need to stretch the sting of the consolation zone to be able to increase that participant’s functionality in that bodily, let’s say, stamina or power realm.

And in that second, the coach is on objective, setting the bar just a bit bit out of attain at instances after which perhaps backing it again down, however then additionally shifting it again up in order that they will improve the health stage of the participant. And in a really related approach, they’re additionally probably stretching the participant’s information of the sport or information of their place within the group. And so in that there’s a stretch to take that participant out of their consolation zone, out of their information zone. And I feel that’s the place the thought begins to return into slightly little bit of battle between if I’m the supporter, the encourager who desires the individual to succeed, the backer, the advocate. If I’m the advocate who’s pleading for or in behalf of the horse, however I’m pleading for that in opposition to myself, who’s within the position of the coach? The coach who is about out the duty that’s going to stretch the horse bodily or mentally? Are you able to see the place should you’re not conscious of this, it may trigger a battle in you since you’re the one inflicting the stretch. Once I work with riders who haven’t acknowledged these two completely different standpoints, what I usually see is that they try and method the thought of working the horse and stretching the horse’s consolation zone, whether or not that’s emotionally, information clever or bodily.

Once they try and stretch, that they’ll really feel responsible or by some means conflicted about having the horse hold going. They’re more likely to say issues like, my horse doesn’t like that. And in a approach I perceive what they’re saying, but it surely’s slightly bit like once I’m understanding, I select to work out, and I don’t love the way it feels to work out. So there’s a stability between difficult the horse’s consolation zone. I did a earlier podcast referred to as inexperienced, yellow and Purple zones and it’s very straightforward because the supporter, because the cheerleader, because the advocate, to have a sense that the Inexperienced Zone is the spot that we should always all the time be in as a result of it’s the simpler zone. However the yellow zone is definitely the place the horse will get stretched, and the pink zone represents an excessive amount of of a stretch to the place it’s overloading. Now, once I tie this again to one thing that you’d really expertise, a pair issues come to thoughts. I used to be simply loping up the path on Willow whereas I’m recording this podcast, and oftentimes I meet riders who’ve a worry of loping, a priority about loping, a hesitation about loping. And once we begin breaking it down, there’s a whole lot of completely different elements. Clearly it’s a quicker pace, there’s a distinct motion to take a seat.

However constantly, one of many issues that many of those riders will report is that they’ve bother getting their horse to canter in a small, enclosed space. So as a result of they’ve bother getting that lope or that canter in, let’s say a spherical pan or a small area as a result of. It’s not straightforward to get the horse to do it as a result of once more, let me translate as a result of it’s not Inexperienced Zone. Simple to get the horse to do it there. They select to go to the place it’s straightforward to get the horse to lope. So that they exit on a path like the place I’m proper now, or they exit in a subject or they exit. I used to be simply on a mud highway cantering a minute in the past. They exit someplace the place it’s straightforward to get the horse to go, nicely then it’s Inexperienced zone, straightforward to get the horse to go, but it surely’s not really easy to get the horse to decelerate. And for me, the lacking piece in right here is that because the coach of the horse, if I’m wanting on the bodily approach that the horse goes to maneuver, let’s say on a lunge line sized circle versus on a mud highway the place they will canter with no restrictions. Numerous instances the factor that’s really completely different between these two is that the scale of a lunge circle requires a stage of assortment, however that stage of assortment requires the horse to perform a little extra work.

So the best way that I describe it, as a result of it’s the best way that I really feel it, is that once I’m driving on a horse that’s extra collected, that actually signifies that their stride isn’t as lengthy and that they’re extra gathered up and balanced. And so once I take into consideration loping on a younger inexperienced or a horse that doesn’t accumulate nicely, and being out on a again dust highway, that will have been my complete teenage years. And once I evaluate the sensation of driving that in my thoughts to the sensation of driving a horse that’s even simply barely extra collected, which is what’s required to be on that lunge line. It feels very cart wheelie to me after they’re working free. And that cart wheelie feeling comes from how they’re shifting their physique. I need to act it out for you. Although it’s a podcast. It’s like I need to swing my arms on this actually large movement and act like I’m working down a hill. And that’s the way it feels to let a horse run on a again highway in a quote unquote, straightforward place to get them to go. However the half that’s making it straightforward to get them to go is that they don’t have to gather. However that’s the very factor that’s making it exhausting to sluggish them down, as a result of the best way they’re really shifting is much less collected and that much less collected. That cart wheelie feeling, that’s the best way that I expertise it.

That cart wheelie feeling is bodily not simply it’s not only a mindset. It’s bodily of their physique. It’s really more durable for them to decelerate from. So think about you I did this as a child working down a hill, and also you begin wheeling your arms like they’re large windmills. You get slightly out of stability, and the best way that ends regularly will not be with you by yourself two ft. And so with the horse, after they’re feeling that lack of stability, after which the rider begins to make use of the reins to sluggish them down, the horse experiences much more of a lack of stability because of the rider interfering with using their head and neck. And all of that is taking place as a result of the rider needed to maintain the horse extra comfy by asking them to lope in a inexperienced zone. Place on this instance out on a mud highway versus in a spherical pen or on a lunge line dimension circle, the place in that state of affairs, the problem would have been extra emotional coaching clever. Are you able to request your horse to Canter in a spot that it doesn’t need to, as a result of it wants to gather? Can your horse work out how one can use its physique in a extra collected approach? Which means it really goes to be extra more likely to be exhausting to get going, but additionally rather a lot simpler to cease, as a result of that’s the opposite facet of I’m having bother getting my horse to canter on this small facet.

Excellent news you’ll be capable to cease the horse from cantering a lot simpler, however there tends to be a guilt related to asking the horse to do a yellow zone factor by cantering on that smaller circle. Are you beginning to see extra clearly how the position of the coach, who can bodily see the distinction between these two completely different situations and see bodily what’s taking place, and likewise see mentally why the horse can be quote unquote proof against cantering on that smaller circle. Are you able to see the place should you had the power to not solely look? Hearken to this podcast and determine these. However should you may really really feel the distinction in your physique if you have been feeling responsible since you need to be the advocate and the supporter, however proper now your horse wants slightly bit extra accountability to get shifting and truly lope on this small circle.

Sure, Willow, should you step on one finish of a department, it’s going to leap additional away from you. The tree down. We needed to experience round off the path by the woods.

Okay. So my predominant level right here is there might be completely different roles that you’ll be in if you’re along with your horse. Deliberately working towards these completely different roles individually will make it easier to perceive every of these roles extra clearly. I proper now am working my surprising orphanage, so I’ve Lefty and Stormy at dwelling, and that signifies that I’m typically within the well being care supplier position.

However I’m additionally working a preschool, and I’m additionally educating them about what physique language is suitable with people and what’s not acceptable with people, and the way that’s completely different than what’s acceptable with one another. So understanding these completely different roles is what takes away the guilt from the expertise of correcting lefty. If he begins backing in direction of me and humping up together with his little butt threatening to kick me, I don’t really feel responsible about reaching out and scooting him ahead and shifting him, after which deliberately strolling and shifting him deliberately to say to him, I’ll transfer your little ft. You may transfer, and I like to hug and scratch you. These are two completely different roles if I need to take a look at them like that. Now for me, as a result of I’ve practiced switching the roles so regularly, I’m in that tremendous spot the place as I’ve been recording this podcast and I’m going uphills and downhills and I’m trotting and I’m cantering and I’m driving up by the river. As I’m doing that, I’m fluent in switching roles. So once we needed to go round a fallen tree again there and Willow stepped on a department and she or he’s carrying her fly masks for the primary time this 12 months. And each time I put the fly masks on her for the primary time, it’s bought to be like carrying darkish sun shades. And he or she is slightly bit extra jumpy when issues occur, as a result of I feel it distorts her imaginative and prescient just a bit bit.

Now it appears to fade or go away the extra she will get used to it. However she stepped on the top of a department again there, and the department was 6 or 7ft lengthy, so the opposite finish of it, seven ft away from us, jumped, and she or he shuddered. And so though as I’m driving alongside right here, it doesn’t seem like I’m actively teaching her, I’m prepared at a second’s discover to shut these aides and assist her, information her, after which carry her again round. And so this brings me to instance quantity two. Oftentimes when individuals are out path driving, which I like to do, oftentimes they hesitate to be the one which decides little issues on the path. And I’m not saying you need to resolve each step the complete time for miles and miles or nevertheless lengthy you experience. I’m saying it’s value selecting up and deciding if you wish to experience to the left, to the fitting, or straight by the center of that subsequent mud puddle. As a result of there’s knowledge in asking your horse these smaller inquiries to see how they’ll reply earlier than you really find yourself in a quote unquote massive or like a disaster kind scenario. And you then ask the horse to reply. So what I imply by that’s, as I’m approaching this mud proper right here, I’m taking a look at it and I’m deciding I need to go to the left of it, and I’m steering her round to the left of it.

Now, this subsequent mud that I simply am coming to date, I’m going to steer her straight by the center of it, and we’re going to go throughout to though she will be able to see that to the left can be the quote unquote, simpler technique to go. And if I choose up and I expertise slightly little bit of resistance, then that’s my little tiny gauge that one thing’s occurring in our communication or in her psychological state as we’re out right here on the path. And sometimes instances riders will go alongside and so they’ll unintentionally simply be speaking with a good friend or simply having fun with the surroundings just like the deer I noticed slightly earlier, and a few of the different lovely issues which might be beginning to develop. There’s flowers and all these things, and so they’ll let the horse make all types of selections. After which when one thing. Suppose larger occurs. Like earlier, there was a deer that didn’t transfer off the path and we got here round and it was frozen. And the primary time it moved once more, Willow has her fly masks on and I had simply seen the deer about 1.5 seconds earlier than Willow did, and when it first moved, she did a giant startle in place. But it surely’s nonetheless sort of a giant movement of like, huh, what’s that proper there? Numerous instances, riders who haven’t been selecting up and guiding the horse and dealing on that complete communication, they wait till that larger second, and so they could have a horse that wheels round and runs when that sort of stuff occurs and also you need to be dealing with the horse, that has that tendency far more regularly.

So that you could be placing cash within the financial institution and working towards earlier than you really find yourself nose to nose with the deer. And you could choose up in your aids. As a result of once more, if the minute you choose up on the aids, your horse additionally takes it as a restriction, as one thing that hinders their stability, as one thing that hinders their movement verses further assist. That’s when it begins to really feel harmful to be out right here. And for me, these things is far simpler to observe within the area in a managed surroundings. As a result of in the identical approach that I’m saying that I need you to observe being the coach for quarter-hour, after which you possibly can swap to a distinct position if you try this. It’s simpler to do this with an intentional thought course of about when and the place you’re going to do it. And that, for me, is rather a lot simpler to arrange and management at dwelling. As a result of out right here on the path, there are a whole lot of shifting items, and it’s more durable for each of us to focus and be correct. Which position is the toughest for you? Is it the toughest so that you can be the health coach that asks your horse to stretch their present health stage? Or is it more durable so that you can stretch that horse’s information stage and emotional stage slightly bit? So an instance of that will be asking the horse to face tied for an hour.

That’s not an actual bodily factor, but it surely’s an emotional factor. So when you consider the completely different roles that you simply play, it’s really necessary so that you can pitch your situations that you’re challenged by if you hear or learn of them after which suppose, oh, what position am I picturing myself in once I tie my horse up and ask him to face there for an hour? The place is that hesitation in me coming from to ask and require that of him? Does it really feel such as you’re the highschool principal working a detention class if you tie your horse up within the stall? Or you might flip it round and you might say, why is it straightforward for me to ask my horse to do a sure factor, like experience down the path? However why is it difficult for me to consider doing work within the area? And after you discover an instance of a spot the place you’re feeling okay holding the horse accountable, and an instance of a spot the place you don’t really feel pretty much as good, play with that and discover out what you’re occupied with every of these conditions and what position you might be placing your self into.

That’s what I’ve for you this week. Thanks for listening and I’ll speak to you once more within the subsequent episode.