Train Your Own Horse with Stacy Westfall

Riding near traffic can be challenging. Your horse must deal with vehicles of varying sizes, traveling at speed, and making loud noises. The road itself often has challenges such as culverts, guard r…

Episode 95-“Is there a way to teach emotional control to a horse? He is super quiet when ridden alone. When ridden in groups I can feel his nerves bundle up and then he broncs.” In this episode, I di…

Episode 94- A listener asks for some advice on how to reduce her horse's anxiety…and hers…when out on the trails. The discussion includes riding reactively vs planning, analyzing your thought pattern…

In this episode, I explain the relationship I see between pressure, composure, and building a horse's confidence on the trail. I also answer the question, “How you go about getting your horse to trai…

How do horses develop confidence on the trails? Does confidence come from riding with another confident horse? Are some horses just born confident and others will always struggle? Can confidence be t…

Episode 91: Take a moment and think about what YOU think might be the biggest problem or most common mistake you see when out trail riding. Visualize the problem. Here are some common problems that I…

Trail riding vs arena riding. They both come with advantages and disadvantages which is why I find a combination of both beneficial. In this podcast I discuss why some horses seem resistant to arena …

Today, I’m talking with  Molly Wagner about getting started as a professional in the horse industry.  Together, we are going to tackle two voicemails that came in. Some of the topics we discuss inclu…

Today I’m talking with Lynn Palm about western dressage.  Lynn literally wrote the book on the subject of western dressage. She competes, judges, and teaches people about the sport. In this conversat…

How much does it cost to own a horse? It is not an easy question to answer because there are so many variables but today's guest, Nicole Ross of HorseRookie.com has a unique solution. She began shari…

Why is change hard? Why do we ‘want’ to change…but find it challenging? Today Ginny Telego explains a model for change that involves recognizing several necessary steps:  Awareness, Desire to change,…

Getting into horses or returning to horses later in life can be a challenge but can also contain many hidden blessings. My guest today, Suzi Vlietstra, shares her experience of returning to horses at…

Does clicker training work with horses? Won't they just start looking for treats all the time? In this podcast, I'm talking with Mustang Maddy about clicker training horses. We discuss positive reinf…

Is it possible to get started in reining and fully train your own horse from start to show? Today’s guest says ‘yes’ and he has the track record to prove it. Today, I would introduce you to my husban…

Today we are talking about Riding with Confidence and my guest is Barbra Schulte. She is a Hall of Fame rider and a performance coach. I looked through my emails and asked her questions about fear of…

Episode 81: Today’s question is about teaching horses to pony or the art of leading one horse while riding another. Ponying can be a great way to exercise two horses at once as well as a way to expos…

Episode 80: Today, I'm answering two questions, both of these involve the idea of riding different disciplines. The first question discusses ethics, showing, and competition. And the second question …

Episode 78: A listener called in a question about training her first two-year-old. She is struggling to find the balance between quality vs quantity and also a concern of causing boredom during the t…

Episode 77: How does planning help set your horse up for success? How do the layers of training build into a more refined cue system? These topics and more come up as I answer the two following quest…