Picking yourself up!!!!!!

P

PC Steele

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 September 2010
Messages
469
Location
Surrey
Visit site
How do people do it???? When you've ridden badly at a competition and your score wasn't great!!!! How do you keep going?? I rode a medium test yesterday only my second one. My horse is advanced and is more than capable but I was so nervous!!! Would you drop down a level?? I feel really crap 😔
 
You sort of learn to put it behind you. But if you would feel more secure then by all means drop down a level. This is too expensive a hobby not to enjoy it!
 
I usually book a lesson and go through the test again, working on weak spots. But remember to smile, you will have done some good work in the test :) don't drop down a level, just learn from the last one.
 
Great advice JKO, I am in the process of doing it after a terrible outing yesterday at novice. Usually really positive and pick out the positive things and learn from the bad, unfortunately I took my sheet comments far too personally and am finding this one hard to bounce back from.

One thing I read yesterday that helped and I posted on my blog page (embracing your incompetence!):
https://www.facebook.com/horseymusings?fref=nf
 
When you compete, you care about the outcome. Whether you want to win, or do better than last time, or just complete, you care. If you achieve what you wanted, you feel great. If you don't, you feel somewhere on a scale of mildly disappointed, to devastated. If this is your first time on the scale, then welcome, and lucky you!!!

So it's ok to feel rubbish - accept that. And you will feel better. How quickly and how to do it vary hugely. I would suggest evaluating what went wrong, why, how to fix it - get a lesson perhaps. Practice at home, make a plan for how to stop it happening next time out and then get back out there and put it into action!
 
I get this too, so focused on getting regional points, horse went well, trainer said it was the best she had seen me ride...and we got worse scores than last time, no where near points...you can't help but feel annoyed and want to give up... but then I start planning what to do next, go for a nice relaxing hack and start a new game plan to get back on track..do something fun, plan a lesson then get back on it and try again....nothing more you can do and remember that I love doing it :)
 
I had a similar situation at the weekend. Horse has been on fab form recently and I had hoped for another good placing (maybe even a win!) but it all fell apart at the seems.
I was gutted that we did so badly in comparison to other events this year but I just told myself that we can't always do well and that horses have off days too.
Forget about the bad points and focus on what they did well in the comp. For instance, my dressage test featured two very naughty moments which resulted in two 4's but the rest of the work was really nice for 7's and 8's. She was jumping like a stag in the SJ and cleared all the difficult fences but became too complacent at the simple ones so had 3 down (which is very unlike her). XC was great but we went slowly just for fun to make sure she had a good end to the day.
 
I try and put it into perspective. It's ok to be disappointed and it's worthwhile trying to find out why it went wrong but I try and remind myself that any time I come home injury free with a horse that is alive and sound then it's not the end of the world. Believe me there have been many times when people brought a horse home with a career ending injury or worse, no horse to bring home
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top