Leadership is such a strange concept. There are so many ways that one can be a leader. You can be a leader by being outstanding in your field and being the type of person others are trying to catch up to. You can be a leader by helping others succeed. You can be a leader by having followers and creating a movement. Stacey Westfall is a leader in all of those ways.

A Bit About Stacy Westfall

For those of you who don’t know Stacy Westfall, she is an outstanding horse trainer and accomplished horseback rider. She is also a people trainer. In 2006 Stacy won the Road to the Horse competition, where 3 amazing trainers have a short time (over 3 days) to take a horse that has never been handled by humans and start it under saddle. By the end of the 3^rd day they are having the horses drag objects, handlers are standing on their backs, and doing things that many of us can’t do with our older, well trained horses. Some of the best trainers in the world compete at this competition and Stacy was the first woman to ever compete, and she won! In 2012 Stacy was also inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

You may know Stacy from a video of her 2006 win at the World Quarter Horse Congress reigning event. For that win she rode a black horse without a bridle (no reins or other means of control) and no saddle. She moved the horse through high speed technical maneuvers as she performed to the song Live Like You Were Dying, by Tim McGraw. She dedicated the ride to her father that passed away just a month before, and the video went totally viral on Facebook (I have posted a link on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/AnimalLeadership/).

Untruths Revealed

You may remember the video that was circulated because it claimed Stacy was deaf and mute and used ancient Indian training methods to train her horse in just days. Now in the Road to the Horse, riders do train their horses to do amazing things, but not things like the riding in the video we saw of Stacy at the World Congress. If you have not seen it, check it out. By the way, Stacy was thoughtful enough to take the time to explain the untruths said about her and use it as a teaching moment (https://westfallhorsemanship.com/2011/09/22/stacy-westfall-deaf-mute/).

So, in the world of horses, Stacy Westfall is a leader. She could even be called a Rock Star! She’s awesome. Stacy was nice enough to agree to let me interview her for a new book I am working on, and although there is a lot about horses and leadership I plan to share with you later, I really just want to share with you a couple more things about Stacy Westfall that impressed me with her leadership.

Horse Training Skills Online

Stacy has a BIG online presence. She made a video series that is on YouTube where she trains this horse, Jac, from an unbroken colt to a nice riding horse. She records the process over a series of videos and it is so educational for those of us who train horses. Stacy is amazing teacher, and really an expert animal behaviorist. She makes sure her human students understand what her horse students are thinking as she works with them. She could have packaged this series and sold it for $200+, but she chose to put it out there for free online. I asked Stacy why, and her reasoning was that she remembered starting out and wishing she had resources to help. Stacy does have videos for sale (see https://westfallhorsemanship.com/ to learn more) but this series, one of the best I have seen on starting a colt, she is giving away to help anyone who wanted it. To me that says something about her character.

In the time I was able to spend with Stacy we talked about other important aspects of life like parenting, careers, future goals, and of course, horses. Stacy previously lived in a RV with her family for two years traveling the country and then settled down at the request of one of her sons, who, although he thought the experience was awesome, wanted a normal life. Stacy quickly agreed and they settled down, again saying something about her character and sacrifices she was willing to make for those she led.

Another non-typical thing that Stacy has done that exemplifies her leadership skills, is putting together a conference for those wanting a career with horses. This is sort of a big dream for many people but they don’t know where to start. Stacy decided to help folks out by putting together this resource event and sharing her knowledge and connections (learn more at http://mmrm.org/retreats-and-events/equine-career-conference/).

So, I will bring you more from Stacy in the months to come, but I would like you to think about Stacy’s example and see what you can do to be more of a leader. Think about how you would like to be outstanding in your career. Think about what you can do to give back to others. Think about how you can make sacrifices to support family and those around you. I hope a glimpse into the accomplishments of Stacy Westfall motivates you to get out there and push yourself to do good things. Leadership, after all, is about setting goals and accomplishing them, and being the sort of person who can help those around you accomplish their goals too.