A long gap since my last blog
I really do need to aim to do one a month – become more disciplined and save my very good friend, client and master of all things technical and website orientated happy by doing this!! How she puts up with me I don’t know!! I’m actually just giving her a mention Kathryn Clarke of https://craftyfox-web.com/. She is well worth a call for all your logo and website needs and is also very patient for a tech savvy professional!
So what’s new for me?
I’ve gained many new clients lately. It’s lovely to be able to help new partnerships develop and watch their confidence in each other grow. And yes, we talk a lot about rider confidence but what about horse confidence? All horse personalities, just like people are very different. When I think of all the horses I’ve owned and Sophie’s ponies, they couldn’t be more different. Each of them have taught me so much though, and I wish I knew then what I know now as I would have trained and reacted to them in a very different way. Like they say hindsight is a great thing, and it helps us as we all keep learning and appreciating advances in research about the horse and their physical and psychological make up.
A few recent events with my horse Tim (without going into detail) has made me realise how very important their environment is. This sounds so obvious. However, I never quite fully realised how impactful the wrong environment can be on their well-being mentally as well as physically. I do remember though when Alison had Rose, she visibly relaxed when moving to the wonderful yard that Vicky and Graham Tibbott had at Belle Vue Farm. Also having the right people who are calm, confident and quiet around them is so important especially with a sensitive horse This can be learned by owners and handlers who find it doesn’t come naturally to them.
Tim was going to be the first horse that I would’ve trained from scratch. I’ve had others; Charlie an ex trotter, Fly a 4year old from Ireland just backed, Mabel a Sec D x TB recently backed and ridden away. Also 2 horses off the track; Spooky (aptly named!) and Harry who I’ve retrained. Obviously, I’ve trained all my horses and Sophie’s ponies to their successful levels as none were ‘made’ horses. However, I have never had one as a 3 year old to back myself and bring on. Sadly personal circumstances meant I had to find a temporary home for him with my good friend Emma and he lived happily with his mate Kevin while I dealt with life’s hurdles!
Due to my home life changing and lack of facilities, I was not able to keep Tim. Even though very good friends helped out, for which I am very grateful. I had increasing expenses and less time available due to working more and I had to get my priorities right. So Tim now belongs to Emma, and I can’t wait to see their partnership growing. They have such incredible trust in each other and I had to be very unselfish to do the right thing by Tim. He also visibly relaxed mentally and physically when he came ‘home’.
I often visited him in the field and he would come trotting up and we had such long chats. It was nice actually being a ‘pony patter’. I nearly said ‘just’ a pony patter but I have banned the words ‘just’ and ‘only’ from my vocabulary and also encourage others to do the same!!
Self Expression
I’ve never written a poem in my entire life.
However, coming back home from seeing Tim recently, I just sat down and wrote this. Perhaps I have more time to be creative now and not be embarrassed about sharing things like this? However I don’t feel I need to give up my day job just yet!!
Out and About
So what else has been happening? In June, as well as my part time teaching at college and freelancing regular clients, I ran a clinic at Broadstone Equestrian on their fabulous new foundation XC field – their facilities are amazing and well worth a visit.
I also had a great time teaching for a day on ODRC’s camp at Somerford – always a wonderful place to coach horses and riders. I had the pleasure of some fantastic combinations both old and new. I always think it must be a logistical nightmare for camp organisers to sort out timings of lessons and allow riders to choose their coaches and disciplines. The camp was extremely well run by Shareen, Emma and Karen who were also able to ride too – how they managed everything I’ll never know!!
Earlier I mentioned confidence of horse and rider – something that keeps cropping up in conversations when I’m coaching. Riders typically saying they need more confidence, or they wish they had confidence. Also some compare themselves to others and say they wish they were more like…
Firstly, I’m not actually sure I like the word confidence. I hear and am grateful for the fact that many say I give them confidence, but how do I do this? I only make suggestions to how they may think differently or use exercises to build on skills and so improve performance, which should in turn promote a feeling of confidence.
I have also often used the phrase ‘confidence is key’ meaning that even a rider with less physical ability can achieve far more than one with more ability but less self belief.
The Oxford dictionary defines confidence as ‘the feeling that you can trust, believe in, and be sure about the abilities or good qualities of someone or something’.
dictionary.com defines confidence as ‘full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability a person or thing’.
There are so many confidence quotes out there, but do they actually help and if so, how?
I think you need more than a quote, you need a system, something which can actually be practiced, built on and re-visited when needed.
In dressage, we have the ‘scales of training’ and whatever discipline you aspire to, they all have their relevance. You establish one level before moving onto the next and sometimes you come back down a level before moving on again. You may for example, lose rhythm and suppleness whilst trying to gain contact. This could be temporary or maybe rhythm and suppleness hadn’t been established sufficiently? Training both horse and rider is usually a series of peaks and troughs.
The words ‘trust’ and ‘belief’ appear in both definitions; let’s break this down.
Trust in yourself
Trust in your horse – sometimes difficult if its a new combination or on those ‘spicy’ days
Trust in your process.
I ask many riders how they work in at a competition and sometimes get quite random answers. Or, when asking how they work at home, some riders have no plan at all or no idea of what they want to achieve. Some riders have a plan or routine so rigid they fail to notice how the horse is feeling that particular day and some have goals so huge that success can be unachievable.
I like to focus on aiming to have good practices and a system that can bring repeated successes. This doesn’t necessarily mean in competition, it could be simply be remaining calm in a collecting ring or when training at home on a windy day.
I like to video riders and this can then be tracked and a ‘video diary’ kept so that real appraisal of capabilities rather than level of skill can be judged and these successes can be recognised.
You want to aim to have as many good experiences as possible, though we know that isn’t always possible. Therefore having a plan for if you experience a setback and nerves set in such, as taking 10 minutes out to think, regulate breathing and revisit what you are trying to achieve can be extremely beneficial.
Sometimes too with horses, there is always another day. I particularly remember the wise words of Chris Roberts ‘No school is better than a bad school’.
You also need to be able to accept honest feedback, without it allowing it to demotivate. Remember, that failing at something gives you the opportunity to improve. Repeated success reinforces belief in your ability to perform under pressure and that is not necessarily in a competition.
I feel so strongly about the importance of developing a growth mindset that I’m in the middle of writing a workbook to help riders achieve success with their horse and enjoy their partnership.
Watch this space, details coming soon!!
Remember…
80% of your performance gains can be achieved out of the saddle
As well as ridden sessions I offer riders the opportunity of support in dismounted consultations, either in person or alternatively, Zoom or Teams to help develop your mindset skills, as often things make more sense when we haven’t the added distraction of the horse!
On a lighter note, I am enjoying my small garden and have really invested in growing things and taking great pleasure from it. On posting a few pictures of my lovely roses on Facebook my very dear friend Vicky Tibbott made a great comment…
The three stages of Womanhood:
ENJOY!! xx
