Copy of Stacy's famous bareback & bridleless ride for FREE

This 15 foot rope is the choice around the barn for leading, ground tying (or training to ground-tie), as well as most in-close ground work. Made of high quality poly/nylon rope. The perfect weight for controlling rope movement. Does not tangle like thinner, light weight rope. Available in multiple colors.

The specially designed noseband keeps the nose open as you guide it over the nose. The spiral design is attractive and also encourages responsiveness while adding a splash of color. Available in multiple colors and sizes.

The last month or so has been really busy-even for me. If you look at the schedule it was not hard to predict that April would be hectic but little did I know at the time that I scheduled April’s events that March would have been as busy as it was. Throwing in a trip to California to be on Ellen’s show (and hauling Roxy all the way out there) was one thing, but then Ellen gave us a free trip to Universal Studios in Florida. When they told us I was praying that it would happen in the one unscheduled time slot we still had open at the very end of March. It did happen to be that time so we left home almost as soon as we arrived. That is how I ended up on a rock wall…

While we were walking around the park with the boys we came across a rock climbing wall. This is after we had been out for over half the day and had been soaked riding the Popeye ride. One of the boys wanted to climb and Jesse suggested that I climb with him. This would sound like a normal suggestion unless you know one thing about me-I am scared of heights. However I decided that if a seven year old could do it, I should be able to, so I agreed. We harnessed up and headed up. The first ten feet were pretty easy, the next up to about twenty went pretty well, but somewhere around thirty I lost it. Actually I froze. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to go up-but it I was already so high-and I wanted to go down-but I couldn’t even look there, let alone push off the wall and free fall down!!!

I had just had a conversation not too long before this trip with Terri (you know –the Terri in my office) about how she and her husband Scott had used climbing walls as a counseling tool in a previous line of work helping delinquent boys. She had mentioned that most of them would reach a certain spot and then freeze up and that is when some of the best counseling sessions happened. As I was stuck there, my fingers and feet starting to ache-along with my muscles, I was wishing there was someone around to counsel me! I have been in tough places before especially when preparing to show my horses and I know the importance of changing your thinking before anything else can change. I also remembered the coaching I give riders and decided to apply it here and I began to breathe again. Slowly I began to do two things simultaneously: I started to move up the wall and began to tell myself I WAS going to have to go down. I will spare you from the conversations that were going on in my head involving falling and fear and wishing I had not put myself in this situation because in the end I am glad I did it.

I really did make it up to ring the bell and I really did make it down again. In fact I did it again after a rest (thinking it would be easier-but it wasn’t). So why am I glad that I did it? There are several reasons but two of my favorites are that I learned more about myself through the experience and I learned more about teaching you. How you might wonder? Because it made me remember what it was like to do something I am not comfortable with and that is an important thing to remember when teaching.

Look for upcoming new pages:

Can Can Lena-The first horse Stacy performed bridleless with.

Whizards Baby Doll-The horse Stacy performed bareback and bridleless with.

Popcorn-Stacy's partner at The Road to the Horse colt starting where Stacy and Popcorn were champions.

Ellen DeGeneres-Hear all about the trip to see Ellen.

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