SLR for Riders

 It’s happened: those melodramatic Weather Channel headlines (ARCTIC COLD FRONT GRIPS MIDWEST AND NORTHEAST!!! MILLIONS BRACE FOR IMPACT!!)  have actually come true. Your WTForecast app reads “-4 degrees, the cold is proof that either Mother Nature hates you, or the Earth is too far from the sun.”  But you’ve got horses to take care of, whether they are your own at home, or, if you’re like me, a barn full of your boarders’ wimpy OTTBs, so out into the frozen tundra you go. One day of this you can handle, no problem. Two, and it starts to get tiresome. But as a former psychotherapist, I can assure you that, when the cold snap begins to enter its third straight day, you will start to go through the Five Stages of Grief. I’m here to reassure you that these stages are completely normal, and you WILL get through them. Stage 1:…

5 Things Confident Riders Avoid Recently I told you five things that confident riders do. There are also things they avoid doing so that they don’t damage their confidence. Here are five things that confident riders avoid: 1. They avoid thinking about all of the bad things that might happen. Confident riders don’t picture their horse spooking at the real estate sign or refusing the Liverpool jump. However, they’re not oblivious to potential problems either. Instead of thinking about what might happen, they make a plan about how they’re going to prevent a problem from occurring: “Before we get to the real estate sign, I will bend my horse away from it.” 2. They avoid beating themselves up for mistakes. Confident riders know that even the best equestrians make mistakes and have trouble spots. Instead of thinking “I’m a terrible rider” when they make an error, they think “What should…

You may think that confidence is something that you either have or you don’t, but that’s not true. Confidence comes from taking risks, failing, learning, and trying again. It comes from practicing, succeeding and recognizing that you’re making progress. Here are five things that confident riders do that make them that way. 1. Confident riders are willing to risk failure. They operate just outside their comfort zone, which is where learning happens, so they make a lot of mistakes. They’re just as uncomfortable with mistakes as everyone else; they just do it so often, they get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. 2. Confident riders see failure as information; they don’t take it personally. This goes back to a quote attributed to Thomas Edison: “I haven’t failed 10,000 times, I’ve just discovered 10,000 ways that didn’t work.” Confident riders don’t think “Wow, I suck, I’m a terrible rider” when they make a mistake. Instead,…

“You should just sell your horse and quit riding.  You’re never going to get any better so you might as well just give up.” “Everyone else here is better than you.  You have no business being here.  Everyone is laughing at you.” “You’re worse than a worm.  You’re the worm at the bottom of the manure pile.” The above statements sound like the script for Mean Girls Go to the Horse Show.  But these weren’t said by one teenaged girl to another.  These are actual quotes that some of my clients say to themselves, both inside their heads and out loud.  (And I did not make that last one up.)  Of all the harmful thinking habits I know, Negative Self Talk (NST) is the most destructive.  It cuts people off at the knees before they can even get started, and it can sabotage even the biggest success. Most people know…

Have you ever learned a jump course or dressage test by heart, only to have it vanish completely from your brain the second you enter the ring? In the warm-up, does your trainer’s voice sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher? When you’re nervous, do you find yourself reverting to bad habits such as leaning too far forward or tensing your hands on the reins? If so, you’re not alone.  Almost everyone has difficulty thinking clearly when they are anxious.  What is to blame for this frustrating phenomenon?  The reptile brain. The human brain has evolved over millions of years.  Our oldest ancestors, namely reptiles, had a brain stem at the top of the spinal cord that regulated body functions—breathing, heartbeat etc.—and contained a survival mechanism called the Fight or Flight Response (FOFR).  The FOFR caused the heart to pump faster, breathing to increase, and the blood to rush to the animal’s…

When you go to any horse show in any discipline, you will witness very similar scenes in the warm-up area.  Some people will be schooling their horses with purpose and clarity.  Others look a little lost, and still others seem frozen like deer in the headlights.  If you fall into one of the latter two categories, the simple acronym BAR can help you become more focused and effective. B=Breathe! You probably knew this was coming!   As you go through your initial few minutes, usually walk/trot/canter in both directions, make sure that you Breathe deeply and evenly.  Concentration, effort and nervousness all conspire to make breathing shallow and quick.  This makes it harder to think and to feel what your horse is doing, and it creates tension in your muscles.  Deliberately inhale smoothly and completely every few moments, and follow with a slow, complete exhale. A=Assess. Once you’re breathing, you need…

It’s February…cold, snowy, and nowhere near spring! For those of us who can’t winter down south, green grass and warm temperatures seem a thousand years and a thousand miles away.  Sometimes sinking into a deep armchair with a good book is much, much more appealing than going to the barn to ride!  But this is the perfect time to work on all of those little details I always promise myself I’ll do “when I have more time to focus”–ride without stirrups, perfect that counter-canter, practice poles on the ground.  So how to jump-start my motivation and get myself out of the house?  Two things: lots of visual reminders of my big goals, and as much contact as possible with like-minded friends and colleagues.  This means last year’s Rolex ticket posted on my refrigerator, and watching DVDs of Rolex, Badminton and Burghley, along with how-to videos from Jim Wofford and Lucinda…

I recently returned from the American Eventing Championships in Fairburn, Georgia, where I competed with my two mares at training level.  Both horses were terrific and came home with 7th and 20th placings out of a division of 54 riders! While I was there, I watched the Advanced Level riders closely, especially those who were vying for a place on the team for the World Equestrian Games.  While some were clearly nervous, every one of them kept their bodies elastic and fluid and never interfered with their horses’ motion.  They may have felt anxious, but they “acted as if” they were not–and it was clear in their faces that this “acting as if” actually created greater feelings of calm as their rides progressed.  What a great lesson in maintaining focus!