How competive are you??

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Eventerlad15

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Riding or otherwise?

Doing BE I alwaysfeel bad for mistakes, poor dressage etc but never totally boptherd about a place(never good enough to win!) but I want to do well.

In running I hate being beaten, especially from someone from school and push myself to the max.

Are you a competive person by nature, i.e wanting to win every competition or are you just happy with competing for fun?
 
I want to do the best I can at the time- I'll get really annoyed with a pole down if it was my fault or if I know that I could have prevented a silly run-out.
I'm not competitive in that I want to go out and win and thats all it means to me. But I generally expect to win or get placed at riding club level and quite like that pressure! In BE I just want points and double clears.
 
I think with horses it's pretty much impossible to expect to win every time!! They always manage to bring us back down to earth with a bump I've found!

Yes I like to win and like to do well, but if the horse jumps well, but maybe rolls a pole, it's not the end of the world
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I think if I did a sport which was idividual(like your example running) I would be more competative.
 
I never bother about being placed doing eventing (although it would be nice!) But I am competitive BSJA if I make a mistake (usually messing it up in the JO if I try and push too much
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) I hate having poles, and even at BE I feel deflated if I don't get a clear in the SJ!

I can't think of other things to be competititve over, although I am reasonably competitive with my OH (even though I know he is better than me at absolutely everything, I can still try!) but other things I couldn't care less
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I dont always want to win but I always aim to do better than the time before. Even if that means horse being a bit calmer,not spooking at the white-boards, maybe an extra half percentage in a dressage test, or managing to go through the water without snorting at it first! As long as we're improving thats what matters most (but coming home with a rossie is always nice
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I always go to everything wanting to win (not that there is usually much chance of that happening!!) however I get much more satisfaction from just completing something that is challenging as opposed to winning something easy.
 
Horribly competitive about everything. I am not sure it is healthy! However it manifests in different ways - BE I would like to get a point, a DC and to not flipping well come 20th any more, but only because I am convinced I and the horse am capable of it - clearly I am delusional as well since we've never managed it!

BSJA a clear is all I want, I never expect to get placed and am happy with a clear in the first round.

Dressage I do unaff at a venue which runs up to advanced-medium and I generally do expect to get placed there and would be disappointed if I didn't down to the way the horse went rather than down to everyone else being better (if that makes sense - no disappointment if everyone else was better than me on the day but horse went as well as he can).

I would not own a horse if I could not compete, they are too much work and effort for me since the real buzz I get is from competing. I love training, but only as a means to an end - i.e. to do better when competing. I have a feeling the next six months (when I have horses to ride but no competing) will be very character building for me
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Away from horses I am a nightmare and horribly competitive at everything from scrabble to mountain biking. OH refuses to play scrabble with me any more, and every new year I go away with a group of friends - there are 3 of us who play scrabble, we are as bad as each other, none of the others will play us!
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Fairly competitive to be honest however with the horses if he goes well than thats good enough.

Running I always want to beat my PB and wont enter anything unless I stand a chance of being able to do it well.

I am fairly competitive at everything and like SC I wouldnt have a horse if I couldnt compete.
 
I am competitive in that I enjoy competing and obviously love coming home with a rosette but I also enjoy achieving certain goals - e.g. first clear round a XC course (very not bold horse) and jumping 1st 1.05m track clear.

I will get very frustrated with myself if I make a mistake, ride badly etc etc but also am just as pleased for other people when they do well/achieve something.

Outside of riding - I enjoy competitions, games etc but am not as competive, just don't like it when people don't follow the rules
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I am very competitive but it's all relative with me. If i go out to dressage i expect to get placed on T but would want my 5yo to have improved and go well for him.....I get very angry with myself for making mistakes and not riding to best of my ability but i am happy if the horse goes as well as it can for level of training/competition etc. As a couple of people have said, i wouldnt have horses if i didnt compete.

Away from horse i am very competitive with everything i do. I work in a competitive sales job and i love it, i'm not happy unless i'm top of my team each month. OH wont play board games with me and has recently refused to play Mario Olympics on the Wii with me anymore!! I don't generally like doing things unless i know i can do well at them!!
 
I always thought I was fairly competitive but since having a baby I realise just how much! I used to ride most days before work in order to keep myself and horse fit for competitions. I dont' have the time or money for BE now and without anything to aim for the appeal of riding isn't there at all! Has anyone else found the same?
 
i am naturally very competitive, but i've learnt to temper it when it comes to horses, and now i'm happy if we have a good day by that horse's standards... getting a rosette becomes incidental. i'm also old enough to have won on what i thought were crap performances, and come nowhere after good performances! i never run a horse faster than it is ready for, just to win a prize.
i continue to beat myself up about mistakes i made years ago though, i'll never forgive myself for the ones that cost us a big class or a good placing... that can't be healthy!
 
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i continue to beat myself up about mistakes i made years ago though, i'll never forgive myself for the ones that cost us a big class or a good placing... that can't be healthy!

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I do the same Kerilli - I think we need therapy!
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I am disgustingly competitive, but more with myself if that makes sense! I wouldn't be the one stropping out of the ring cos I've had a fence down, but I set myself targets and I get really annoyed if I don't meet them. I remember when I wanted to jump bigger tracks more consistently with my little coloured cob, and as I was quite big on him I convinced myself that in order for him to do better I should lose more weight - cue 5:30am starts to go running before work and eating little enough that my mum was beginning to crack up at me... Thankfully the horse I have now is a bit bigger and the racehorses keep the weight off me! I also took up dressage recently (even though I'm rubbish) as I thought it would make me focus on improving my flatwork to get a better canter for jumping - it has! I totally over analyse every round/test/lesson, I reckon I'm actually a bit of a geek about the whole competitive thing... Like a lot of you I try to avoid things I'm not naturally good at - I hate being rubbish at things and only force myself to stressage for the sake of that good jumping canter! Think we're all a bit weird...
 
I remember doing my best ever Nov dressage at Osberton one year, having one stupid stop SJ whilst not touching a pole all the way round then storming clear round the XC and getting a really good time. I waited for ages for the results and came 11th by 0.1
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. Instead of being delighted by what was a really good performance I came away with a quivering lip and cried half the way home as I thought of all the things that could have cost us that 0.1 penalty and 10th place.

Normally though I can take a baby round and see the good points in a 45 dressage, 20 SJ and a stop XC (which takes some doing!).
 
Far too competitive in everything that I do, but then some days i can go the other way and be happy when it has gone wrong, fairly rare though. I always blame myself even if the horse actually did something wrong.
 
I'm a pretty competitive person by nature. I don't 'expect' to win every time out, but i like to think i have a chance of getting placed every time out and if i don't i will be disappointed. That said, if a horse goes well for me i will generally be happy and do realise that they are not machines.

I wouldn't enter any class i didn't think i had even an outside chance of getting placed in
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I am one of the awfully competitive people and mine stems into every part of my life.
Locally I expect to either win or be in teh top 3 for dressage, I hardly ever bother with unaff show jumping as i hate the waiting around for hours just to end up doing 1 round.
As for BE I feel very deflated if i do not get placed where I think I should have been, usually due to my mistakes. Also i compare myself to other people and think if they can do that, why am I not?
Sports in school I take more seriously than most and hate loosing and the same with exams, i feel like i need to beat everyone else! I definately need therapy.
 
On a horse I am competitive only with myself - each time I want to improve and do better as a combination, I'm not so fussed about actually winning or getting placed, if horse has done well to our abilities than I am delighted!
Having said that I am becoming more competitive and want to creep up the leader board a bit as well!!
Off a horse, I am competitive only in sports that I play and always want to win and it drives me mad if I play like a fool even if haven't played for months cause I know I can do better!
 
Im competitive but I often pretend im not. Showjumping I get really nervous, not just about falling off but I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect. I always want to go double clear but even if I go double clear im not happy unless it was a PERFECT double clear. I love jump offs and ride like my life depends on it but if I have a pole im mortified and obsess about if for ages.

I am ridiculously competitive at pictionary! My partner and I are the unbeaten family champions. I feel sorry for my OH if he doesnt guess my drawing or his drawing is pants then I get really cross with him. Hes quite competitive too though so usually its OK.

I went bowling last night, I pretended I wasnt bothered and that I was rubbish but secretly I really wanted to win. I would saunter up and throw my ball like I didnt care but I did and when I won the first game I was ecstatic! My OH won the second game grrrrrrrrr, I over thought my throws in the 2nd game and they were a bit rubbish. It was good for him to win though because I know what hes like and as a man he needed to win one game to make him feel good.

I do feel that if you enjoy competing in a sport and you put the time in to train then your bound to be a little competitive and care about how you do.
 
I am not as competitive in terms of horses as i once was (apparently!). I also probably would not have a horse if I was unable to compete (hence i brief lapse from riding in 2007 when i thought i would not be able to compete!

I do get cross with myself when I have a silly stop and like to beat certain people, I like to do well but know my limits in doing so.

In non horsey terms I normally just proving people that I can do what they have said that i cant i.e when i was told i was too thick for a levels, I went ahead and did them and was top of the class in one class (without doing much work
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Ooooh horrendously!
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Only kidding.

I'm not competitive by nature, but something about horses brings out a bit of it in me. I ride as competitively as I can according to the stage I'm at with the horse, and ideally without scuppering my long term aims by hammering the poor beggar round and ruining his legs or his confidence.
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I've had days when I've won having ridden appallingly
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(thinking Belton with HumungaHorse), and days when I "think" I've done a good job and been over the moon with how the horse has gone
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(Aston with Hector). I always give myself - and the poor s*d who is with me that day
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- a massive de-brief on the way home when I've had a lousy day, so I can work out why it went wrong and what I need to do better next time.
 
I love competing. And I am very competitive. If my current horse does make it back to the ring I have got a Partner in Crime who is probably even more competitive than I am.
 
Not particularly, I can't show jump competitively atm as my tbs are like turning a double decker compared to ex ponio so my new aim is double clears in however long it takes ready for the BE season, where I know I won't get placed and like the relaxed atmosphere there is due to my low expectations. Me and ponio used to win everything at pc but I don't think I was ever competitive and we have appalling dressage so going BE this season made me realise how naff I was compared to all the pros! I hate ridiculously competitive people loads of them in my pc, but I think most will realise their limits when they affiliate
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depends what horse i'm on!

babies at their first shows, i am pleased to stay on board and complete!
after a few outings i am pleased with a rosette...
when they are older i expect a 1st-3rd rosette...

so quite competitive i guess!
 
Very competitive! I train hard to get good results.
I agree with what Kerilli said. I think that winning is not about being the best among all; it’s about getting all the best out of oneself.
I wouldn’t ask a horse to give more than what he can, and am happy when performance is by horse’s standards.
And I also wouldn't do anything I'm not capable of.
 
very competitive but not always to win. as long as i'm happy that we have improved and have tried our best then i'm happy. obviously i love to win, but have learnt having a youngster that there are lots of smaller steps to celebrate before that happens.
 
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