Competition nerves!!

P

Priyashome

Member
Joined
19 July 2014
Messages
22
Visit site
My horse has been on what I can only describe as an epic journey. Lameness that took months and 2 vet changes to diagnose (very mild KS which has been medicated and rehabbed), ulcers found as a result of that. She's professionally schooled twice a week and after most of 2018 out of work we now have a healthy horse that I can crack on with....
I did my first competition last July and won. Then things went downhill. October our winter dressage series commenced, we were placed. November I withdrew as she had lyphangitus. December without warning she bucked me off in the warm up. I got back on and she was horrible for the rest of the day to the point I withdrew from the second test. January my trainer came with me she was lively but I managed to hold my nerve and we did two decent tests being placed in the second one.
February the trainer came again......some complete idiot came far to close to us in the warm up and she got upset and I just couldn't settle her after that so I got off before I fell off. My friend got on and rode her and she was so lively and ridiculously strong I am now terrified of the competition im booked in for in 2-weeks...
She's not been lively at home generally but was yesterday out hacking so I have reduced her feed a bit to see if that helps.
I have tried calmers which I think help a bit but if I am terrified I think she'll misbehave as she's so sensitive.
We are considering my friend doing the first test and see how we go.
Any suggestions?
She is fed Alfa A, top spec balancer, ulsa kind cubes and small amount of pink mash plus hack up calmer and joint supplement...she loses weight easily so I can't cut her feed right back.....She's been on the pink mash about a month and the rest about 9 months.....
 
If I were your trainer I would probably say give the next competition a miss, take the pressure off you both, crack on at home and providing everything is ok with her aim to start competing in a month or two once the weather is better, the horse will be more relaxed, as will others in the warm up, there is no harm in withdrawing when things are not going well so you can regroup.

A friend riding can help but only if the horse settles for them, sometimes it will make matters worse if they ride in a different way to you they may put too much pressure on and compound the issues you are having, even if they can stay on it is not always beneficial long term.
 
what are you doing in between shows? as you've had a few bad experiences in a warm up I think I would take a step back from competing and look for ways to simulate a show type outing but without the pressure of needing to warm up for a test in an uncontrolled space. I like doing group clinics or lessons for something like this, then you are firstly not under any pressure and secondly the instructor can "conduct" the other riders so that you get plenty of space to begin with and only start working closer together when everyone is settled and ready.
 
I would give yourself a break, the weather has not been great for working consistently. My horse would be physically fit and ready for a dressage comp now (had 3 months off Sept- December as I have other stuff going on in life), but I am holding off until the weather is more settled.

To prepare, this week, from Sunday, we will have had an arena horse for our first jump of the year, a dressage clinic (private lesson but a different arena) and a pole work group clinic. Once the weather is better we will hire some outdoor arenas. Only then will we go to a competition.

I would also make sure your horse is warm enough as mine is unhappy if she is not sufficiently rugged. Plus, for the first competition, we will be lungeing before we go!
 
I have posted numerous times about my failings at competitions and general nerves because I ride like a lemon and I have a cob who loves taking advantage of that and drops me at the first sign of nerves. My first real life competition since last October is this Saturday so I am going to test some of the things I have been trying at home which include:

For him:
- Turning out for as long as possible in the morning before riding - an hour seems to do it but he's so much better after turn out (a pain as he has white socks and it's muddy but i'd rather get up half an hour earlier than be eliminated on the centre line again!)
- Lunge if needs be (though I haven't had to since I tried turn out before going)
- Going to new places - we hired an arena with a friend and hacked over, no fuss, not much expense, maximum experience as we both enjoyed ourselves which helped build confidence

For me - It's me the issue so I need the most work
- Going through the warm up routine I set at home with my instructor - I now have a very strict warm up routine I follow every time I ride in the arena which gets us both focused and stops me from panicking and aimlessly wandering around in lemon like fashion - I have always been a bit lost in warm ups and worried about what other people are doing and how he might react so by me being focused it helps keep him focused
- Visualisation - I have shunned NLP techniques in the past however I do find visualisation really works for me, I listen to songs that make me feel confident (Heather Small's "Proud" is a particular favourite) and then when I feel nervous I just imagine myself riding around and everything going well like it does at home. I also like reading up on confidence so I read articles or have a couple of books - it makes me feel like I am in control.
- Forcing myself to ride in conditions at home where I would usually avoid to build confidence - this weekend I clipped and then rode in Storm Dennis, I really didn't want to and the wind was raging as I went to get on but I have been slowly pushing myself out of my comfort zone at home in hope that riding at home is scarier than competitions.
- Going to a brand new venue - I used to go to one venue and have fallen off every single time I have gone so now I have bad associations, so I am going to a place I have never been to before so I have no choice but just to crack on with it!

Most of these points are probably obsolete, I am sure you are a much more confident and experienced rider than me but just wanted to share some things that I am hoping will help - though I will report back on Saturday if I need to have a rethink!!
 
I love your post as it sounds very similar to our situation.....dont put yourself down, I have lots of years riding under my belt but not very experienced as I've always had much easier horses in the past!! Plus at 44 I am too scared sometimes!!
I will try the lunging again as I did do that last month which was more successful!! turning out is tricky as it's so muddy where we are and I like to get away early as my daughter competes in the earlier classes.
I do have an EFT session next week which may well help.
Please let me know how Saturday goes x good luck ?
 
Red-1 said:
I would give yourself a break, the weather has not been great for working consistently. My horse would be physically fit and ready for a dressage comp now (had 3 months off Sept- December as I have other stuff going on in life), but I am holding off until the weather is more settled.

To prepare, this week, from Sunday, we will have had an arena horse for our first jump of the year, a dressage clinic (private lesson but a different arena) and a pole work group clinic. Once the weather is better we will hire some outdoor arenas. Only then will we go to a competition.

I would also make sure your horse is warm enough as mine is unhappy if she is not sufficiently rugged. Plus, for the first competition, we will be lungeing before we go!
Click to expand...
Thank you. Great ideas x
 
I think you need to go to a few arena hires, test riding clinics etc and get some good experiences under your belts before you go out competing again. I'd also review your feeding, exercising and general management as this horse sounds very fresh and you sound a bit wary of it. Not a good combination.
 
emfen1305 said:
I have posted numerous times about my failings at competitions and general nerves because I ride like a lemon and I have a cob who loves taking advantage of that and drops me at the first sign of nerves. My first real life competition since last October is this Saturday so I am going to test some of the things I have been trying at home which include:

For him:
- Turning out for as long as possible in the morning before riding - an hour seems to do it but he's so much better after turn out (a pain as he has white socks and it's muddy but i'd rather get up half an hour earlier than be eliminated on the centre line again!)
- Lunge if needs be (though I haven't had to since I tried turn out before going)
- Going to new places - we hired an arena with a friend and hacked over, no fuss, not much expense, maximum experience as we both enjoyed ourselves which helped build confidence

For me - It's me the issue so I need the most work
- Going through the warm up routine I set at home with my instructor - I now have a very strict warm up routine I follow every time I ride in the arena which gets us both focused and stops me from panicking and aimlessly wandering around in lemon like fashion - I have always been a bit lost in warm ups and worried about what other people are doing and how he might react so by me being focused it helps keep him focused
- Visualisation - I have shunned NLP techniques in the past however I do find visualisation really works for me, I listen to songs that make me feel confident (Heather Small's "Proud" is a particular favourite) and then when I feel nervous I just imagine myself riding around and everything going well like it does at home. I also like reading up on confidence so I read articles or have a couple of books - it makes me feel like I am in control.
- Forcing myself to ride in conditions at home where I would usually avoid to build confidence - this weekend I clipped and then rode in Storm Dennis, I really didn't want to and the wind was raging as I went to get on but I have been slowly pushing myself out of my comfort zone at home in hope that riding at home is scarier than competitions.
- Going to a brand new venue - I used to go to one venue and have fallen off every single time I have gone so now I have bad associations, so I am going to a place I have never been to before so I have no choice but just to crack on with it!

Most of these points are probably obsolete, I am sure you are a much more confident and experienced rider than me but just wanted to share some things that I am hoping will help - though I will report back on Saturday if I need to have a rethink!!
Click to expand...

How did you get on? X
 
Leandy said:
I think you need to go to a few arena hires, test riding clinics etc and get some good experiences under your belts before you go out competing again. I'd also review your feeding, exercising and general management as this horse sounds very fresh and you sound a bit wary of it. Not a good combination.
Click to expand...

Thanks I regularly hire that venue and have some others. I hire the venue 2 days before, with dressage boards out and she's fine. She's not lively other than at shows so surely if it were feed/management it would happen other times?
She is on a very strict feeding regime as an ulcer horse, schooled 2 x a week by a professional rider plus one hack and me schooling a further 2 x a week. I can't hack any more as we are not great solo hacking and hacking pals mostly around at weekends. She's turned out daily.
 
Priyashome said:
How did you get on? X
Click to expand...

Ooh sorry I forgot to update as we didn't compete - weather related unfortunately however we did hire an indoor as we already had paid for the box so I just tried to treat it like a warm up. I did everything I said in my original post - minus the lunging because he ended up having 4 hours out and came in chilled! Honestly I was really nervous, it was super windy, we've never been in an indoor and there was plenty going on as the indoor is in the middle of the barn so lots to hear but not much to see but I stuck to my warm up routine which is designed for when he is being lazy so it feels alien to put my leg on when he's forward but I carried on and he was a dream.

And then the other day to further push myself, I rode him when he had been in all day and it was so windy, he was fidgety at the block and felt like he was going to explode when I got on but I persevered and went through my warm up routine and no drama so it feels like things are getting better - hope I haven't jinxed myself!

Have you got any more competitions booked in?
 
Priyashome said:
Thanks I regularly hire that venue and have some others. I hire the venue 2 days before, with dressage boards out and she's fine. She's not lively other than at shows so surely if it were feed/management it would happen other times?
She is on a very strict feeding regime as an ulcer horse, schooled 2 x a week by a professional rider plus one hack and me schooling a further 2 x a week. I can't hack any more as we are not great solo hacking and hacking pals mostly around at weekends. She's turned out daily
Click to expand...

Ah ok, so that would seem to leave only (a) working in in company and/or (b) that your riding changes at a competition. For the former, is she regularly worked in company at home in an arena with several working at the same time, passing close? If not, then it would be worth working on being able to do that. If you can't do it at home then what about going out and about to venues where you can work her in company? Clinics, go to competitions but don't compete etc, ask a local professional if you can work in their arena when they are riding etc. For the latter you may have tension/confidence issue yourself and you feed each others insecurities at a competition. I'm not an expert on that point but I would think some assistance from a coach/trainer who will work on what you are up to as opposed to the horse may help. Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top