Ample Prosecco
Still wittering on
6 weeks ago my confidence was super-high. Lottie had not refused a single time in training or competition all season. We were DC 2/2 BE events to qualify for the Regional Champs, and 5/5 in Showjumping to qualify for Amateur Championships at Aintree in November.
Successful rides build confidence, while falls or problems reduce it. Successful rides lower perception of risk (“hey 90 looks ok these days/ my horses is super reliable, she’ll always look after me”) and increases perception of competence (“hey I am feeling a lot more able to deal with these heights now/my horse and I have a better connection now”).
Then we had 6 refusals in 2 events a week apart for 2 Eliminations, and 3 refusals in the warm of the lesson I had with my trainer straight afterward, to try and see if it was Lottie or me. ‘Lottie’ was the verdict. She was stopping for no obvious reason. I abandoned the lesson and took her straight to the vet, who identified a hock problem and jabbed them. Then she had time off. Then I went on holiday and she was just hacked by my sharer. And then I got back off holiday with my confidence in my boots, 70cm jumps looking MAHOOSIVE, on-going doubts in my mind about her fitness……. and just 5 days to Regional Champs at Chillington Hall.
The problem is that incidents make us more aware of the risk and less confident in our ability. Jumps now look too high, so we feel more scared. We are quick to judge ourselves, “argghh, I’m a Muppet, I can’t ride”, and. And we start to doubt our horse: “I don’t know what is going on with her right now, she might stop/I’ll come off/ Is she really better now?”
After qualifying for Champs my plan had been to do a HT100 or BE100 to make a Championship 90 track look more manageable, then go on a holiday with my confidence sky high, while my sharer kept Lottie fit. Then have a couple of tune up jumps the few days before and go out and smash it. Reality turned out very different….. instead I was coming into Champs off 2 eliminations, a crashing fall and a load of time off! Which was not the ideal preparation, to say the least.
First things first: speak to vet. She had no concerns about me taking Lottie.
Next: have a XC lesson with the same trainer I always use XC and ask her to assess if Lottie seems fit to run. But also please can I not jump over 70cm and only do easy stuff….. The answer to that was no! If we are assessing her fitness to run we need to test her out properly. So we did that on Wednesday last week, and that lesson was terrifying. I rode like an idiot but Lottie was back to her glorious ‘filling in the gaps’ self which included a cat leap over a Trakehner when my body language was saying no, but then I flapped at her. Basically saying STOP- NO, GO! and bless her, she did. Also jumped a boat out of the water more or less sideways off a terrible line. Trainer’s view: she is fine to run.
All that was in the way now then was my head. And her wildness, because having not really jumped much, and clearly feeling very, very well post treatment, she was RARING to go. Which made the fear of the refusals more intense - because the one thing that is worse than a sudden stop is a sudden stop at speed!
Having finally decided to run on Wednesday for the event on Saturday I had just 3 days get mentally ready to go out and ride properly at Champs. This included self-hypnosis, a gazillion visualisations, and a mantra of ‘Look up, Look Ahead, Leg On’ which prevented me from being too passive in the face of her wildness.
I was utterly bricking it. Needed an embarrassing number of loo-trips as my stomach was a mess. Couldn’t eat. Felt sick as a dog. But I was NOT a passenger. I rode positively, attacked the course and had a ‘make it happen’ attitude.
And I reckon we smashed it! Tense dressage - so what. That’s a next season problem! Wild SJ but I rode her as well as I am capable of riding. I did not flap, panic or take my leg off. So we had a couple of careless poles but she was fab. Then a storming clear XC with no time penalties round a tricky track.
One picture shows me turning her in the air over a skinny corner angled one way to a tight turn angled the other. This was a difficult combination as if you did not jump the corner straight, then you risked a run out, but it was super-tight to the next. And while my technique leaves a lot to be desired (use my legs more and not rely so much in the rein), it was effective in telling Lottie where she was going, and we made the turn to the B element easily. You can also see she is taking flyers at everything in the SJ because I kept my leg on even though she was forward, and just sat quietly with leg there, and she chose to fly them all.
I am so proud of lovely Lottie for filling in for me when I needed her to earlier in the week, to show me she was fine. And I’m actually also pretty proud of me for turning a difficult situation around so quickly. I won’t event her again this season as this feels like a pretty good place to stop. So my focus now switches to SJ for Champs before a winter of flatwork to prepare for next year.
All in all, it's been a pretty good season of Eventing I think. Roll on March 2024....
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Successful rides build confidence, while falls or problems reduce it. Successful rides lower perception of risk (“hey 90 looks ok these days/ my horses is super reliable, she’ll always look after me”) and increases perception of competence (“hey I am feeling a lot more able to deal with these heights now/my horse and I have a better connection now”).
Then we had 6 refusals in 2 events a week apart for 2 Eliminations, and 3 refusals in the warm of the lesson I had with my trainer straight afterward, to try and see if it was Lottie or me. ‘Lottie’ was the verdict. She was stopping for no obvious reason. I abandoned the lesson and took her straight to the vet, who identified a hock problem and jabbed them. Then she had time off. Then I went on holiday and she was just hacked by my sharer. And then I got back off holiday with my confidence in my boots, 70cm jumps looking MAHOOSIVE, on-going doubts in my mind about her fitness……. and just 5 days to Regional Champs at Chillington Hall.
The problem is that incidents make us more aware of the risk and less confident in our ability. Jumps now look too high, so we feel more scared. We are quick to judge ourselves, “argghh, I’m a Muppet, I can’t ride”, and. And we start to doubt our horse: “I don’t know what is going on with her right now, she might stop/I’ll come off/ Is she really better now?”
After qualifying for Champs my plan had been to do a HT100 or BE100 to make a Championship 90 track look more manageable, then go on a holiday with my confidence sky high, while my sharer kept Lottie fit. Then have a couple of tune up jumps the few days before and go out and smash it. Reality turned out very different….. instead I was coming into Champs off 2 eliminations, a crashing fall and a load of time off! Which was not the ideal preparation, to say the least.
First things first: speak to vet. She had no concerns about me taking Lottie.
Next: have a XC lesson with the same trainer I always use XC and ask her to assess if Lottie seems fit to run. But also please can I not jump over 70cm and only do easy stuff….. The answer to that was no! If we are assessing her fitness to run we need to test her out properly. So we did that on Wednesday last week, and that lesson was terrifying. I rode like an idiot but Lottie was back to her glorious ‘filling in the gaps’ self which included a cat leap over a Trakehner when my body language was saying no, but then I flapped at her. Basically saying STOP- NO, GO! and bless her, she did. Also jumped a boat out of the water more or less sideways off a terrible line. Trainer’s view: she is fine to run.
All that was in the way now then was my head. And her wildness, because having not really jumped much, and clearly feeling very, very well post treatment, she was RARING to go. Which made the fear of the refusals more intense - because the one thing that is worse than a sudden stop is a sudden stop at speed!
Having finally decided to run on Wednesday for the event on Saturday I had just 3 days get mentally ready to go out and ride properly at Champs. This included self-hypnosis, a gazillion visualisations, and a mantra of ‘Look up, Look Ahead, Leg On’ which prevented me from being too passive in the face of her wildness.
I was utterly bricking it. Needed an embarrassing number of loo-trips as my stomach was a mess. Couldn’t eat. Felt sick as a dog. But I was NOT a passenger. I rode positively, attacked the course and had a ‘make it happen’ attitude.
And I reckon we smashed it! Tense dressage - so what. That’s a next season problem! Wild SJ but I rode her as well as I am capable of riding. I did not flap, panic or take my leg off. So we had a couple of careless poles but she was fab. Then a storming clear XC with no time penalties round a tricky track.
One picture shows me turning her in the air over a skinny corner angled one way to a tight turn angled the other. This was a difficult combination as if you did not jump the corner straight, then you risked a run out, but it was super-tight to the next. And while my technique leaves a lot to be desired (use my legs more and not rely so much in the rein), it was effective in telling Lottie where she was going, and we made the turn to the B element easily. You can also see she is taking flyers at everything in the SJ because I kept my leg on even though she was forward, and just sat quietly with leg there, and she chose to fly them all.
I am so proud of lovely Lottie for filling in for me when I needed her to earlier in the week, to show me she was fine. And I’m actually also pretty proud of me for turning a difficult situation around so quickly. I won’t event her again this season as this feels like a pretty good place to stop. So my focus now switches to SJ for Champs before a winter of flatwork to prepare for next year.
All in all, it's been a pretty good season of Eventing I think. Roll on March 2024....
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