Building Capacity

When we feel tense or unsure on a horse, there is often a good reason for it. It can be a genuinely tense or dangerous situation or it can remind us of a time in the past where something went wrong or that we felt under pressure or out of control.

Confidence in the saddle is not about never feeling unsure or unsafe, what it is about is building capacity.

Capacity to read a situation accurately & to make good decisions for you & your horse in that moment.

Confidence for me has two branches;

1. Skillset –

• Reading the horse accurately.

• Knowing tasks & exercises that help your horse to relax.

• Practising these in the calm, so you know you can draw on them in a tense moment.

• Committing tasks to ‘Muscle Memory’ or as I like to call it ‘Nervous System Knowledge’.

• The ability to break things into small steps to make it easier for you & your horse to learn.

• Bodily & breath awareness.

2. Mindset –

• How you view yourself as an equestrian.

• How you speak to yourself.

• How you frame & understand past experiences.

• Identifying where you have choice & how to exercise your choices.

• Building positive neural pathways to support the goals you have.

• Known & practiced mindset tools & skills you can avail of when a challenge occurs.

Confidence is not static it ebbs & flows in all aspects of life.

When you build your own unique confidence toolkit you can get yourself back on track after a confidence wobble with greater certainty & ease.

By working on both the hard & soft skills of confidence you can bring about immense power, ease & certainty in your equestrian life.

Where in your equestrian life could you build more capacity? Which will in turn grow your confidence.

Let me know in the chat.

Helen