Transcript for this weeks message

Shane Jacob

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of The Horsemanship Journey Podcast, where we bring you the best horsemen in the world and talk about the attitudes that got them to be there. Today, the Horsemanship Journey is proud to present Rick Steed. Rick began training horses at a young age in Southern Utah. He went to Canada for a few years and back to the States where he worked with several cutting and reigning world champions. 27 years ago, he recognized that being a horseman was more important than training or showing.

Rick has multiple National Rein Cow Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, Show by Appointment, and American Ranch Horse Association World Titles. Rick is a trainer, mentor, professional horseman, and a friend of mine. Rick, thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. Appreciate you, brother.

Rick Steed

It's good to hear from you.

Shane Jacob

So, I don't know, just tell us a little bit more about Rick, where you came from and just a little bit more about Rick.

Rick Steed

Well, the one thing that probably, the biggest thing to say about Rick is that the fact that I have the desire to evolve. I've had the desire to evolve for quite a few years and that in and of itself is what I believe has always been able to get me what I wanted and where I wanted to go. And I'm not done evolving. I plan on being a lot better next year than I am this year.

Shane Jacob

Right on. Right on. I wanted to, see if you remembered this. This is quite a number of years ago where I was in a pen and you were giving lessons and there was a girl in the cull? and she seemed like she might've had a little bit of a bad attitude that day. And I just see if you could remember this experience. She was having some trouble with her mare and whatever the problem was, you told her that she could either lope around the pen and sing a specific song or else she'd just have to get off and quit for the day.

And she didn't want to really sing that song, I mean, and lope around those circles. But eventually she started kind of singing that song in a little faint voice. And then you told her to belt it out. And finally, she was loping around there like, belting out this song. And miraculously, I mean, all the results that she was having with her mare kinda changed. And I was wondering if you could just talk about that time. If you remember it.

Rick Steed

I do remember it. And I had a lot less tools than I have today, but the foundation of what I did was exactly the same. And what happened was when we got her to sing. Two things happened. If you're smiling, your butt can't pucker. When you're singing you can't tighten up your body, so then you'll relax it. Then that horse can relax under you in a natural way. That being said, when your focus goes from what's not happening to what you would like to happen, there's what changes 90 % of the outcome of a situation, probably regardless what you're doing.

Shane Jacob

Well, whatever it was, it was kind of, it was fun to watch and it was particularly fun to watch that. You know that in the end she was happy. It seemed like the mare was, you know, not so cranky and they were getting done what they wanted to. So however, it did work out in what I saw that day.

Rick Steed

So that was what happened is when she started singing, she relaxed when she relaxed, the horse could relax under her.

Shane Jacob

Right on. So, I mean, you've been in this game for a long time. You've given, I don't know, thousands and thousands of lessons. Who knows how many horses, different kinds of horses you've ridden, but you've been out there and you've seen the struggles that people have on a daily basis. And so what are some of the most common things that you see people struggle with?

Rick Steed

Probably the biggest thing that I see people struggle with is focus. And without focus, it's very hard to achieve anything. So if I can't see it, and if I can't see what my end result wants to be, it'd be very hard for me to communicate it to myself down through my hands, through a horse's reins, my seat, to the horse actually being able to focus on a light goal. And so, the biggest thing that I see, and we're going to probably come back to this quite a few times it's looking like is, if I can look at what I'd like the horse to do instead of what the horse is not doing, most people focus on what didn't happen. And as soon as you focus on what didn't happen, it's gonna didn't happen again. If that makes sense.

Shane Jacob

So there's a lot of stuff right there. So you're saying that, well, first of all, just right there to just to put your focus on, I mean, you have to realize what's not happening also, but you're saying, I mean, so give me an example, like of a thought process. If you're focusing on what's happening, right. But you're still not getting exactly what you want to do, then how does that go?

Rick Steed

You can't build a positive on a negative. It doesn't work. So if I can say, if I focus on what I'd like to have happen, like let's say I look at a cone and I ride to it.

If what I'm focusing on is riding to it, my focus and my release is change. If I'm focusing on what the horse is doing while I'm going toward it, then my focus changes again for a less positive outcome. So if my focus is getting the horse to give me some collection, direction becomes less important. But without the direction, regardless of whether I'm getting collection or not, it's going to be less productive. So it's always direction first. And there's where I'm saying you focus on what you would like to happen, where you would like to be. And then you add pressure and release pressure till you're there. You've just barely worked a process in a positive manner as opposed to worrying about your horse not going there and getting after him and over correcting him left and right. He's not giving his chin now. So you're pulling on his head. Well, his hip just kicked out. So now I'm going to drive his hip under him. So you've just barely turned what could be very positive and forward into something very negative and backwards. Okay. So, no matter what I'd like to get done, it has to be the focus is which comes very first. It's got to be the priority of everything I do would be the focus on what I want to achieve.

Shane Jacob

Okay. So, so if what I hear you saying is, is we need to break this down for ourselves and our horses into little like priorities. It's like, what am I trying to do right now? Because I'd really like to go and do a maneuver or even to have a successful trail ride, there's going to be what, like a thousand different pieces in this equation. But I think what you're saying is, is when we go about trying to communicate with our horses and like improve them and develop them to pick one piece, that's the priority right then and to work on that and everything else that's happening is not relevant at that moment. Is that what you're saying?

Rick Steed

Yes, and the big thing is you can't have two perfect releases at the same time. Your release is how we train a horse, how we communicate with them is through release. So if I would like direction, collection and speed, there's no way for me to communicate three perfect releases. But if I focus on a direction release, then a speed release, then a direction release and then a collection release, then I can get it done because I'm breaking it down to perfect releases to tell the horse this is exactly what I'm looking for. But if I compound a fraction, then what happens is even the best mathematicians in the world have to practice that quite a bit to be able to rattle it off the top of their head. And not very many can.

Shane Jacob

This is huge because I think that what it's like when we saddle up and get on our horse, you know, we might be able to visualize this, this, the result that we want, right? What, whatever that is, like maybe we're loping a circle or maybe we're just going in a straight line, our horse is guiding where we want to out through the willy wads, whatever the result we want is, but, we're focusing on everything at the same time. And maybe like you said, we're not getting the releases done at the same time because there's so many things happening that when something else, like you mentioned, like the hip kicks out or whatever, something unrelated to your priority happens. Then we go and try to fix that. Then something else happens and where our mind is just like, it's all over the place. And so therefore it seems like that's what's happened to the horses. His mind's getting all over the place.

Rick Steed

He can't follow you that fast. And the big thing is you gave him bad answers the whole time because instead of getting the direction down, you added your pressure into your hip. So now that becomes the priority of what you need to move. And yet the direction was what you needed to have. You needed to finish that equation. Then you can release and then come back and ask him to move his hip and release it, you see? But if you do it at the same time, it makes it to where there is no perfect release. So in the last couple of years, I've really, really been focusing on equations instead of maneuvers. And I'm riding my horse is better and riding better horses better than I ever have. So when I look at something, it's the equation I'm looking at, the equation will create the maneuver.

Shane Jacob

So once you feel like, let's just say that you're working on direction and whatever. So if I'm working on one specific piece and we'll call it direction, if collection goes out and my horse trots or whatever, his speed changes or whatever. If my priorities direction, then how does that go? Do I just kind of let those other things happen and then just stay with my direction until I get direction? And then when I feel direction solid, or do I just separate them in my mind and say, okay, now I'm going to go over here and fix this speed thing. And then I'm going to come back to direction.

Rick Steed

I really, my biggest path of success is the number three. If I'm going after direction, I will fix direction regardless of whether his head's upside down, where his hip is, where his shoulders are. I'll get him going exactly where I want to three times in a row with the release. Then if his head's in the air, I may work on collection, but it's always direction, then hold till the collection happens. So now I'm still doing one thing at a time. And then I may go back. I'll work on collection three times, even if he's not going exactly where I would like him to go. And then I'll move my priority back to direction again. Then I'll come back to collection. Pretty quick, I'll have direction and collection in my release box. The release box is the power of our whole training process is when we let the horse, when we release the pressure, that's where the horse gets the most comfortable. So we want to release that pressure when the horse has answered the equation correctly.

Shane Jacob

Right on. You know, this kind of a, this brings up another thing, Rick, and that is I was talking to my brother, John, a day or two ago about the idea that of, really, in order to make a horse solid, to really clearly communicate this stuff that, in order to get these, communication solid where, you know, we believe that we would call our horse having pretty good direction for what we're, what our expectation is to make a horse, the amount of time, I don't know if it seems like some people, their expectation, they don't really know the amount of time that it really takes to make these principles solid in their horses. And then when it's not happening fast enough, we get frustrated with the horse with the whole thing and you know, and then it's like, well, it just, you know, it takes too much time or the horse won't do it or whatever. They just get frustrated. I think all of us get frustrated or have at some points because really I think, and I see that a lot of us underestimate the time on task that it really takes to build a solid horse. Even when you have one that's easy to build. What do you have any thoughts on that?

Rick Steed

Brings up one of my major, major communication deals that I believe and talk about. We as people to get a, let's say a doctor. To get to be a doctor who is confident in his job and can do it at the drop of the hat, has knowledge and everything, he goes to at least 28 years of school. By the time he goes from starting grade school till he's graduated and he's a licensed doctor. Well, we take these horses and we're putting them through college to the top of their game in three years, which makes us seem like we're probably not that bright. And you'll get a lot of people who want to call it a dumb horse or he can't understand this, well, maybe it's we can't teach you. And we would look at maybe being consistent in the way we teach him. Then maybe, maybe if four times four would be 16 every single time, he might know that answer. But if it floats from 12 to 10 to nine, there's never a chance of him hanging on to that answer 100 % of the time.

Shane Jacob

Right on.

Rick Steed

So my deal is, is that if you're going to take and train a horse, you stay consistent in the equations you're giving him. Make sure that math never changes. He can learn math as good or better than we can. Then when you fire an equation at him, what's four times four? He just says 16.What's three times three? Nine. You see, and there's where you get, regardless of the amount of time it takes, there is where. You get that horse we call finish the horse we say can excel at the highest levels. And it reacts. It takes and takes him less time to do it. The more we put the responsibility on ourselves to ask him the same every time, it shortens his trip up by years.

Shane Jacob

Awesome. So along the lines of this is. people, a lot of times they, when you get frustrated because you're not, we're not getting the results. It's like, well, it's the horse or I mean, changing horses is a hard decision. Sometimes people look at it and they're like, I'm in this thing and I'm in it a hundred percent, and then it's like, well, maybe that's a good decision. And maybe it's not maybe that horse. When we say, that horse might not be good for you. Or this isn't a good fit or, you know, or is it that the horses sometimes, cause horses don't all have the same learning ability. So we have to determine if that, is it worth the time to make this a good fit or is this horse going to get me hurt or am I just not putting the time in? I mean, there's so many things to consider. I mean, would you just go to your trainer and say, help me out here because. I mean, seriously, just look at some people are just resigned. I've seen, you know, that they're going to keep their horse, but they're not going to ride it again because there something happened and whatever, or when people don't get the results. And so when I guess I'm asking you, when it, when it comes time to make those decisions, how do you go about knowing really truly what the answer is? Because some of us don't have the experience that you have. And a lot of people have to know.

Rick Steed

Well, the big thing is, is there's where your personal battle comes into the deal, okay? Most of the time when you have a horse problem, people might not like to hear this, but I'm still gonna say it. It's not a horse problem, it's an internal problem. It's an internal something you've dealt with in the past that keeps coming up to the surface and it keeps biting you. Well, the horse is biting you because you're responding in a certain way, who cares why? But a lot of times, if our ability to change ourselves, we're going to change that horse. But as long as we want to hang on to who we are and keep our baggage and not change who we are and work through it, then it'll never be a good fit because every time that it bites, it's going to remind you of your ex, let's suppose. Okay, every time this little thing happens, it reminds me of something my ex did and I'm pissed off again about it, you know? And I think there's where your biggest thing comes in. So, When I get a horse and a person who have had years of baggage. That vicious circle is very alive. And is it robbing them of the joy of even having a horse? And if it is at that point there, I I tell them, well, maybe, maybe you want to do something a little different. Maybe we ought to start over on a clean slate, kind of like getting divorced. Maybe, maybe there's so much water under the bridge that we're not going to recover from it with any kind of positive thing and to hang on to it will just create us misery and discontent. So why would we do it at that point?

Shane Jacob

Yeah, those are hard decisions for people. And maybe it's also hard. I guess what you're saying is, is a lot of these, you know, we have to take a hard look, whether it's been years or short. I mean, horses can pick up bad habits, I think, pretty dang quick. And, I mean, just to have the willingness to be able to change and then to make the decision if it's, if there really is too much damage that it's just going to be too much to go through and too much time and too much effort and too much. And then what is the end result going to be anyway, to be able to, you know, start over again. And then if we start over again, are we going to create the same problem because we're not committed to do things different, right?

Rick Steed

There's where our big problem comes in is when we start over again, we're not willing to do something different to change the outcome. Okay. We're wanting them to magically comply, but yet we want to still be the same ass we were yesterday. And I don't imagine that that's not going to work out any better. The second round.

Shane Jacob

Do you find out that a lot of this is like unintentional? Just like, don't people really just don't even know what they're creating a lot of the time.

Rick Steed

I think it's all unintentional until you know better. When you know better, it's not unintentional. Up to that, you're doing the best you can. And that's all anybody can do at any level is the best they can. We were put here with a be race or novel and knowledge to where we got to learn it, why we were here. And until we've learned something, we don't know better. Now, once we know it, then we go ahead and go back the other way. Now we're acting out of. There's where I think it changes from ignorance to stupidity.

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Shane Jacob

Yeah. Well, when could you want to just like give one example of just to be more specific so people can really kind of follow what you're talking about, just like give an example of something that we might have created that might. You know, like give an example of this for somebody who might be listening, who's not quite tracking with you.

Rick Steed

Okay. I had a horse when I was a kid. I guess I was probably, well, I was under 18. I had a horse railroad backwards on me and it crippled me. And it was quite a boat. It was, it was pretty painful, miserable process to come back. Well, every time a horse's front feet would come off the ground after that, I would let go. I was creating a perfect release. I was teaching that horse how to bring it’s feet off the ground and not realize it. Well, what happened with me was my brain triggered in a spot that it said, you're in trouble. So I would go to save myself instead of create a different answer. I'd go to save myself and I'd release that head, which would turn it into a perfect release, which would take the horse and tell him this is exactly what he's looking for because they learned from release. Well, it was a year and a half before I could consistently pull a left or a right rein and bring us back to the ground, and let go of him when he was on the ground. Then my rearing problem went away. Then my baggage of a horse rearing went away. But it had to be a new answer. It couldn't come with the old answer of where the wreck had happened. And had I not had the commitment to ride through that, I'd probably still have a rearing problem with my horses.

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Shane Jacob

Appreciate that. Yeah. So we're a little bit low on time, but I just wanted to ask you one more question and that is about fear. When you talked about this, having this wreck and a lot of us have wrecks, big wrecks, little wrecks. I mean, if you've ridden, you've had a wreck and so if you've ridden much. So what, you know, when we get this fear, right, we get this fear, it's like you know, we're going to get hurt or, and you hear it, people talk about it a lot. And so then it affects our habits and what we're doing and it affects the way we ride. And I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts today, it's a big subject, but if you just had any brief thoughts on the best way to handle this fear that a lot, I think probably every rider gets at some point.

Rick Steed

Well, the exact opposite of fear in the universe is knowledge. And without knowledge, you can't conquer fear. Fear is what may happen. That's what fear is about, is the fear of the unknown. What can happen? Am I going to survive this? Where knowledge will tell you, if you'll do this instead of that, you're going to create a new outcome. So, the knowledge, and there's where people like I come in, and somebody will come in afraid. We teach them through time that if they'll do this, let's just use my example for the story I told for an example. If instead of letting go of that bridle rein when his front feet come off the ground, you'll let go of it. You'll pull just one bridle rein and let go when his feet hit the ground to the left or the right. That knowledge of how to do that is what's going to create the lack that that's going to take away the fear because now they have something to go to that they can focus on. And again, here's this word where you come and focus on it. Then you can go ahead and create an action. The action and release is going to create a new answer for you and your horse. So to overcome fear, you've got to get knowledge.

Shane Jacob

Right on.

Rick Steed

And the knowledge you got to get has to be something that works. And a lot of times searching through that yourself can be fairly difficult because your fear is still biting you so deep that you even think outside of the fear box and try to go to a knowledge box is something that's really unattainable.

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Shane Jacob

Yeah, right on. Well, that's some knowledge right there. We appreciate that. So, Rick we appreciate all the information today. Like always, it's a, it's a, just a super interesting conversation. I could talk and I think a lot of people could just listen for hours and hours about the, the experience that you've had and how to, how to manage these situations with our horses. We appreciate your time. Tell us what you're up to this year and how people get ahold of you. What's going on in your future? What's the last words you got for us today?

Rick Steed

Well, we just got home from the ARHA world show and with quite a bit of success from there, we ended up winning the Senior All Around High Point World Championship on one horse. And I showed my other horse in one class and he ended up winning it. So that was good. And the two children that I packed with me, both of them, one of them won two Reserve World Titles and the other one won a World Title, a Reserve World Title in about 10 top tens. So the process, the importance of what that means to me is not so much winning, it's how we did it. And we did it, it didn't cost our horses one hair on their body to be there. We did not have one backward negative experience in 10 days. And our horses came home just as happy as they got on the trailer to leave. And we are not home fixing what we traded at the horse show like I have in the past. And so that being said, it's a pretty amazing trip when you actually get to where they're enjoying their job as much as I enjoy mine. And this fall, we're going to go to some ranch horse shows. As far as it looks now, I'll be going to the Appaloosa World in September and then I'll be going to Las Vegas to rope at the World Finals Roping in December.

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Shane Jacob

Right on. Right on, brother. It's good to hear from you. Appreciate your time. Wish you continued success. Take care and we'll talk to you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Steed.

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Rick Steed

Have an amazing day and thanks for the time.

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Shane Jacob

You bet. We'll see you.

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Rick Steed

Okay. Bye.

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