It doesn’t seem like two and a half years ago that I was writing about a complete loss of confidence, how I nearly packed it all in and how a change in direction saved the day.
I wrote about the top hat and tails dream and how that dream had moved from CCI* eventing to Advanced dressage. Well….OK so we haven’t magically arrived at top hat and tails day but we are edging ever closer.
The path to success is never straight. Our path has certainly been bumpy, mountain range like even, but it has been a success. We might not have reached the end goal as yet but we’re winning on the marginal gains and we’re really enjoying the journey.
So often we put all of our emphasis on the horse and on the performance, but we rarely think about our own performance, especially our mental performance. I used to be all about the winning. Sod the taking part, it was all about that red frilly at the end of the day. I’d assess the competition, I’d study them in the warm up, I’d work out who I could beat. I struggled. I struggled with the pressure and the expectations I placed on myself. Some group sessions and conversations with Charlie Unwin and I’m cured! OK not quite cured but through time and reading and research I’ve learnt to look at things a little differently.
I’ve set my goals. Achievable goals and ones that we can be in control of. I’m still ultra-competitive but it isn’t just about the winning anymore. It is about bettering myself, improving on our last performance, and it is all about the marginal gains. Working on my mental performance certainly seems to have had a knock on affect to Theo (the most handsome ginger dressage horse ever), but that is probably because I’m more relaxed, less stressed, happy and confident.
Working on the marginal gains we’ve gone back to basics. We’ve slowed everything down and we’ve worked on straightness and throughness. We’ve harnessed the power and channeled it in the right direction. So much so we now get ‘bold and brave’ as comments!
Working with someone that understands the goals and understands me has been a game changer. Working with Anand Patel had been fun and the hard work is paying off! I still have a huge hang up – our medium trot is rubbish! Beyond rubbish if you ask me, non-existent in fact, and for a horse competing at Elementary and looking to move up to Medium shortly that is quite an issue. But, IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Yes, I said it. It is one move. We ride for a safe 6 and show a change. We don’t attack it like Valegro going for Gold. Having someone that isn’t going to take No for an answer has definitely helped, someone that says ‘Yes well done, did you feel that?’ is great! Having that mini win makes me smile and I relax when I smile.
So I guess what I’m getting to is smile at all of the little wins and the big win will happen.
A year ago we competed in an Elementary freestyle and just scraped a 66%, one year on and the same test, same music and same judge and we smashed the 70% barrier. I’ll take that as a big win….and there was a HUGE smile!
