Why equestrians are athletes

That take some serious motor and critical thinking skills. A successful equestrian athlete must be a sports psychologist to the horse, as well as the first responder when it comes to the training and development of that horse. Watch a five-star eventer go around cross-country at Badminton or Kentucky and then try to show me another sport which requires the same level of fearlessness. Riders have to be confident leaders for their horse. They are the stoic, assured presence that helps the animal rise to the occasion.

They could be freaking out on the inside, but on the outside, they are calm and collected because they have to be. The horse depends on it. Equestrians are just as mentally tough as they are physically. As a coach, I have seen the frustration of clients when their hard work does not produce results in the ring because of anxiety and low confidence. As a mental performance consultant, I have come to understand the power and inevitable influence that our state of mind has on our success.

With poor mental preparation, we can be thrown off course by the smallest of bumps in the road. But with excellent mental preparation we can succeed and progress regardless of the situation.

Below are examples of the negative effects of not looking after our state of mind. Have you experienced any of these? So, how do we begin to shift this identity within ourselves?

How do we find the time inside our busy, hectic, horse-loving lifestyles to prioritize our well-being? What does a healthy and helpful state of mind for equestrians even look like?

Below are some examples of the benefits of learning to manage our state of mind. When in your life have you experienced these? The first step is to start thinking of yourself as an athlete and describing yourself to others as one. Even this small change will start to influence how you perceive yourself and begin to affect your choices around self-care. Working on our identity and state of mind is best done in small bits over time, and can be worked into any schedule. It is less about doing things differently, and more about thinking about things differently.

Like all changes, this will take awareness and practice and lots of repetition, but the change will happen if you work at it. These exercises will get you started on finding a helpful state of mind within yourself. Pause and take five breaths before you mount.

Pull the air into your stomach by inhaling through your nose. Hold it there for five seconds and exhale fully, making sure the exhale is longer than your inhale. Ask yourself:. Before mounting, centre yourself by taking five deep, slow breaths and focus on what you want to accomplish during your ride. When you hit a setback, frame the struggle within the bigger picture of our progress.

Instead of wallowing in the feeling of failure, always tell yourself you can do it… just not yet. There is always a way to excel in the things we find difficult if we are willing to work hard. However, if we see our failure as proof that we will never be the riders we want to be, then we block our brain from figuring out how to improve.

The most important belief we can hold is the belief that we can improve at anything, as long as we are willing to put in the work. The best part of investing in yourself as an athlete is learning how to manage your state of mind. I say yes. But pretty much any kind of riding that goes beyond that fits the definition.

You probably saw this chart floating around Facebook a year or two ago. As far as I can tell, it originated in this article from Kentucky Performance Products. The numbers are probably fairly accurate, although I have trouble accepting that riding a canter requires more energy than posting the trot. A few years ago in the old HI Spy column, we asked readers to tell us how they get in shape for riding. A lot of people said that they stayed in shape for riding BY riding, and also things like mucking stalls, walking out to the far end of the pasture to get their horse, stacking hay, etc.

But someone caring for a few horses probably not all that better off than someone who, say, walks their dog twice a day and actually keeps up with their housework. In other words, you can never get fit to ride by just riding. I am writing to motivate myself. Yes, I, a lazy desk jockey, intend to do a workout every day from tomorrow until the end of February.