2. Stacey Westfall - Riding bareback and Bridless..

Feeling inspired? I hope so. For me, Stacey Westfalls video not only demonstrates exceptional riding ability but also portrays the incredible results which can be achieved with natural horsemanship...

After watching this video i began to question why horse riders including my instructor used reins and saddles and everything else for that matter - for it was obvious from this video that you didn’t need to. Was it tradition? Was it that people were unaware that bareback riding like this was possible? Or was it just that people couldn’t be bothered to learn a new way? I thought and still think that it is all of these reasons.

It wasn’t just the video above that made me question why we use bits, it was also my horse. Every time i tried to put her bridle on she would lift her head and make it almost impossible. Most of my fellow horsewomen would say 'she is testing you'. But i could not help thinking it might just be the fact that she didn't like having a piece of metal in her mouth - which in my view was pretty understandable.

Of course she wasn’t the only one who'd protest... other horses at the livery yard would pin their ears back, pull faces or even threaten to kick when trying to tack up, another horse would try to bite you every time you did his girth up...And so whilst other owners were reprimanding their horses for trying to communicate with them much to my instructors dismay i was listening to mine and it wasn’t long before i was to purchase a bitless bridle and a treeless saddle and go barefoot.

I remember once having a conversation with a nice girl who had been riding for years about why people shod their horses and what the negative effects on the horses hoof were and to my surprise she’d never even considered the fact that metal provided no shock absorption and that the knock on effect of this could lead to bad joints and yet she was making her horse wear shoes every day of it’s life and trotting it up and down roads without a second thought. This led me to believe that there are many riders who simply do not think - they are not being cruel intentionally - they simply know no better.

As i was going against the grain...i.e in effect disagreeing with ‘their way’ it was not long after my podiatrist visiting that i started to encounter animosity. I think people feel threatened when they sense that the one thing in their life they are respected for may actually be under jeopardy and it terrifies them to think that they may ‘lose that respect’.

So my instructor did everything in her power to dissuade me about going barefoot, saying things like ‘horses she has known of have ended up being crippled due to getting foot sore’,‘horses she knew who had been ridden in a treeless saddle had ended up with their backs being so sore they were now un-rideable and that bitless bridles she had tried had failed to release the pressure when they should and cut into the horses poll’ but her word against all the other thousands of words i was reading on the internet and all the videos much to her disappointment just wasn’t enough to convince me. I began to distrust most of the things my instructor said and every time she had me questioning myself i‘d go back to the internet and find she was wrong.

Although regrettably, there were times when she would have me believe that her way was the right way....In particular this was her riding technique.

Whilst riding out on my own i was beginning to encounter problems...as Spice (my horse) was a naturally nervous horse other words that could describe her include 'skittish', 'highly strung', 'right brain extrovert' (you get the picture) anyway, she would sometimes spook and be so overcome with fear that she could not continue going forward. She would rear and start spinning backwards if i tried to force her and after listening to my instructors advice and others of ‘never getting off her’ and ‘using my legs and whip’ to make her go forward the rate at which she would do this simply increased - part of the reason why was because my heart wasn’t ever really in it. I had no desire to ever hit spice or any animal for that matter and i think spice knew this so would never give up ‘her fight’. However, with my instructor she would, as she simply knew she had no choice - she quickly realized that my instructor would whip her where it hurt most (her face) until she could not take anymore and had no choice but to give in. So, in a way it worked, my instructor got what she wanted...but was that the kind of relationship i wanted with my horse? and more to the point would my horse love me and respect me the way i wanted her to if it was? i knew that if that was what it took to make her go forward i couldn’t do it and so, convinced that it was (after all my instructor had 30 years experience so she must be right) i decided i could no longer go on and would have to sell her....

However, no sooner had i placed my advert on the internet - trying my best to describe her in a favourable way which was harder said than done! she injured herself in the field. For the first time i felt so protective over her - a bit like a mother would a child i guess, and whilst i held her head in my arms i realized just how much i loved her and started to doubt whether i'd ever be able to let her go...

Needless to say no one was interested in buying her...having the word ‘nervous’ in a horse advert never goes down well and the only interest i got was from people who were interested in ‘loaning her’ but as the people came and went i was beginning to realize that no one could/would ever love her as much as i did and that i was not going to be able to ‘let her go’.

During the time of her injury - i could not ride her so had started to do lots of ground work with her - something i had never really done before - for my instructor had never mentioned it even though i now consider it to be one of the most important things you can do with your horse and for the first time i was starting to form what has now become a very close bond with her.

On the ground, I started to realize that spice generally felt a lot more calm when not forced or pressured into doing something but given the time and freedom to do it voluntarily...and so our ground work was always based on these two principles...patience and freewill. If she trusted me to never hurt her, force her or trap her why would she ever resist my requests?