In this series, I unveil the mystery of mental coaching by sharing some of the challenges that my clients have faced and how, together, we turned things around to become a more confident rider. For this case study, I’m sharing Katie McNair’s story.

Katie reached out to me when she began to struggle with staying focused while in the saddle, and as a result, that lack of focus led to disappointing show results. As a mother, Katie balances her time, energy, and attention between her children and her horses but has often found herself distracted with both aspects of her life. Is it possible to balance work and family life, and on top of it all, thrive in the show ring? The answer is, “YES!”

Have you ever let distractions get the better of you and rule your thoughts and, with that, your results? You are not alone! We all have specific distractors that can drive us mad. The good news is we can train ourselves to keep a laser-sharp focus and to stay in control of every situation. Here are 5 ways to do just that.

I have been asked regularly if there are any tricks to easily memorize the course. We have all been in that situation on course that we got over a jump and suddenly realized we forgot which way to go. This can be very frustrating, especially when you are still clear up to that point. So here are 4 steps to help you clear your mind, prepare and visualize your plan to never forget your course again.

The road to excellence is a long one and requires patience, grit and deliberate practice. That is at least if you listen to the experts in the field of expertise performance. According to Anders Ericsson, a researcher in the psychology of expertise and human performance, specific or deliberate practise is of one of the most, if not the most important factor to reaching the top in any given field.
Here are 7 specific tips on how to apply his research to training your own skills in the saddle.

It is safe to say that the Equestrian sport is a challenging one, not only physically but also mentally. Making one error can result in a bad fall and injuries and might mean, you are out for the season. This obviously adds extra pressure to not make any mistakes. In addition, it is the only Olympic sport that involves working together with a living animal and that too adds an extra difficulty to the mix. Working together with a highly sensitive animal means that your mind not only impacts your body, but your horse will be influenced by it too.

Being able to stay focused on the task at hand and fully engage in the process is the key to ride your best round and to excel under pressure. I have been able to work with and study many great riders and time and again the ones that are able to focus and completely be in the moment, are the ones that often win or do well at the shows. In case you easily get distracted by thoughts or people watching you, don’t despair, you can train and improve your own focus. However, make sure you start training in advance and don’t wait till you are at the show and the pressure is on.


In an ideal world we would always be in our own bubble, completely focused at the task at hand and nothing would be able to distract us, not even our own thoughts. Unfortunately this is not always the case. To better understand how we can be and stay in our zone or in Flow, we must first better understand how Flow works.