Want to enjoy competing again and get those nerves under control?

Competitions cause so much stress and worry for some riders, no matter if you’re doing dressage or going eventing.

Our nerves take over and then come the voices in our head, telling us we are not good enough, and then the ‘What If’s’ join in and before we know it we can be making excuses not to go!

So what can we do about this?

When we enter our competitions we feel excited and although we might know we are going to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, we push that to one side and convince ourselves we will be ok…….until the competition gets nearer and arrives!

When we do well or achieve our goals and survive our competition, the brain releases dopamine which makes us feel good and this in turn makes us want to enter more competitions and do it all again.

However, if we don’t meet our goals and things don’t go as we had expected then the dopamine is not released and we feel rubbish and that’s when we spiral downwards and beat ourselves up.

If we set bite size goals and expectations we are more likely to meet them and experience the dopamine than if we set huge expectations and then don’t meet them. Setting smaller goals of being in the moment, enjoying each part of the day, keeping your horse calm, riding a good rhythm in the jumping, riding your dressage correctly etc and not concentrate on the winning or going clear etc

When you feel those nerves coming, try telling yourself that you are excited. Visualise your competition going well and the way you want it to. Use some breathing exercises to ground and calm your nervous system.

We go into this in depth in our courses and downloads