Win Anyway!
“I don’t feel it today.”
“My horse is not himself today.”
“Well, the weather was miserable and the footing stinks.”
Let me be blunt, it doesn’t matter how you feel. What matters is how much you can get out of yourself every ride, in every situation, under absolutely any circumstances. The expectation to win causes riders to become very afraid of failure. In turn riders try to be perfect and that causes them to not take responsibility for their lack of “perfection” and turn to anything other than themselves. What happens when the conditions for your ride are not great and you and your horse’s strengths can’t be demonstrated “perfectly”?
We all have an “A” game, what is YOUR B GAME? How much of yourself can you get out of when things aren’t going your way? The reality of riding (here in Alaska especially!) is that most rides will not be under optimal conditions. The weather will be rainy, your body and mind might be tired from work, hauling in and setting up at the show, a disagreement with a family member or employee, there can be any number of things that can occur that will affect you, but you, as a rider, have to learn how to WIN ANYWAY.
Legendary Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz’s W.I.N. principle is very applicable to equestrians. “What’s Important Now?” applies to every step you take with your horse when you are riding. The answer to this question that you ask yourself is, what needs my attention? Stop focusing on your internal dialog, your list of excuses and start focusing on what will position you to WIN ANYWAY.
The mindset of “Win Anyway” can be trained and developed. Here are five ways to do this:
Stop trying to be perfect. Focus on building skills of excellence such as emotional control, persistence and letting go after a mistake. These can apply also to other parts of your life, whereas perfection applies to one single task.
Be gritty. If you are going to REALLY pursue your goal you need to have a positive outlook on life even in difficult or challenging times, you need to be able to handle stress with humor and resilience. You must be persistent and passionate. And stubborn. I think that stubbornness is the intangible ingredient.
Get it all out. If you only feel 70% today, then you better give all that 70%. Don’t have a 100%, an all or nothing, approach to riding. That is faulty thinking. Champion riders constantly move forward even if it is 1%. Getting 1% better each ride.
Prepare. When you are prepared it creates confidence. Champions are fully prepared physically, technically and mentally. Then if something happens you are prepared to adapt, execute and get everything out on any given day.
Focus on the present. Mindfulness. What is your horse bringing to the ride today, what are you bringing to the ride today? What do you need to do with your horse to go in the ring and answer the questions of the course or the test.
