Your mental preparation starts the moment you walk your course. It might seem like just another routine at the show and, after riding many horses at many shows, you might feel like you can get away with a quick browse or walk through the numbers. However, the better your preparation, the better your ride will be. Don’t leave anything to chance and prepare like a pro. Here are five tips to help you do just that.

We all know self-confidence is one of the most important mental skills you need on the horse. You can train as much as you like, but if you don’t believe you are good enough or that you can win classes, you probably won’t. Instead of waiting until the results come in to give you a reason to be confident, take action now! Become the most confident version of yourself and create the results you desire. Here are 5 steps to help you boost your confidence.

Having been around in the showjumping sport for some time, I know how certain myths are still believed to be true – in fact I used to believe them myself.  We might still believe that successful riders have more talent, money and confidence, for example, but is that really true? Interviewing and talking to the best riders and trainers in this sport, they have helped me bust 4 common myths. Want to find out the truth?

When looking up resilience in the dictionary, the following explanation comes up: “The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness”. Listening to many successful riders lately, I have noticed they all seem to have resilience traits in common. Want to find out what these traits are and whether you are resilient as well? Here are 7 signs to find out.

I’m not going to lie, I know fear. The other day I was riding again after not sitting on a horse for over a year and after 15minutes of feeling really good about being in the saddle again, my horse tripped and within a split second I was on the ground. This triggered my fear of falling off big time and I could feel my fight or flight system raging through my body. I got back on but was terrified I would fall again. And then it struck me, it is not the falling that scares me most, it is the fact that I have no control over it whatsoever. So here are 5 ways I will be working on this fear from now on so I can ditch it for good.

For some reason we tend to believe that in order to improve, we need to be criticizing ourselves constantly. In my opinion however, this does not work at all. It’s not helpful cause you don’t get any feedback on how to improve or make things better yet at the same time your confidence is going down the drain. Here are a few ways to ditch the self-criticism and increase your self-esteem.

I believe that thinking in a negative way is a subconscious habit and it often stems from a fear of disappointment. You are scared to be optimistic and dream big dreams cause what if you don’t make it, what if you fail?

As an athlete we’d like to always be in control and have everything work out exactly as we planned. However, the reality is that there are many things that can go wrong, throw us off guard or at least, turn out differently. Often – even when we know better – we spend a lot of energy trying to change the things we can not change and neglect the things we actually do have power over. Here are 5 skills you can always work on, no matter the circumstances.

It is inevitable! Riding horses means you will fall off regularly, often with much speed and from a considerable height. When we are young, we dust ourselves of and get back on again, but as we get older our body and mind might not be as forgiving anymore.

What do most successful athletes have in common? They have big dreams, they reach for the stars and want to be the best in whatever they pursue. They set high goals and will do anything to reach them. Although this hunger and drive is important if not crucial to succeed, it can also become a heavy burden.