Equestrian: What happens when you stop believing in your ability?

Having an athletic identity in Equestrian sport is important for young people. Whether you’re a young rider whose Instagram caption is ‘Showjumper’ or you’ve managed to get on a team or development squad,  owning that title as part of you is important. You’re making a social statement about yourself. Your sense of identity is who you believe you are, what you believe you can achieve and what you believe others think you can achieve. Owning that ‘equestrian athlete’ identity allows you to be part of a community and can lead to all sorts of benefits including self confidence, determination to improve and a willingness to compete against others. Our sense of Identity as a rider or competitor gets stronger as we become better riders, have competitive success and our friends take an interest in our sporting passion. Having a strong sense of identity is a feeling of having something to offer the world, it gives us confidence and focus. Any threat to our sense of confidence as an athlete hurts and can cause our performance to suffer.

The question is why do we sometimes stop believing in our ability and lose our sense of confidence as an athlete?

Things that can threaten or derail a sense of confidence:

• Watching peers move up or succeed which threatens your sense of status in a group. 
• Having a run of poor performance.
• Struggling to overcome a persistent fear.
• Not having a support network or someone to discuss your day with.
• Being Micro-managed by a parent of trainer. 
• Setting goals too far above your realistic ability. 
• Constant negative feedback.

 Lately I have been working with an increasing number of younger riders and jockeys looking to improve their focus in competition, combat a drop in confidence or overcome a fear. Often their participation in the sport has become a bit of a muddle and riders report feeling like they have plateaued, hit a wall or feel like they don't know what they are doing anymore. These problems can become increasing frustrating for both the rider and parents investing the time and energy into the sport and what we would call silly mistakes begin pulling the rider down in competition. Often in these situations what has happened is the individuals sense of identity or confidence has been threatened or derailed, they have begun to question their place in the sport, their status and their abilities. I like to describe a strong sense of athletic identity as a backbone, a strong trunk which supports you through good, bad and challenging experiences. When a rider is no longer sure they are a ‘good rider’, their backbone becomes weakened and struggles to support new challenges. Negative experiences can weigh upon it much heavier causing persistent performance issues.  

The power of a strong sense of self. 

Successful athletes have positive stories about themselves. When we watch our favourite show jumpers being interviewed before a big class they ooze confidence and coolness. They may query the experience of their horse, but never the experience of themselves to handle it. 

Their backbone as an equestrian athlete is strong, they have put in the hard work and hours to convince themselves they are capable which allows them to deal with adversity and chase success. Having belief in their ability allows them not to worry about anyone else, manage nerves and concentrate on riding technically correct. 

I’ve lost my confidence, how do i fix it?

Its important to be honest with ourselves about whats going on in our heads, when you arrive at a horse show, who do you feel like? Do you feel like you are there to compete or educate your horses as a rider or do you feel like better riders are watching and judging you? The latter is a poor sense of identity  as a capable rider (or a weakened backbone) and in your head may sound like ‘I keep doing worse than everyone else, my friends will laugh at me, I must not have talent’. With a negative sense of identity comes lack of confidence in ones abilities, frustration and mistakes.

In order to create a new, more useful story about ourselves, one which is more likely to support us in performing better, we must break the cycle of thoughts in our head. Here’s a few things that can help:

1. Have an honest conversation with yourself about what is currently happening. What is going on right now for you? Where is your performance at?
2. Have a honest conversation about how you are feeling. Do you feel frustrated, bored, upset?
3. In your group of peers where do you see yourself?

Understanding that you are frustrated and lacking confidence means that you can begin to change it. 

1. Decide on the type of person you would like to be, you don't have to accept being anyone who you don't like. It’s not selfish to want to feel good about yourself. Start recognising yourself as working towards being this person. How would they act? What would they think? This is an identity you are working towards becoming and your behaviour should be focused towards it. If you find yourself resorting to your old story of being useless or lacking talent, recognise that it is not helpful and remind yourself of the new story you are working towards. 
2. Set small weekly achievable goals which will promote progress. For example, for each horse set small weekly goals such as improving balance on landing or straightness. Set small goals for yourself, dedicate an extra ten minutes to improving your position, making a call you didn't want to or booking a lesson ect. 
3. Take time to re-evaluate your progress and where you are going.
4. Talk openly with your support network. 

Tips for Parents/Trainers:

• Talk openly with your child/student about how they feel. Saying it out loud can half a problem. 
• Don't micromanage, work together to set targets or goals and allow your child/student to come up with solutions themselves. 
• Keep feedback to training or show environments. Home should be the safe zone. If you have a bad day at a show discuss it in the car/truck on the way home and leave it there.  Everyone should feel like home is a place to relax. Use the next day to turn what happened into pro-active action. 
• Treat a fear with respect, repetition won’t always help. Sometimes you need to break it down to basics and start again or talk to someone that can help with mental strategies.