Connecting the Mind and Body of Horse and Rider with Stacy Westfall

The Barbra Schulte Show

In this episode, you'll meet Stacy Westfall from Loudonville, Ohio.

Stacy is one of the most beloved trainers and clinicians across disciplines for her knowledge as well as her delightful personality. Horses have always been and continue to be her happy place, and it's where the world makes sense.

You'll hear Stacy explain how one of the most humiliating rides of her life led to discovering bridleless riding.

She later became an overnight household superstar after her bareback and bridleless ride on her special mare, Roxy.

She changed career paths at the height of her successful public horse training career because she didn't want to lose an ounce of magic in her relationships with horses.

You'll hear Stacy's powerful and unique take on the connection between horse and rider. She'll break things down into the rider's mind, and body, and the horse's mind, and body - with the rider's mind being in the driver's seat.

I know you're going to love – and be enlightened by - what Stacy Westfall has to say.

Guest Info

Stacy Westfall grew up in South China, Maine, was taught to ride by her mother, and got her first pony, named Midnight Misty, at the age of six.

Stacy went to college at the University of Findlay in Ohio, where she majored in equestrian studies. At the root of her technique is the principle to "think-like-a-horse”.

In 1994, Westfall met her future husband, Jesse Westfall, at the Quarter Horse Congress. They married in 1997. Jesse Westfall is also a reining trainer and a judge for the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA). The couple settled in Mount Gilead, Ohio, have three sons, and run a horse training facility. Westfall gives clinics, trains horses, and competes in reining.

In 2003 Stacy won the National Reining Horse Association Freestyle reining competition riding with no bridle, and in 2006, on the black American Quarter Horse, Whizards Baby Doll, aka “Roxy". She won twice while riding bridleless and bareback.