Where lays your focus at competitions?
When starting this first blog, I was preparing myself for the upcoming Regional Championships which I qualified for with Hot Chocolate! An event which always did mean a lot to me in the past, because we fought hard for our ticket in the selections, by showing up fully prepared and with an absolute and determined focus. And I always was proud to represent my region and had silent hopes and dreams to get selected for the Dutch Championships!
At bigger and more important competitions I always got caught up in this triangle of: striving to ride the very best version of our performance in the test, the silent hopes and dreams I have prior to the test, and the results of the judges. And you know what, by living those three aspects, there can only happen one thing: get dissapointed!
You know why? First of all: we work with living animals! They are super sensitive and even our unconscious vibe and mindset of wanting to perform even better than we normally do – because this is a competition that actually matters floats through your mind – is something they feel and respond to! Which leads often to tension and mistakes in the test we normally do not make!
Second of all: hoping and dreaming of something you haven’t achieved yet, isn’t per se that wrong, but it becomes a weakness when it gets in your way of staying out of your head and riding focused your warming up and the test like you always do! Notice you suddenly want to ride extra or with more spirit, or you feel impressed by the other competitors. Have faith in your horse, your performance and your preperation up to this competition. Having hopes and dreams often get in your way of a clear and focused mindset you need to ride a good warming up prior to a flawless test.
And last but not least: being busy with the judge. What have they scored already? Do I know them? What do they want to see? – Do you notice your thoughts? These thoughts only create insecurities and distraction, which leads to you riding your horse differently, because you think you have to fit in a certain frame.
I have dealt with all these issues for the past dozen Regional Championships I competed at with different horses in different classes over the years and they all turned out into one big dissapointment. From messing up my test and having too high hopes, to getting the most confusing scores I still don’t understand up to today. I always ended up somewhere at the bottom of the results haha.
Made me sometimes angry on myself, confused and on the long term made me less excited to compete at Regional Championships. And you know what: I even didn’t want to perform this upcoming Regional Championship with Hot Chocolate. You know why? Because in my head it was going to be the dissapointment it always had been. I felt like I wasn’t made for winning a bigger title. Hot Chocolate is doing (always) an awesome job and he makes me feel things of which I know he will become the best horse ever and I wasn’t going to get dissapointed for the 13th time.
But you know what? Got confronted by my mom who noticed my weak mindset...That isn’t a mindset of a winner! Winners never quit! You can’t loose when you focus on your own performance. A competition – big or small, important or not – is always just one step on the road to the advanced dressage classes you achieve for on the long term! Never make a goal out of a competition on the short run. It’s just one step on the stairs to advanced levels. And you make a step forward on this stairs in striving to ride a test which is one step more progressed than your last test. Your own test is the only thing you can manage on a competition. Not the circumstances you have to ride in, the degree of the competition, the judges or the other competitors. Ignore all these aspects and train yourself to fully focus on the triangle of: your horse, your trainer and the things you have to clear up for your upcoming test. By striving for a more flawless test than the one before will be the winning way! Because you don’t get distracted and you will never loose if you focus on progression your own performance. The competition is never the goal, the goal is the progression!
For the first time, I let al my thoughts go which always had determined my feelings and expectations of the Regionals. In the last week we did the final touch ups under the supervision of my mom and I went with a confident and calm focus to the competition. Didn’t notice the judge, the other competitors or results on purpose. Hot Chocolate felt relaxed and I was focused but calm during the warm up, fully aware of all the little things I had to prepare for the test.
And guess what: we performed our best test yet! No nerves, no pressure, no mistakes, no tension, nothing else but riding happily and focused to our final salute. Left the arena with a super happy feeling, proud of the extra progression of Hot Chocolate in the test! So in that perspective we smashed our goal massively!
A few moments later it became clear with the monsterscore of 71,5% we WON the Regional Championships! Wows, champion!!! Didn’t know what happened to me and couldn’t take off my smile for the whole week!!
Just by staying out of my head and not getting leaded by the failing mindset triangle of judges opinions/expectations/creating pressure, I finally managed to perform a test which broke all my score records and all my former expectations. And not because we rode super differently of former winning tests, but because by not getting influenced in my mindset, I could do and notice the things I had to do leading up to this competition: the preperation, maintain calmness and patience, being super aware of my warming up and riding focused one by one all the exercises of the test.
So notice the importance of the shift in mindset, apart from what the results will be, and you’ll always win! And even more than that: you even get rewarded in a way you didn’t count on!
Xo, Esmee
