Competition Contemplation

If you love competing, why do you love competing?

If you hate competing, why do you hate competing?

(Feel free to replace the words love and hate with words that resonate with you as well as the word competition, maybe you have concerns about going to a clinic or a lesson or riding out with others)

What is your attitude, your mindset when you compete?

Love Competing? Hate Competing?

When it comes to competing, I strongly believe that your attitude, your mindset is either your best friend or your worst enemy!

Is your mind set or does it have neuroplasticity, the ability to change its responses to what is going on either inside or outside your head?

Are you able to support yourself and your horse or are your thoughts and possibly your actions a hindrance?

How do you perceive competitions?

What is your goal for the competition?

What are you trying to achieve when you go out to compete?

How connected are you with yourself when you are out competing?

How connected are you to your horse when you are out competing? And this starts at the barn/yard! Probably the night before, for some of you it might even be days before the competition!

Do you have a mindset of competing against yourself, or other riders and horses?

Are you focusing on the process or the competition?

What is within your control and out of your control when you are out competing?

How many factors do you believe are in your control when you are out competing?

Are you being realistic about what you can and can’t influence? Other horses and humans’ behaviour in the warmup or around the floats/trucks/horseboxes - is mostly out of your control but how you respond is in your control!

Horse riding is not just about you, your competition companion is your horse, who has his or her own thoughts, feelings and insecurities!

If you were doing a solo sport ie marathon running (although even then there are factors that are out of your control) however for this contemplation, you can push yourself, train yourself, and notice if you are tired or sore or damaged, you have a brain that can regulate and process the information and rationalise and make adjustments, reframe. You are competing on your own steam, your power. But in riding it is not just about you!

Your horse has his or her own set of needs and wants - their survival patterns.

There is a part of your brain that is referred to as your reptilian or primal brain, it is the older part of your brain, and its main purpose is to keep your body functioning and keep you alive!

If when you go out competing you are leaving decisions to the unconscious mind then you might come unstuck, especially if you are in your stretch or even worse in your panic zone! This is where you will need to get your conscious brain to step in with some more useful thoughts or actions to convince your unconscious brain that jumping or going out to compete is “safe” and you will survive!

Let’s look at an example of an event that is out of your control, you are doing your jumping round, at a clinic or doing a dressage test, and you notice a horse and rider in the warm-up arena, having an exponential crisis!

Are you able to refocus? You and your horse.

Are you able to reframe the situation in the moment?

Are you able to identify whether your abilities can match the situation? Or should you retire or hop off your horse?

Do you have the tools in your toolbox to cope with the situation? Does your horse?

Is today just not the day? Do you need to revisit your or your horse’s training?

Remember whatever happens it is not failure it is just feedback!

Another perspective worth pondering is whether you are competing for the rosette or ribbon.

If you are, you are probably more likely to be disappointed, as it is something else that is out of your control. Getting a ribbon or rosette could be seen as the “cherry on the cake”, it means that your training and preparation has possibly paid off today.

If you are disappointed/disheartened when competing, ask yourself why. What is your intention behind competing? Could it be that the “Competition Monster” has drawn you in?

Resilience of you and your horse

Is your horse resilient enough for competition? Is your horse able to cope with the environment? Do you need to take a step back, and break it down into more bite-size chunks for your horse?

Taking a step back, regrouping isn’t failure, it just means there is a part of the foundation training that isn’t solid, it is just a bit fragile and requires some nurturing. Take some time to focus on the training of body and mind! Horse and human.

Are you resilient enough for competition? Are you the one getting all excited and spooky? Is your heart rate going up? Are you so disconnected from your body that you don’t notice?

It could be your horse that starts the fight, flight or freeze response and then you fall into the same pattern or do you start the process?

You and your horse are wearing heart rate monitors what would the recordings look like? Whose would beep the highest first?

Is your horse fine in the warm-up but tense when you enter the arena for your judged round? Why? Environment change? Are you getting your game face on?

Do you get a bit sparky when the bell goes?

What could you do differently?

Could you go out to compete, aiming to be 1% better than last time? Because you have been focusing on the training process of improving yourself and your horse, your thoughts and physically, since the last competition?

Can you go to compete and be the best version of yourself today? Can you take what happens on the day in your stride?

Does that mean you get it right all the time? Not necessarily but can you be quicker to forgive yourself or your horse and move on? Be more mindful and connected to what you and your horse are trying to communicate to each other.

Can you accept and reframe or pivot depending on what your horse or outside factors come your way?

Can you observe and be aware of what is happening unemotionally? Refrain from writing an epic drama around a situation that doesn’t warrant it.

Can you see that competition is just another element in your training process?

If this resonates with you and you are ready to make some changes send me an email sue@suepequestrian.co.nz let’s see how we can do together!

If you’ve found value in my rambling today, feel free to leave me a message and maybe contribute to my next coffee.