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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 yo ...
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 158: An inside-out thankfulness assignment
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I see a dance between the words; thankful, grateful and compassion. When you make your ’I’m thankful for…’ list, do you make it on the list? There is a good chance you don’t because many people are worried about feeling vain or narcissistic. What if you could practice thankfulness and self compassion and it improved your relationship with your hors…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 157: What ‘they’ say…and what I make it mean about me as a rider.
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When someone makes a comment there is; what we hear, what we make it mean and how we can learn from it. A judge wrote, “You got just about every possible point out of this willing, obedient horse who is just not gifted with elasticity. Good training.” Not everyone reacted the same as I did to this. I’ve also had people say things that I DID negativ…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 156: Three mistakes I nearly made at the AQHA world show
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Going ALL IN on a goal contains many learning opportunities. In this podcast, I discuss these three challenges and how I overcame them at the AQHA world show. 1) I was tempted to become overly focused on this one event and loose sight of the big picture. 2) I was tempted to let the results of the show determine my success. 3) I was tempted to loose…
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with …
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 154: Creating emotions to benefit you and your horse
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Horses are excellent at reading emotions. Have you learned the skill of creating an emotion on demand? You’ll learn how to create and emotional state: both positive and negitive. I’ll share an example that you can do in five minutes to experience your control over your emotions. Then I’ll share three situations where you can practice creating a pos…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 153: How your thoughts change your results with your horse.
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Henry Ford summed it up well, ‘Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.” In this podcast I explain why this is so true with our horses. Our thoughts change the way our cues feel to our horses. I share an example where the only thing I changed was my thoughts…and it drastically changed the outcome. If you ever have these thought…
The main point of life coaching is to bring awareness of how our thoughts are impacting our results. Most riders would willingly consider that their body was impacting their horse. In this episode I discuss the stages that riders go through when increasing their awareness both physically and mentally. I also share two warning signs that you might b…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 151: Life coaching and the riders mind
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In this season of the podcast I’m discussing life coaching principals and how they apply to working with your horse. Life coaching addresses ’The Rider’s Mind’ which shows up in all quadrants. If I expand my intro I say each week in the podcast take a look at how the riders mind is in each phrase, “I’m here to help you read your horses body languag…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 150- Should you be playing a never ending game with your horse?
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In this podcast, I discuss the difference between ‘finite games’ which involve players, rules and winners and infinite, or never ending games, where the point is to keep playing because the journey is all there is. I share examples of this in the horse world and in everyday life. Then I close by telling you how I can easily identify which I’m playi…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 149- Three traits I see in riders who reach their goals
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ALL riders I’ve talked with experience dissatisfaction…the interesting thing is that some keep going and some do not. I see people give up…and I see people who overcome. What is the difference? I discuss three traits I’ve noticed in riders who consistantly reach their goals. I explain the tipping point that I see and how how you can intentify these…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 148- Three situations where horses frequently double check the rules
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In this episode, I discuss three situations where it is common for horses to ask questions about the rules. I call these moments ‘Grandma’s rules’ which is my fun way of explaining that horses are always seeking out the most benifitial set of rules to opperate by. I explain where the name came from and how understanding this can improve your view t…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 147: This is the awkward, uncomfortable part of the journey.
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Increasing a riders awareness of the feelings or emotions that come up during the learning process is extremely beneficial. For most riders, learning to train their own horse means learning new skills and experiencing the feelings that often accompany that like; vulnerable, nervous, disappointed, frightened, uncertain and awkward. In this podcast I…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 146-Why patterns can help & why riders resist riding patterns
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Today I’m talking about patterns…why I recommend riding patterns and why riders often have resistance to riding patterns. I’ll discuss anticipation in multiple forms, increasing your awareness by getting feedback from your horse and how your focus, or lack of focus, is impacting your ride. I posted two of my favorite training patterns over on my we…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 145: Skill confidence vs self confidence
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If you’re in the middle of a work session and things aren’t going the way you hoped do you lose confidence? How does this impact your time with your horse? In this episode I propose the idea that we can have different types of confidence. I outline ’self’ confidence vs ‘skill’ confidence and explain why knowing the difference could improve your res…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 144: 3 ways riders block their physical awareness
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In this episode, I explain three ways I see people holding themselves back by accidentally limiting their awareness of their body. Riding horses can be a great physical awareness tool. I describe what I call ‘body scanning’ and how to use this tool as a way to increase your awareness of your body so you can communicate more clearly with your horse.…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 143: Prerequisites for flying lead changes
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In this episode I’m answering a question about lead changes. In the beginning I’m very methodical about teaching shoulder control with the reins, legs as speed control. THEN hip control with my legs…separate from the shoulder control that is in my reins. I discuss: Bend and counterbend, turn on the forehand, Canter-walk-canter transitions, bouncy c…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 142: How can I slow my horse down on a loose rein?
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In this episode I’m answering a question about teaching a horse how to hunt slowing down with less or no rein contact. I’ll discuss teaching multiple cues, offering choices through the use of patterns and I’ll give you three different ‘tests’ you can take to evaluate your communication with your horse.…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 141: My horse is on the wrong lead…
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Learn how to identify what lead your horse is on when watching from the ground or when riding. What makes a lead ‘right or wrong’ or correct or incorrect? What is counter canter? What is cross firing? If a horse is constantly cross firing…what’s going on? Is this a soundness or a weakness issue? I answer all these questions and more before then giv…
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Episode 140: Uncollected- Is that resistance, stiffness and tripping mental or physical?
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I recieved an email awhile back that asked a short question. Here is what was written. “The biggest question I can’t seem to get a clear answer for is “how do I ask for the collection?” It is such a short…and seemingly simple question. I explain the underlying issue of collection and why the answer isn’t as simple as applying a few aids correctly. …
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 139: Teaching high energy horses to wait and low energy horses to be ready
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Are you naturally a low energy or high energy person? Is your horse a naturally low energy or high energy horse? How does this impact you training the horse? Sometime people solve this issue by buying the ‘opposite’ horse. High energy person=low energy horse Low energy person=high energy horse Some people solve it by buying the matching energy hors…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 138: 3 reasons people don’t develop emotional maturity in horses
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Do you think horses can be taught to be emotionally mature? What would that look like? Can you teach a horse to ‘help you out’? Or do you expect things will always feel ‘manual’ with your horse? In this episode I share my thoughts on emotional maturity and the three reasons people don’t teach it. (Spoiler alert: here are the three answers) The main…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 137: The role of excitement and patience in horse training
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How often do you practice feeling excited…and patience? Is it more common for you to be excited…and rush? In this episode, I use three examples to illustrate how learning to be excited while being patient can dramatically improve your ability to train your horse. There is MAGIC in getting excited about something that will take a long time to reach.…
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 136: Developing self awareness & independence when riding
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How can you keep yourself safe and make good choices…when you know you are conscious incompetence? In this episode I explain how to develop self awareness while you are riding. Self awareness is key to be able to recognize the difference between fear vs danger. I also review the stages of competency, and the three teachers you have access to learn …
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 135: Is mental exhaustion hindering your horse training?
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Can you effectively train your horse on a day when you feel mentally exhausted? Today I answer a listener question about this by discussing B- work, resistance, Physical exhaustion vs mental exhaustion and why I think working on days like this can BENEFIT my horses.By Stacy Westfall
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Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall
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Episode 134: How do you get that bond and trust with your horses?
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To answer the question of creating a bond of trust I discuss the balancing act of Training & Time. How much time does it take? What is the flaw of time? (Answer: being boring) How do you train while honoring the horses questions and understanding the emotional level? Does increasing the physical level of communication impact the emotional understan…
