You can learn to be a tougher competitor in the same way you learn any other skill.
In essence, you are an equestrian athlete. Professional and Olympic athletes train mentally, emotionally, and physically.
As riders, we can do the same. We can utilize the EXACT same skills as the pros. When we do this, we maximize our showing and our riding.
You can train yourself to be “tough” in your thinking when you show. (That may sound a little harsh to some people! (-:)
But, tough simply means your ability to use words and images to call up calmness and focus on demand.
Tough thinking can calm your tendency to get angry and lose your cool with yourself, or anyone else when you make a mistake.
How does it work? It’s a discipline before and during your ride.
The first idea is to always talk to yourself in positive ways.
For example, you can never rid yourself of a negative emotion by trying to get rid of it. You cannot “not be nervous”. Instead you go for feeling calm and focused … and ready.
You recognize you’re feeling anxious and then you replace the nerves with thoughts that evoke calmness and focus. For example, you could say to yourself, “Stay cool. Breathe. Focus on your job.”
Another part of “tough” thinking is to lean into challenges. You don’t shy away from difficulties. In fact, the whole idea is to learn to love pressure. The more difficult it gets, the more you like it.
Because stress will always be a part of all of our lives (we can never eliminate it) to be a top competitor, you learn to handle stress. You see difficulties as challenges … not events that will take you down.
And no matter what happens as you ride, you say to yourself … and believe, “No problem!”.
Well now looky here. Once again you lady’s give us tools not only to help us be a better rider for our horses but also a tool to use for life in general. I shared this with my daughter who works in a hospital and is under a tremendous amount of stress. In my book she is a competitor and a champion. I shared this with her and saw her eyes get wide with excitement as she now has another tool in her tool box to enable herself to succeed at a profession she has a passion for. You two… Read more »
This is my biggest problem today. I really need to focus and realize ‘I cannot ‘not be nervous ‘.
This has been very helpful. I recently was at a Ranch Horse show that did not go as well as in the past…I kept trying to shake it off, but it seemed like the more I tried the worse it got. I’m sure I was Over Thinking! I did have a situation that I wonder if you may have some pointers for. It was the last day of the show and my horse and I were exhausted, we were In a Ranch Riding class and when we were at the walk she was Lagging, almost dragging her feet, like she… Read more »
I love this explantion! We CAN utilize the same skills as the Pros. We need a little nudge to grow and step up competitively.