How many times have you had your instructor/trainer/coach encourage you to "think positive"? 10 times? 100 times? 1,000 times just in your last session? This is something I find myself repeating to a lot of my clients to maintain their confidence - but where does confidence come from, and how does it become dented so very easily?
I want you to imagine you're on your horse, or the horse you ride. Picture the saddle underneath you, the reins in your hands. Now imagine you're about to trot down the centre line, or jump an oxer, or go out hacking on your own, or do that one thing that puts the fear of God into you. I want you to imagine you putting your leg on, riding towards your fear - what happens next? Do you get half way down the centre line and forget your test? Do you point your horse towards the oxer, he stops & you fall off? Do you get halfway down the track & your horse starts napping for home? Whatever your fear is, chances are when you picture yourself doing it it ends badly. As humans we do generally focus on the negatives, as we want to overcome that hurdle to become better at what we do. This is the human way. We don't admit defeat easily. But surely focusing on the negative makes it much more prominent in our conscious state of mind, creating problems that need not be there? | |
Try this. Set yourself some time to yourself; no screaming kids, nagging spouses, whining dogs; just take some time to relax and be on your own. During this time, I want you to imagine you're back on your horse. Feel him underneath you, reins in hand, sun on your back. Now picture yourself running through a perfect warm up routine, where everything goes simply swimmingly. Once you have achieved that, now set yourself the goal of overcoming your fear by going through that dressage test, jumping that oxer, going for a hack, but imagine that everything goes brilliantly. You score perfect 10s, your horse clears the oxer with ease and you feel like Ben Mayer, your horse pootles along the track relaxing, floppy ears, & you can enjoy the lovely day. Keep picturing it until you eliminate any form of negative impulse.
This is very difficult, but it works. Once you have the ability to banish the non-positive scenarios it will reflect in your actual ridden work.
This is very difficult, but it works. Once you have the ability to banish the non-positive scenarios it will reflect in your actual ridden work.
"I just imagined myself doing it over and over again, I haven't sat on a horse for three weeks" | One of my riding school clients, Amy, proved how powerful the mind can be. Before Christmas we were having to really battle with her lower leg in the trot - she was trying to use her leg as she rose in the trot, causing it to swing backwards as she threw her pelvis forward out of the saddle, with her leg then surging forward to the horse's shoulder as she sat back down again. We spent weeks on sitting trot, no stirrup work, making the rising subtle, how to use the leg - nothing seemed to make much of a difference. Amy has two of her own horses, so when the riding school closed for the Christmas period I asked her to practise at home. At the beginning of January she came back to the school saying she hadn't been able to ride as her field was too flooded - yet when she popped the horse into trot, her lower leg was completely motionless, effective, and weight bearing - I was gobsmacked! I asked her how had she achieved it without even being in the saddle? |
Amazingly, she has pictured herself doing it, every day for nearly three weeks. She said "I know it sounds stupid, but I'd just picture myself rising in the trot and keeping my leg still, how you told me to do it". I reassured her that it wasn't silly at all, and she has proved this theory does work. Physically she had battled for months to achieve a stable lower leg, which she achieved by imagining it was possible. She had changed her subconscious into knowing she could do it rather than her conscious fighting her subconscious during the lessons.