10 Secrets for Riding Success, The Equestrian Guide For Peak Performance.

Like Physiotherapy 30 years ago the rise of Psychology within sport, and our daily lives, has become that of truly pioneering work. Whether on the track, in the arena, on the pitch or back at home we can use different areas of psychology to better our daily workloads. When we look across different sports, psychology has adapted itself in producing better overall performance and creating elite athletes across the world in different nations. Within the Equestrian world and arguably, one of the oldest sports / partnership between humanity and the animal kingdom, psychology has been somewhat a little left to the side-line until recent years. This is something i'd like to address today.

From top riders recognising its importance such as Pippa Funnel, Charlotte Dujardin, Vittoria Panizzon and Lucinda Green, psychology has demonstrated its practical and versatile use for all aspects of equestrian life; not just on the riding side. Today we’re going to be sharing some of the top best kept secrets for your riding success whether you’re a happy hacker, a serious competitor or even something in between.

10) Keeping An Open Mind

- Starting off our list, the key to any successful rider is by orientating and internalising ‘focus’ back to the self. What I mean by this is for a rider to keep their mind open to new aspects, prospects and ideas, while also bearing in mind that the various proven techniques and education brought about in their horsemanship. By keeping an open mind, we follow the principle of the Growth Mindset, the ability to grow and flourish whilst cancelling out the Fixed Mindset in the process.

When we talk about these two mindsets, what we refer to is the ability to grow through our progression or that fate has set us on a debilitative path. The Growth Mindset follows the progression of an athlete, in the underlying belief that their learning, intelligence and performance can grow with time and experience. When athletes believe they can perform better, they realise that their effort has an effect on success, therefore they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.

-On the other hand, the fixed mindset is quite rather the opposite, people of this nature believe their qualities are fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These athletes document their intelligence and talents rather than working to develop and improve them. In other words, it is the belief that talent alone leads to success and the effort is not required (we’ve all seen it on the circuit).

- When we talk about keeping an open mind, try to think about the open mindset (in the pictures above) we’ve mentioned, to grow in our education and knowledge, to be open in new techniques and to see what potential you can achieve in the future. In time, we will see that this will pay in dividends.

- We'll be coming back to this later.

9) Gratitude

- The concept of gratitude within sport appears to be an area that is both within the public eye, but also to some extent, to understated within the lower levels of competition. We do see through social media athletes thanking their sponsors and support networks, but its only by going up the competition levels that we see gratitude of their mounts on a more and wider basis. You could say “that is reflection” and indeed you may be right, yet I would argue the use of gratitude through reflections is what makes us truly be thankful for how far we have come and what we have. Many athletes make use of writing a note at the end of each session competition, week or even a diary note at the end of the day, of the 5 good or great things they have or have experienced relative to them.

- When we view this through equestrian sport, you the athlete, can generate an ‘Attitude of Gratitude’ through the tools we’ll talk about. It has been found through psychological research within sports teams that gratitude has a significant increase on individual physical and mental health, decreased links to anxiety, depression and restless sleep. It was also found that grateful athletes have shown to be more satisfied with their partnership and are less likely to burn out (and later dropping out of the sport altogether). This might be something you have seen in your level of competition and, potentially more so, the opposite from riders whom may expect results instantly and treat their equine companions as machines. Food for thought!

- So how can we promote this? Well, grab a diary from your local W.H Smiths, stationary shop or supermarket and at the end of every day or training session, write down 5 things you are grateful (or that went well) for and 5 things you’re grateful your horse has achieved (even if it’s the same as he did yesterday or the smallest action today). This not only promotes the psychological benefits we mentioned before, but also increases your horsemanship intelligence (understanding your horses’ behaviour and reasoning to it) and increasing your bond beyond what you thought it could go before. Even if this is on a bad day, you can always find 5 good aspects (this brings us back to the open mindset) to write down, all that is required is your determination to get into a routine of writing this. Take a step back, break the habit of the modern-day life and organise some time for this, you’ll soon feel the benefits. Give it a try and stick at it!

8) Change Your Vocabulary.

- In psychology we call this ‘Cognitive Restructuring’ which we aim to replace irrational negative thought processes into a more open, progressive and positive one. In lamens terms, we take negatives and turn them into positives, simple

- Whoa there, before you log off and begin to censor the dictionary, lets bring some structure to this..

- Rather than saying that you’re “nervous”, change it to “you’re excited”. We say all the time that our horses are just “excited” when they’re fresh or something spooks them it is seldom that we say they’re nervous, so why should we daunt ourselves with such negative words and thoughts? Negative and, more recently, cynical thoughts are hardwired aspects of human life. We know that negative thoughts or negative news has a greater and more lasting impact upon us than the good, so we are further drawn towards it. Thus, it is us breaking the cycle of negativity and producing a more open and progressive self.

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

1) The Context: The Showjumping arena you’re competing in is quite tight on the corners between fences.

- Many riders will conflab and come up with the group think of “you have to be careful, those corners are pretty tight”. This will lead to most of your energy and brain power worrying over the corners and not on the next important phase; the next fence. Rather than thinking this way, which is more debilitative. Why not think “this is a great training tool to get him on his hocks and sharpen my accuracy on the corners” therefore you’re incorporating training and giving yourself and him more experience on the technical side; breaking yourself from the crowd. There is an old proverb that says “birds of a feather flock together” if you follow the crowd, you won’t advance as much as you could if you broke ranks. This is very applicable with an external influence on your vocabulary and before you know it, one thing will lead to another and we begin to stagnate in our performance. Even something as simple as the language you use!

2) The Context:

- You’re in the dressage warm up arena, this is the first time you’ve gone up to the next dressage level, there is a crowd and the movements are more technical. Even though you’ve been practising the movements back home, you thought this might be enough to get you through the first test. In your mind you’re thinking “what will the crowd think” or “what if something spooks her” and “I’m not sure of the surface, we’re not used to that” or “I don’t want to let the team down”.

- This is the exact same as the previous example, while reading this, you could say that these are genuine and reasonable questions. I would say, however that these irrational thoughts are detrimental while you are the rider about to go into the test, especially as this is your first test of the next level as all your brain power and energy is sapped about the uncontrollables.

7) Controlling the Controllables

- If you’re read any of my blog entries, you’ll know my main areas I like to focus on with riders is Controlling the Controllables. You might be thinking “well, what is controlling the controllables”? and I’m glad you asked. This phenomenon is really about: controlling everything that you’re able to control, simple enough right?

- In brief, this is one of the building blocks of the athletes’ mental toughness; the idea that we are mentally tough and don’t break under pressure in competition. Emphasising that performers invest time and effort into many aspects of the performance they control, this allows us to prioritise what exactly it is that we need to control, over aspects we cannot control, in order to be best at our performance. In psychology we normally call this “autonomy” so what we’re looking at here is control (autonomous) vs no control (none- autonomous).

Lets look at some areas you can control.

· Attitude – Everything starts and ends with your attitude, and if you get it right, all other elements with begin to fall into line it with it. A positive and winning attitude will help you to success and this impact will be seen by those around you. You can control what attitude you want to take into your sporting life and this will have a lasting effect. For example, honestly, respectfulness, Intrinsic motivation (doing it for you), Self-determination and self-reflection are a few key attitudes for success. For equestrian athletes, a positive and open attitude is essential for successful partnerships.

· Your preparation for the competition – Writing up a plan of action in your training is key to ensuring that you are fully prepared, able to expect and control all the elements and quirks on competition day. Stick to your plan and make it progressive and with good time. In essence, you’re able to control all those controllables. By failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

· Effort - Following up from preparation, how hard you work is up to you and you alone. If you give up on that control, you are giving away one key element that sets you apart from the rest. The effort you put in must also be smart and reflected in your work rate in practice and games. Indeed winning is not something built in a day; it is constructed from hard effort and year-round. It comes down to progressive and consistent effort with a view toward a long-range goal.

· Focus - What is focus? I would argue it is relaxed concentration, it becomes exponentially important in sports where outside distractions can keep you from performing your best. Your focus must be on there here and now, on each time you play, one at a time. For riders, I always advocate my focus saying to remember “you, your horse and your course”. If you remember to stay in the moment, you’re not only controlling your mental focus, but you’re also indirectly regulating your body in remaining calm and flexible.

·Body Language - Although you can class this a communication, it is the most visible and easiest thing you can change. If you portray a confident body language and remain that way under situations of pressure, it will send a clear and powerful message to your teammates, coach and other competitors. The key here is to be confident, not over or under as these will hamper your performance and reputation as an athlete.

6) Don’t expect immediate results and don’t make excuses

- Good things come in time. Horses take longer than people, successful riders accept this.

- Never make excuses for your performance. Full stop.

5) Imagery:

The use of visualisations and imagery are key composites for all athletes and riders, but what is it?

- Visualisations are mental images or videos we can create whether its in the movement, prior to or in the future. These visualisations can be used across all areas of equestrian sport whether it be in the first person or from an outside perspective (yes you can make a visualisation of you and your horse from a 360 degree angle in the third person at any point, it just takes imagination and creativity), this will also aid you in your own determination and confidence as you will be able to recall your best performance both in the 1st and third person.

- We can generate visualisations and incorporate our own personal touch, so for example when I ride the Showjumping or cross-country course, I’ll ride the course as I have walked it with a thin red line that I have visualised. All I need to do is follow that line. With this we can procedurally generate the line we are riding on the course; therefore it remains in constant motion. When I add extra’s its elements such as stride gradients to help (I use this as a guide) me not take off too far or too deep at the fence.

When is the best time for you to use this?

- When you’re in the warm up, just take some time out when 2 or 3 are going before you to go over the course in your head and eyes close. This technique helps you block out the distractions of your environment and allows you to focus on the task coming up. A great beneficiary of this is that your mind already knows what you’re going to be doing, so when you’re in the ring you’ll be less focused on the externals and following where you’ll be going.

-This can be done well in advance of the Dressage test, Showjumping or Cross-Country Course all the way up to when you are about to begin.

Imagery:

- Imagery is an advancement on Visualisations, this considers everything in the immediate environment, whether it’s the crisp air, the beating sun, the yelling children or the even the bell. By adding all these elements together, you’re not only generating a heightened physiological state but also creating a realistic 3D arena replicating everything on the day.

- Within the role of Dressage, we can use this to visualise in the 3rd person where we are going on the test, including transitions and movements, but we can also visualise the movement of the horse’s legs and body through the feeling of the power under the saddle. We call this Cross-Cerebral lateralisation, basically we’re using both sides of our brain to maximise our performance and capacity.

- As a measure for self-confidence and reflections, we can use imagery to look at areas where we feel we either did better or worse than what actually happened, to use a rationale thought process to achieve a better picture for the future. When at competition, should you feel a little nervous, you can call on imagery to take you back to when you felt at your best, as a calming, soother or pick me up… Why don’t try that now, think back to when you made your biggest achievement…Do you feel that slight uplift in the belly and small light headedness and feeling of giddiness? You should do as that is the physiological effect of self-belief.

4) Attitude:

- Attitude can be argued by many to be the most crucial element for an athlete, rider, horse or any role in life. When we look at attitude we look at how open minded one can is and can be, do you have the open-minded attitude of looking for new ways to help you improve or are you the type whom believes that our talent alone allows us to success, and that his is down to our fate.

We call this the Mindset division, the Growth or Fixed mindset. The Growth Mindset looks into the open believe that success is measured by learning new techniques and options, to look for open feedback and hard work. Meanwhile the Fixed Mindset works on the notion that our talent and success alone is enough to take us to peak performance, this method generates a feeling that “its my fate to be here”.

- The Fixed Mindset is normally associated with that of a heightened ego, those who want to grow through this tend to look for the glory rather than their own personal progression and journey. This will only help a rider so far, but then they will stagnate and potentially, fall off the sporting radar for a while or dropout altogether. The Growth Mindset is where the best individuals shine and go above and beyond their competitive counterparts.

- The best way to gain the Growth Mind set is to look into what you personally want to achieve, to make an aim and break it down into further bit-size achievable goals, to have gratitude, to be modest and to be intrinsically driven. These are some of the best qualities we can learn and carry, its just bringing the focus back to the self to humble beginnings.

3) Goal Setting:

- We all have goals as to what we want to achieve in life, whether its that dream house, car or career to the fame and fortune of the public image, yet what really matters is the process to how we get there. If we want to get that dream house, we look at the price, the cost of the deposit and the mortgage rate to sustain. We do tend to look at this in a systematic way, you wouldn’t apply for a loan at the bank and think later how you’re going to pay it back, would you? This is the exact same in sport. We will have an aim or inspiration to achieve and to be the best, but we wouldn’t go with that final aim as our first aim. We have the break down this aim by the process to which we get there, so if you wanted to be an Olympic athlete, you would start by working your way back to where you are now. The categories to which are required to push you up to the next level are placed within yourself and the National Governing Body.

2) Don’t beat yourself up.

- Everyone makes mistakes, and even more so when horses are involved! In this sport everyone makes lots of mistakes, its perfectly normal to berate yourself at the time but that is where the self-pity wallowing needs to end.

-The reason, because dwelling on past mistakes takes your mind away from what is coming up and can manifest like this:

“ Yes, but last year, I turned the wrong way in a dressage test; I know I’m doing to do it again”. This example is Performance Sabotaging – setting the seed to make a self-fulfilling prophecy.

- Or this from the Horse and Hound:

“No, I don’t go eventing anymore. Ten years ago I forgot where I was going on the cross country, missed out a fence and got eliminated. I was in the lead until then! I can’t face that disappointment again”. This example shows no performance at all -beating yourself up about builds the thoughts to give up.

- It is true that is a bitter pill to swallow but if you want to have any chance of reaching your own dreams, you need to put your mistake in a box, learn from it then chuck it out and move on.

1) Don’t hire a coach purely to stroke your ego or have a different coach each week or month.

- Everyone has an ego, and for most of us it is like a small furry animal that likes to be stroked (imagine a cat). That’s all well and good, but there is a time and place for such things to occur and that time and place is not while you are riding your horse. Being told things are good when they are not is like cheating your exams. The pleasure is short-lived, the after taste is bitter and no true gains have been made. Successful riders are on a quest for knowledge. They constantly want to learn and the only way to learn is to be told when things are not correct. Successful riders know that there is no value or credit to be taken from paying for praise that is undeserved

- Successful riders know that to get to their goal there has to be a system. There are always many paths that lead to Rome but you actually have to stay on one to get there.

A good tip is if you are unsure of what you should be doing in the arena on your own, there’s a strong chance you don’t have a full system yet. It is time to start your journey. Take note of the riders that you like to watch and find out who they train with. You might (and probably will) have a couple of non-starters on your way to finding the Holy Grail, but one thing you can be certain of is you will never find it if you keep receiving a different map, and that is what happens if you hop from one trainer to another. The thing to remember is the riders you see as successful have been through the trial and error process, you have to go through that too and it can be a bit bumpy. Each path will teach you something; even if you find out how you don’t want to train. Keep your eyes open and be honest to yourself with what suits you.

To close, i’d like to share a quote I saw from the Royal Marines; it’s a great summary of what we’ve been talking about:

All a royal marine does, is change what he thinks is possible.