Five-star showjumpers Trevor Breen and Jodie Hall McAteer share the tools that help them stay calm under pressure, while equestrian mental performance coach Poppy Blandford explains how to harness those pre-round jitters and turn them into a winning performance in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers

You know the feeling of showjumping competition nerves. The bell rings and suddenly your legs turn to jelly and your brain hits the panic button. Before you know it your horse, sensing your change in tune, has ground to a halt at the first fence.

Nerves are not necessarily a bad thing – unless your riding nerves are preventing your enjoyment – rather they’re a sign that you care and are ready to perform. The professionals always seem so calm under pressure – so how do top riders stop nerves negatively affecting their performance in competition?

“Everyone gets nervous, it’s how you turn those competition nerves around and use them to your advantage that matters,” says former Hickstead Derby winner Trevor Breen, whose cool clears under pressure have helped Ireland to wins on the world stage, including in the Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi in 2025.

Thanks to modern pressures, in particular social media, the mental aspect of elite level sport has skyrocketed over the past decade or so and rider mindset is something that today’s top riders take very seriously.

Grand prix winner Jodie Hall McAteer has worked hard on this aspect of her performance with equestrian mental performance coach, Poppy Blandford.

“Nowadays, everyone knows exactly how your round has gone even before you even leave the arena,” Jodie says. “I’ve had to learn how to deal with pressure and manage all the distractions by staying in my own little bubble. I have learnt what works for me and what gives me confidence on the day.”

How to stop competition nerves affecting performance

Trevor, Jodie and Poppy share their advice and top tips for beating showjumping competition nerves.

1. Stick to your plan

The key, says Jodie, is to have a plan and stick to it.

“I don’t like to be rushed, so I work out my timings very carefully. I plan how I will spend my time leading up to going in the ring — how I will work my horse in the morning, what time I need to walk the course and when I need to get on. Once I’m on board I try and stay in my own bubble, focusing on my connection with my horse and blocking everything else out.

“When you have a system in place and you start getting consistent results, momentum takes over and that allows you to become more confident on big occasions.”

2. Ride the course, not the occasion

According to Poppy, the riders who perform best under pressure are the ones who can keep their focus on themselves and their horse.

“When problems occur in the ring it is usually because riders have allowed their focus to shift,” she says. “If you start worrying about the result or who’s watching you, it pulls your focus away from doing the things you need to do to achieve a clear round.

“We often talk about riding the course, not the occasion, and that’s exactly what the very best riders are able to do,” she continues. “They are so focused on what they need to be doing at that particular moment that everything else that’s going on is just noise.”

3. Control the controllables

“Control the controllables” is a much-quoted mantra in elite sporting circles — for good reason.

“There is so much more that goes into a winning performance than those 90 seconds in the ring,” continues Poppy. “If you’re riding at a championship, for example, and you’re not jumping your first round until 5pm, how are you managing yourself throughout the day?”

• How many rounds will you watch?
• Who will you walk the course with?
• Who will you listen to in the warm-up?
• How will you deal with distractions?
• How will you spend the 45 seconds you have after the bell goes before you need to start your round?

“All these things are within your control,” Poppy confirms. “The likes of Scott Brash and Ben Maher will have all the answers to these questions. They have such a strong understanding of their own behaviours, their own routines and how they peak from a mental perspective that they are able to move through the process without being sidetracked by distractions.”

4. The rule of three

Reproducing the training you do at home in the ring is easier said than done, but Trevor Breen has a top tip to help.

He suggests narrowing your focus to just three things.

“When you’re training at home, you’re concentrating on what you need to do to jump a clear round — staying straight, looking ahead, keeping the canter through the turn, and so on. In the ring it can be easy to lose focus on these things and that’s when things can go wrong,” he says.

“The three things will be different for different riders, and probably different for different horses, too, but if you can concentrate on doing fewer things well in the ring it can make life a lot easier.

“Later, once you feel ready, you can add in a fourth thing, and a fifth, and so on. Try to focus on improvement rather than doing everything perfectly.”

5. Build self-awareness and identify your triggers

Poppy explains that building self-awareness and recognising the triggers that cause reactions in your mind and body is a crucial first step to managing them in the ring.

“Ask yourself what causes your heart rate to spike, or what makes you to hold your breath,” she says. “Is it your horse misbehaving? Is it because someone in particular is coming to watch you? Or is it the fact that it’s a bigger occasion than usual? Different people will have different triggers.”

Once you’ve recognised the source of your competition nerves, rather than trying to banish them, you need to redirect them.

“When you notice you’re doing too much thinking, try and redirect your awareness to just feeling what is going on underneath you,” says Poppy.

6. Reframe negatives into positives

Even when things don’t go to plan in the warm-up — which can often happen where space is tight and emotions are running high — it is important to mentally reset before entering the ring.

“For example, instead of getting anxious because you don’t have enough space in the warm-up to establish the canter you want, turn it around and tell yourself that once you’re in the arena you’ll have far more room so you can canter a couple of big circles without anyone getting in your way,” says Poppy, pointing out that it is this kind of mental reshaping that will allow riders to perform at their best.

“Finally, if you have a bad day remember that your skills haven’t disappeared overnight,” she says. “They’re still there, it’s just that your focus might have shifted momentarily.”

• Enjoyed reading this? For more expert training advice from top riders and coaches, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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You can guarantee that every equestrian has, at some point during a competition, had that sinking feeling when something hasn’t gone to plan. Poles fall, unexpected run-outs can happen, or not nailing a still square halt can lose valuable marks. If this means missing out on a top placing, or a win, this can result in a long drive home thinking of the “what ifs” and a shattered competitive mindset.

Riders know more than most that things don’t always follow the script – and while one unfortunate result might be put down to an unlucky day and brushed off, when these start to become regular occurrences it can soon become disheartening.

Consultant clinical psychologist with Changing Minds Dr Duncan Law, who has worked with top sports athletes, explains that when people are driven in sport, losing can be emotionally difficult.

“That’s not what you go into the sport to do,” he says. “But it depends on what you define as losing. For some it might not be about whether you’re on the podium or not. It might be your view that you’re competing against yourself rather than against other people. If that’s your drive, then that’s easier to manage.

“However, if you perceive loss as failure, then there will usually be a negative emotional response. At its extremes, the negative emotional response can become intolerable and you become highly avoidant.

“But if you don’t reflect on the loss, then you can’t learn from what you didn’t get right in the competition and maybe the one before that, leading to thinking you’ve had a losing streak, and you can’t improve.”

And Duncan says the other extreme is where people think too much about the loss.

“They do the learning bit, but carry on worrying about it, rather than using the learning to help them perform better,” he says. “We might call those people overthinkers – they can’t leave it behind and it’s there with them when they start the next competition.

“The ones who do well are those who are between these two extremes – they can manage the emotional pain of loss to reflect and learn in order to focus on what they need to do to perform better in the next event.”

Competitive mindset fluctuations “are normal”

Winning in horse sport is rare – take any top rider’s record and you’ll likely see far more losses than victories, and dressage rider Gareth Hughes says runs of bad luck are common at all levels.

“We put our heart and soul into horses, so when it goes wrong, you can sometimes get into a dark hole,” he says. “We all have days where we have a great ride and think ‘That’s it, I’m off to the next Olympics.’

“And the next day you think, ‘I can’t even canter, it’s too difficult and I don’t know why I’m doing this.’ It’s normal to go through these periods.”

“Confidence comes through getting things right; when you have more bad rides than good, it’s very hard to get your confidence back. And with horses, it’s a sport that you as a rider can get everything right and it still goes wrong – that’s where horses are extremely grounding.

“If you find you’re not doing well all the time, there is a point where you just sort of think, why bother?”

When this happens, Gareth believes taking a step back can be necessary to move forward.

“Step back until you find a place where the confidence comes back, then move forward again. Training horses is like a graph that’s going up and down, but you’re hoping through time, you just get that gentle improvement,” he says, adding that it’s helpful to focus on that improvement, rather than the placing.

“In dressage, if your personal best is 65% and you come out and score 66% and place 15th, that’s still your gold medal. If you’ve been averaging 70% but you win the class on 65%, that’s not an improvement,” he says.

Success, controllables and processes

Dr Chris Beaumont, a senior sports psychologist with Changing Minds who has worked with Olympic and Paralympic athletes, asks people what they define as success.

“Sometimes people can go into competitions without being really clear about what they are trying to achieve,” he says. “Having clarity on your goals and expectations is really important to help the performance.

“Sport is about outcomes, but the thing about outcomes is that they’re not controllable. Often, people allow these uncontrollable things to have a huge impact on their emotions, which can be positive and negative.

“If you win, you get a great high, but when you lose you can have great lows, but those emotions are both connected to an uncontrollable factor.”

To combat this, Chris recommends thinking about the factors you are in control of and to focus on the “three Ps”: preparation, planning and processes.

“I will ask people, ‘Are you really clear on your preparation and what do you need to be as successful as possible? That might be in your training. Then, ‘What’s your plan – are you clear in what you are trying to achieve?’

“Then think about processes; the things that you can do that you’re in control of to give the best chance to be successful. That could be focusing on how you start in a competition, to the various phases.

“If you nail your preparation, be clear on your plans and understand your processes, you set yourself up in the best position for success.”

Preparation leads to a confident competitive mindset

Event rider Pippa Funnell, who describes herself as an overthinker and has been open about confidence issues during her career, places a huge emphasis on preparation.

“What gives me the most confidence is trusting my system, and that system is leaving no stone unturned,” she says. “For example, I know my horses all at some stage have experience of running in the wet ground, because I don’t want to go into a big three-day where the going is tough and I think this horse has never experienced this.

“During a competition you don’t want to be going, ‘I wish I’d done that in the preparation.’ If you know that’s covered, then you can go in with so much more confidence.

“But there are also situations where you have to turn things into a positive. I had a fall and had a plaster on my leg for two-and-a-half weeks before the first Badminton that Supreme Rock won. I had completely the wrong preparation, but you have to turn things into a positive rather than dwell, my positive was that I was going into Badminton well rested.”

But Pippa says it’s human nature to lose confidence at some stage.

“You can lose your confidence in many ways. It might not be from a bad result or a fall, it might be that you’ve had an injury and you’re riding in pain, or you’ve had a run of horses with soundness issues, and you lose confidence in the way you ride them,” she explains.

“When I’ve lost confidence, which I have many times, I’ve fallen into the trap of losing belief in my judgement. It can be easy to ask lots of people for advice and you go away from trying to work it out for yourself.

“But I’ve found huge strength in analysing why something’s gone wrong, or it’s consistently going wrong, and very often that links back to somewhere in your training or the basics.”

Australian five-star event rider turned coach, Paul Tapner, enjoyed plenty of highs during his competition career, but he experienced his share of challenges. He believes a common factor among successful riders is having resilience.

“Anybody who is successful has this in bucketloads,” he says. “You might only remember a famous rider for all their successes, but statistically they’ll have been more unsuccessful.

“One example is jockey AP McCoy. He might have been the most winning rider for how ever many years, but if you look at it from the other perspective, he was also the rider of the most losers in as many years. It doesn’t matter how successful you are, you have to have that resilience to be able to look at it positively.”

Paul says being adaptable to different situations is key to overcoming hurdles.

“I would start on plan A, but normally end up at plan Z by the end of every season,” he says. “I have many stories where things haven’t gone to plan, but it can make you stronger, if you’re willing to learn from it.

“There’s a famous saying: ‘The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over but expecting different results.’ You have to be willing to constantly assess and tweak what you’re doing to get a little bit better every time.

“It doesn’t need to be massive changes, but don’t be so stubborn that you get stuck in your way of doing something and think that that should get results.”

“No failure, only feedback”

Sports psychology coach Debbie Hill of Ahead For Life, who works with equestrians across disciplines including Olympic dressage rider Abi Lyle, practises a “no failure, only feedback” approach. And when helping riders, one technique she uses is the “mental strength triangle”.

“This triangle is made up of motivation, focus and emotional balance,” Debbie explains. “Motivation is around your values and beliefs; if you believe you’re going to be rubbish or fall off, that’s what’s going to happen. So believe that you are able to do this, because you’ve done the training for it. And the value is that it makes you happy.

“Then if we consider the focus part, that’s knowing what you want to achieve and the process to do it. For example, knowing how you’re going to ride the course, or test, and visioning linking the fences or movements together.

“The emotional balance is about what went on in the past and what’s going to happen in the future. We need to stay in the present and believe that we can do that today, by focusing on that process.”

When feeling nervous, Debbie recommends focusing on your peripheral vision.

“We tend to focus on what’s in front of us and this kick-starts that fight, flight or freeze mechanism. Try allowing your eyes to slide out to the side and think about everything you can see. This helps the body believe that everything is OK,” she says.

Showjumper Jodie Hall McAteer has been working with mindset coach Poppy Blandford for the past four years.

“It’s made a massive difference to my outlook. When I started competing on the Global Champions Tour, I got exposed to the top level very quickly, and it was a new kind of intensity and pressure,” she says. “Getting mindset help gave me the tools I needed to manage that and not to get fixated on the results.

“You can get a bit despondent when things aren’t going your way and if you’re struggling at any point, it’s so important to get help.”

How to deal with the unique mindset demands of showing

Showing exerts different pressures to the Olympic disciplines. In showjumping, for example, an unlucky pole down might be comprehensible in a rider’s head, but not being placed in showing can feel more personal. Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Krissie Ivings of Aspire Rider Confidence & Hypnotherapy – and author of Tame the Chimp, Shoot the Parrot & Silence the Mouse – says that subjective sports can be more challenging.

“It’s one person’s opinion on the day – and it is hard, especially if you think that’s unfair or biased. But there’s no reason to assume it’s deliberate bias just because your type of horse isn’t the one the judges are looking for,” says Dr Krissie.

“If you are going to do showing it’s really important that you don’t link your worth to your results. You need to be able to focus on process and let go of outcomes.

“The process is turning your horse out to the best of your ability, showing off his attributes, making sure they are well schooled for the ride judge – focus on all the different elements that make up what makes a good show horse.

“If you put all the pieces together as well as you possibly can, and you ride as well as you can on the day, then whatever happens happens – if people are better than you on the day, they’re better than you. You can still do really well and not place.

“Letting go of outcomes is even more important in disciplines where it’s subjective as the outcome is someone’s opinion. But it’s also useful to be open to feedback, because judges will have a reason for the decision they make.”

Top showing producer and judge Vikki Smith encourages riders not to focus on the placing or qualification.

“My motto is that I’m really happy with my horses in the yard, I know where they are at in their training and experience and I go to a show with the target that as long as my horse goes well on the day, then the result is an added extra,” she says.

“I had a recent result where one of my horses was second, but I think ‘I still only want to take him home’. As long as you’re happy with your horse that’s all you can do. People can become obsessed with chasing a ticket, and sometimes you’ve got to think, ‘Why did I start riding?’ and remember why they enjoy it.”

Horses will be horses, and when those unfortunate moments do happen in the ring, Vikki says it’s important to remember that it’s likely to have happened at some stage to those watching too.

“We all think that because we’re being judged inside the ring, that we’re being judged outside it too. You’ve got to have quite a thick skin to be involved in showing,” she says, adding a rider’s back-up team is just as important in showing as other disciplines.

“I have a dressage trainer, and I have my mum who is good on the ground and a good critic for me. I think everyone needs some help and backup.”

3 tips for dealing with competition nerves

Box breathing: a relaxation technique. Inhale through your nose for a count of four, hold your breath for four, exhale through your mouth for four, hold your breath for four. Then repeat.

Cognitive distraction: using your mind to think about neutral things to keep out negative thoughts at bay. As an example, pick a colour and count how many items of this colour you can see around you.

Progressive muscle relaxation: to help reduce stress and anxiety. Tune into different parts of your body and practise tensing and relaxing your muscles one by one.

Did you enjoy this article? You may also like to read…

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Equestrianism is a wonderful, all-round hobby. Not only does it facilitate outdoor exercise and offer you a number of opportunities to expand your skills, but it also allows you to bond with horses. We could go on about the health benefits of horse riding, and the many boosts it can bring to your mental wellbeing, too. However, if you’re lacking confidence around horses, you might be struggling to find the positives in your equestrian life. What’s more, low confidence doesn’t just affect how we ride – it could hinder horse handling skills, too.

We’re here to say “that’s ok”. It’s perfectly natural to feel worried, frustrated or deflated if your confidence is at a low ebb. To move past these feelings, it could help to dig deeper to understand why your confidence has taken a hit. That way, you can surround yourself with the best support and environment to build yourself back up again.

Are you lacking confidence around horses? Five questions to ask yourself

1. Are you plagued by self-doubt?

Nervous horse riders often question their own ability and stop trusting their skills. This might be in response to a performance setback or achieving an uncharacteristically poor result, a facet of your horse’s management that slipped past your notice or perhaps a habit such as napping creeping in.

It’s important to remember that no one holds all the answers – that’s why there are so many specialist equine professions that each require years of training – and in all likelihood you need a little intervention, reassurance or to brush up on your knowledge. That could be via a veterinary examination of your horse, booking some extra lessons or even enrolling on a management course. Anything that helps empower you in your equestrian life will enhance your self-belief and confidence.

2. Have you had a fearful experience?

A nasty fall, having a horse run away with you or being kicked – these are all frightening, painful and very real experiences that can leave you lacking confidence around horses. It’s natural to be fearful after a frightening episode with a horse, and feeling reluctant to try again is entirely reasonable. It’s hard to fight self-preservation instincts. After all, we have them for very good reasons.

Spending time in your comfort zone will help you find the fun again. It could help remind you that, most of the time, horse riding and ownership go well. This could mean a break from jumping or schooling or indeed riding generally. Why not try some groundwork instead, or find out how to show in-hand?

If you’ve had a frightening experience with your horse on the ground, ensure you’re setting yourself up for handling with a hard hat, gloves and suitable footwear. You can ask for help from an expert or a knowledgeable, confident friend on the yard. Disclose any undesired behaviour your horse exhibits to fully inform the person helping you.

3. Are you feeling the effects of broader personal issues?

While there are countless reported mental health benefits of horse riding, it can feel impossible to appreciate them if things aren’t right elsewhere in life. This could be due to stress at work or home, low mood or perhaps health-related. In fact, British Equestrian has covered the health of female riders extensively and how common menopause symptoms can affect mental and physical health.

Those who have recently undergone a significant life change such as having children, or suffered a close family bereavement, may also find this affects their confidence. In cases like these, identifying the trigger and then sharing your experiences with others and working with experts to help you get back on track may be the best way forward.

4. Is your horse the best match?

It can be really hard to admit things aren’t working out with a horse. Owners put so much time, effort and finances in to their horses, all of which serves to form a close emotional bond in many cases.

It’s never easy to part ways with a horse. But, if you’ve never quite gelled, it can be extremely satisfying to place a horse in a home where he’ll thrive. Then, you can return to finding your perfect partner with renewed vigour – check out our ultimate guide to buying a horse.

On the flipside, if you decide to sell a horse you really like but isn’t your match under saddle, you can be left feeling dispirited that you were unable to make it work. However, it’s not a reflection on you – the two of you simply weren’t a match. If you don’t feel ready to begin searching for another horse, it’s perfectly sensible to take a break, regroup and find your way back to enjoying horses again without the pressure of finding “the one”.

5. Does your yard provide a positive environment?

Just as some horses aren’t the right fit for you, so too with some livery yards. It might be that the way the yard is managed doesn’t suit you or your horse, you struggle to get on with the owner or manager, or there are fellow liveries that you find disagreeable.

Truth is, a bad vibe can throw anyone off. If you find yourself feeling especially relieved if you arrive at the yard to discover you’re the only one there – or start avoiding peak times – it might be a sign things aren’t right. It may be that a frank conversation or two could put get things on the right track. If not, a yard move might be your best bet.

Try not to rush into a move. Make a list of priorities and questions, do your research and ensure you visit the yards when you are looking for your ideal livery yard. Word-of-mouth recommendations are helpful when you are trying to get a feel for a place. Better to take your time and move once than do so in haste and end up in another uncomfortable situation.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout major shows, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

How to find an ideal livery yard: six key things to consider before you decide

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Why riders can be susceptible to mental health problems — and how to take action

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Sports psychologist Inga Wolframm's book Perfect mind: Perfect ride tackles all aspects of getting in the right mindset for riding. Here she gives her expert advice for coping with competition day

You trained for it, looked forward to it, perhaps you’ve even dreaded it (at least deep down). Now it is finally here — competition day! And that can only mean one thing: it’s show time.

But let’s face, even though you enter a show out of your own free will, it can be something of a double-edged sword: the potential for lots of fun and utter humiliation combined in one neat package. At least that’s what that inner voice will keep telling you unless you teach it to do otherwise.

1. Learn to love it

A little flutter of nerves can be a very good thing. It makes you quicker in your reactions, helps you to focus on what matters most, prevents you from tiring easily and even makes you feel less pain. Rather than condemn it, welcome it. Appreciate that it’s the sign your body needs to pull out all the stops.

2. Remind yourself that you can do it

One of the conditions of being able to turn anxiety into a feeling that’s positive and helpful is to know you’ve got the relevant skills. How do you know? By having done it at home. And if you want to be absolutely sure you’ve got what it takes, make sure you train above the level you’re planning to compete at.

3. Don’t try and control the uncontrollable

Many people consider this the number one rule of mental skills training. All it means is that there is absolutely no point in worrying about the things that you can do nothing about on the day of the show. Focusing on elements outside of your control is wasted energy that you’d be better off spending on more important things, such as…

4. …controlling the controllables

It starts with seemingly mundane things such as having your times, your kit, the routine of how and when to tack up. Enough things can go wrong without your planning being one of them. So make sure you’ve got everything you need ready well before you leave. Also think of things that might go wrong when you get there, such as the zip of your boot breaking or the weather changing just as you get there. While you can’t plan for every eventuality, having a ‘just in case’ kit stored away in your car or lorry will give you additional peace of mind.

5. Set yourself goals

Remember, the best way to stay in control is to know exactly what it is that you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it. You want to ride a quiet test? Focus on keeping your joints (wrists, ankles, shoulders, etc.) supple and your muscles (upper arms, upper legs and so on) relaxed and ‘off’ the horse until you need to give an aid. You want to ride with more expression? Keep making sure your horse is ‘on’ the aids. Most importantly? Don’t just focus on these goals in your warm-up, but keep reminding yourself of what you want to do while in the ring too.

6. KISS – Keep it simple and specific

Try KISS – keep it simple and specific. Simplicity and specificity are key to knowing what you are supposed to be doing. So as you get on your horse, give yourself simple and specific instructions on how you intend to ride your test, the course, etc. You want your horse to be relaxed in the ring? Instruct yourself to loosen up through the shoulders and wrists. Your horse needs to move forward with more impulsion? Be adamant that your horse reacts to your leg the entire time while in the ring.

7. Distract yourself

Do you worry yourself silly about all the things that might go wrong in the ring? Can you picture everyone laughing their heads off at your poor performance? Are you convinced the judges hate your horse? Rest assured, these thoughts are normal – most riders experience them at one time or another. But they’re also unproductive and quite often end up undermining your performance. Rather than desperately trying not to think them though (which hardly ever works anyway), it’s best to simply try and accept that you do (something along the lines of ‘Hey, it’s part of who I am, but I’m not going to let it affect me.’) After that, move on and find something to do to take your mind off those negative thoughts. Playing a game on your smart phone, gossiping with a friend, and, while on board, focusing on what you are going to do and breathing correctly can work wonders.

8. Ignore others

I don’t mean all the time, of course. But while you’re tacking up, or already on your horse, you shouldn’t be watching or paying attention to anyone else, be that fellow competitors, judges, spectators. You can’t control them anyway – not what they’re doing or thinking, not what they’ll say to each other and not how they’ll score your test. Incidentally, it’s not always a good idea to watch other competitors beforehand either. If you only end up comparing yourself unfavourably, you should definitely leave it until after you’ve ridden.

9. Breathe!

Ever asked yourself how come you can ride for an hour at home without breaking into a sweat, but a few minutes in the ring leave you completely knackered? It’s because you forgot to breathe. Many riders will hold their breath for long periods in the ring, and, when they finally do take a breath, inhale into their chest cavity. The problem is, this type of – chest – breathing is very closely linked to the ‘fight or flight response’. Breaths are short, shallow and jerky. Muscles are tight, tense and ready to jump into action – not ideal when you’re doing a sport that, first and foremost, depends on fine motor control (i.e. small, very precise movements of your muscles). The answer? Remember to breathe into your belly, taking long, slow breaths.

10. Relax

Managed to control your breathing and need a bit more a challenge? All right, here goes. Work on relaxing your muscles on command. It’s important to first start practising at home, though. Work your way through all the major muscle groups in your body, one after the other. First, tense them as hard as you can, then simply let go – and feel the tension drain from your muscles. Combine with a trigger word, such as relax or chill. Eventually, your trigger and relaxation will become inseparable. Once you get to the show, repeat your trigger word as and when needed to remove any superfluous tension that might (will) distort communication with your horse.

11. Listen

The power of music — don’t underestimate it. The right tune can relax, stimulate, motivate, soothe, provide comfort or remind you of happy days. So why not come up with a competition play list? You’ll be able to magic yourself into the right state of mind at the mere touch of a button.

12. Focus

It’s one of the key elements to performance. Being able to focus. Attention, the right kind of focus, flow. When it happens, it’s magical. Creating it is merely a question of practice. Remember, focus is a bit like the beam of a torch, highlighting merely those elements important to your performance, but leaving everything else in the dark. Especially if you’re struggling to get into that focusing zone, you might want to make use of a trigger word or a pre-competition routine, which your body will automatically associate with the right kind of focus.

13. Use a routine

Using a series of pre-determined positive (!) behaviours, actions or thoughts that your body and mind have learned to associate with another set of actions, moods or behaviours, will always, without fail, provide you with a sense of security. Routines can involve anything from the type of music you listen to on your way to the show, the way you tack up your horse or the way you structure your warm-up. Just before you enter the ring, you might also want to run through a set behaviour, words or phrases, such as a short gesture meaningful only to you, a deep breath, a trigger word, a visualised scene, and, finally, the command for your horse to get going. As long as the routine is positive, helpful and enjoyable, you’re good to go.

14. Be nice to yourself

Riders are possibly the most critical group of people I’ve ever come across. And that’s a good thing too – when you’re sitting on top of an animal with a mind of its own, you can’t afford to be complacent. But if being critical about yourself is all you do at a show, you’re missing the point… Too many riders keep telling themselves that they are ‘rubbish’, that they ‘don’t belong’, that they ‘might as well go home’. This kind of behaviour serves absolutely no purpose other than undermining your confidence (which is the last thing you need!). So try and be nice to yourself by complimenting yourself. And if you cannot bring yourself to come up with a compliment, at least think of something constructive to say!

15. Visualise

You might have been doing it for years without realising that it’s one of the most effective mental skills around: imagery. The ability to see yourself ride in your mind’s eye. But now that you know it works, it might be time to make the most of it. Use it to improve on current levels of skill, by seeing yourself perform a tricky movement. Or motivate yourself by imagining yourself perform faultlessly at the top of your game. Or picture yourself calm and serene, in the right mental frame of mind. By visualising a desired outcome you’re giving your mind and muscles a kind of ‘blueprint’ for the real action later on.

16. Forgive yourself

So you’ve made a mistake. Big deal… Seriously, even though it might feel like it at that particular moment, getting it wrong isn’t the end of the world. If you’re half way through your ride, give yourself positive instructions on what to do next. Afterwards, remind yourself that this was just another competition (no matter how important it was), and that you’ll simply work on it over the next few weeks. If this doesn’t sound acceptable to you, check your assumptions. You might be trapped in a dysfunctional thought pattern. So rather than making unreasonable demands of yourself, try and learn from your mistakes. Lastly, think of the big picture. You’re there, because you want to be.

17. Accept it

There’ll always be days when things just refuse to come together. It’s not your fault. In fact, it’s nobody’s fault. In the words of Mary King: “Highs and lows are part of horse sports. Try and simply accept them.”

18. Enjoy it!

You’ve trained, you’ve prepared, you’ve spent lots of money and put in oodles of time. Most importantly though, at the heart of it all, it’s about you and your horse.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout major shows such as London International and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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‘Remember you’re dealing with an unpredictable animal’ — how top riders cope when things go wrong

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

We can all get a case of cold feet when it comes to competing and can let it get in the way of having fun and doing our best. In order to help combat those feelings of dread, Emma Shadbolt asks dressage rider Matt Frost to get his top tips on how to stay cool and calm before a show

Make sure you’re ready for the test

Before you enter the class check the content of the test and make sure you are capable of the exercises you will need to perform. Have a run through at home to see if you feel ready – if you’re not quite ready then wait, there is nothing more stressful than over-facing yourself and more importantly your horse. There is always another day.

Make a plan

Start to make your plan as soon as you receive your times. Allow enough time to get your horse ready at home and the lorry packed. We always allow a 15-minute buffer zone before we leave the yard to allow for the unexpected and to double check we have everything. It also stops us rushing around in a mad panic which the horses pick up on. We always work out from a route planner how long it takes to get to the venue and allow an extra 15-30 minutes extra in case of traffic.

We tend to arrive one hour before I’m due to get on to warm up the first horse. This allows time to check the entries board, make sure I’m on the right horse, in the correct class and section, and that I have learnt the right test.

I usually get on a maximum of 45 minutes before my first test. I give the horses a good walk to settle them into their surroundings — even if they are on their toes, 10 minutes’ walking will help to calm them.

With 5-10 minutes to go, we get ready. This involves taking off boots and having a quick glance at the test. The last few minutes before we go in to compete are making sure the horse is focused on me with basic transitions.

I don’t tend to practise the exercises at this stage as it’s too late. Once I have finished my test, no matter how it went, I go back into the arena and cool down by stretching the horse and giving them a good walk off.

Have a ring bag

We always have a bag at the side of the ring. It contains a hoof pick, a leather punch, spare plaiting equipment, a music CD, a towel, some sugar, a water bottle, and test sheets. It also gives you somewhere to put your boots in while you are competing and keeps everything safe and together.

Nerves are good — use them to your advantage

It’s ok to be nervous! Try to turn nervous energy into excitement. You have a responsibility over your horse to give him the best experience possible. Be productive and remember why you are doing it in the first place (for enjoyment, hopefully)!

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Sport psychologist Inga Wolframm — who specialises in equestrian sports and offers advice across the disciplines — gives her 10 top pieces of advice for success on competition day.

1. Know your level

Ideally, at home you should be training a couple of levels above the one you’re planning to compete at. Why? Because it gives you confidence. A competition is stressful enough without the additional worry of whether you and your horse are able to pull off all the movements in a test or cope with the height/technical requirements of a course. If you can be sure though that the demands of the competition are well within your capabilities, you’ll be that much more relaxed before you start.

2. Know yourself

Do you prefer to arrive at the show ground with plenty of time to familiarise yourself with your surroundings, walk around a little, have a cup of coffee – or does waiting drive you crazy and you’d rather just get on and get started? Plan your day according to what keeps you in the best frame of mind. If you’d rather leave the yard with a few hours to spare, do that. If you’re one to get there at the last minute, that’s fine too – just make sure you allow enough time for traffic. Not everyone’s the same, so don’t just copy what your friends do.

3. Plan ahead

Enough things can go wrong without your planning being one of them. So make sure you’ve got everything you need ready well before you leave. Think of things that might go wrong when you get there, such as the zip of your boot breaking or the weather changing just as you get there. While you can’t plan for every eventuality, having a “just in case” kit stored away in your car or trailer will give you additional peace of mind.

4. Distract yourself

Do you worry yourself silly about all the things that might go wrong in the ring? Can you picture everyone laughing their heads off at your poor performance? Are you convinced the judges hate your horse? Rest assured, these thoughts are normal, most riders experience them at one time or another. But they’re also unproductive and quite often end up undermining your performance. Rather than desperately trying not to think them, it’s best to simply try and accept that you do. After that, move on and find something to do to take your mind of those negative thoughts. Playing a game on your smart phone, gossiping with a friend, and, while on board, focusing on what you are going to do and breathing correctly can work wonders.

5. Ignore other people

I don’t mean all the time, of course. But while you’re on your horse, you shouldn’t be watching or paying attention to anyone else, be that fellow competitors, judges or spectators. You can’t control them anyway – not what they’re doing or thinking, nor what they’ll say to each other or how they’ll score your test. Incidentally, it’s not always a good idea to watch other competitors beforehand either. If you only end up comparing yourself unfavourably, you should leave it until after you’ve ridden.

6. Set yourself goals

The best way to stay “in the zone” is to know exactly what it is that you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it. You want to ride a quiet test? Focus on keeping your joints supple and your muscles relaxed and “off” the horse until you need to give an aid. You want to ride with more expression? Keep making sure your horse is “on” the aids. Most importantly – don’t just focus on these goals in your warm-up, but keep reminding yourself of what you want to do while in the ring too.

7. Breathe

Ever asked yourself how come you can ride for an hour at home without breaking a sweat, but a few minutes in the ring leave you completely knackered? It’s because you forgot to breathe. Many riders will hold their breath for long periods in the ring, and, when they finally do take a breath, inhale into their chest cavity. The problem is, this type of chest breathing is very closely linked to the “fight or flight response”. Breaths are short, shallow and jerky. Muscles are tight, tense and ready to jump into action – not ideal when you’re doing a sport that, first and foremost, depends on fine motor control. The answer? Learn to breathe into your belly, taking long, slow breaths. As you inhale, your belly should round a little, as if you’re blowing up a balloon. Once you exhale, your belly will shrink again. Some practice is required, especially if you’re not used to it. But in addition to relaxed muscles, you’ll also end up with a calmer mind. Focusing on breathing correctly, leaves little space in your head for any other worrying thoughts.

8. Be nice to yourself

Riders are possibly the most critical group of people I’ve ever come across. And that’s a good thing when you’re sitting on top of an animal with a mind of it’s own, you can’t afford to be complacent. But if being critical about yourself is all you do at a show, you’re missing the point. Too many riders keep telling themselves that they are “rubbish”, that they “don’t belong”, that they “might as well go home”. This kind of behaviour serves absolutely no purpose other than undermining your confidence. So try and be nice to yourself once in a while by complementing yourself: on a well-executed movement, your nicely turned out horse, or the planning with which you’ve entered the competition. And if you cannot bring yourself to come up with a compliment, at least think of something constructive to say.

9. Visualise

You might already be doing it without realising what it is – seeing yourself ride your test/course before you’re even on the horse. This is called imagery or visualisation and it’s one of the most powerful mental training techniques. Why? Because when you’re imagining yourself doing something, you are giving your brain a “blueprint” for the real action later on. The only catch is that you need to be in control of your mental images. The last thing you want is to see yourself making a mistake. By practising first with easy, non-threatening images – brushing your horse or mucking out – you’ll gain control over your mind and will soon be ready to move onto visualising yourself perform.

10. Enjoy it

You’ve trained, you’ve prepared, you’ve spent lots of money and put in oodles of time. This is your moment and so enjoy it.

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Rider nerves are the bane of many competitors’ show days. A competition we’ve been training for and looking forward to for weeks can suddenly become a thing of dread. We can’t eat, we need the loo, we bite our nails and we snap at our faithful friends and family. We know how much we love our sport, but those of us who suffer from nerves often ask ourselves why we’re doing it.

Of course, nerves bring benefits, too. Do you notice how top riders often say that a healthy dose of nerves raises the adrenaline and helps them perform at their best? That’s the mindset those riders crippled by competition anxiety need to adopt. Happily, it is possible to change the way you deal with nerves and reframe them in a much more positive light.

Performance psychologist Charlie Unwin works across sport, business and the military and helps riders to optimise their performance from the inside out in training and competition. His clients won four gold medals in Tokyo last summer, as well as three silvers and one bronze. Here, he tackles the two challenges for riders suffering from nerves: mind and body.

Rider nerves: the physiological challenge

First of all, Charlie dismisses the term “nerves”, which has such negative connotations, explaining that it’s “just energy, neither good nor bad”.

“The physiological and emotional component of our experience of nerves is the core of our performance on the horse,” he explains. “Without understanding what’s going on in our body, we cannot understand the psychological side. The symptoms of nerves may be familiar: high heart-rate and tension in the muscles.”

Charlie emphasises the positives that emanate from this energy.

“Without nerves we wouldn’t have the peak energy we need to perform at our best. That energy allows us to heighten our performance, to respond more quickly. This has an obvious value in cross-country riding, but also in the dressage arena where things are calmer, nerves can give us commitment and sharpen our focus – if we learn how to channel that energy properly.”

The good news is there are physical actions we can take.

“There are two major keys to channel nerves into something positive: breathing and active relaxation. The instruction, ‘don’t forget to breathe’ should be taken as seriously as any other technical advice. Holding our breath is a classic physiological response to anticipation, meaning we don’t get enough oxygen and our heart beats chaotically, sending signals to the brain that we’re in danger. The blood rushes to the emotional centres of the brain, bypassing the thinking centres, so we are not able to focus. Yet breathing is one thing we can control. Breathe rhythmically and deeply, and you will affect your whole nervous system.

“Active relaxation is not about putting your feet up! Tension creeps in when we are unaware in the hours, days and even weeks leading up to a competition. It means our brain cannot control our muscles effectively and our timing goes awry, so our horse behaves differently. You need to learn self-awareness and notice the tension. Go through your body systematically, starting with your forehead, eyes, jaw, neck and shoulders and assess how the muscles free. Breathe out through your nose to release tension and soften the muscles.”

Feeling calmer? Body sorted, next up is dealing with the mind.

The mental challenge

Once the physiological process is under control through breathing and relaxation, step three is about “positive focus”.

“This is how to direct our attention so that nerves help rather than hinder our performance,” Charlie says. “Some riders lean into a challenge in a positive way with a clear plan. Sometimes it feels like there is little we can control, but the best athletes are able to tune into that very little and to focus on that. They focus on positive action rather than suppressing the nerves.”

Charlie outlines two methodologies:

• The bubble
  “Imagine you have a bubble in front of you and this is your performance,” he says. “If I put pressure on it with nothing inside, it will pop. Inside the bubble you put everything you can control – your plan, your warm-up routine, rhythm, accuracy and so on. Outside the bubble are all the things you cannot control – the weather, the judge, the ground, the warm-up arena size. Focus on what is inside the bubble, control the controllables – but without ignoring what’s outside the bubble, just accept it or it will play on your mind.”
• Visualisation
  “Work through whatever you will be doing as if you were physically there on the horse, with the same timing, rhythm, and preciseness,” Charlie suggests. “This has a profound effect on priming the brain and creating familiarity with the environment. You are leaning in to the competition environment, embracing it. Allow the heart-rate to go up, allow the excitement to pump through the veins and muscles, while breathing and relaxing. Act out your clear and positive plan.”

For more tips and details on psychology and coaching courses, visit centre10.com

Charlie’s book, Inside Out: Train your Mind and your Nerve like a Champion, is available on Amazon.

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Don’t you wish you could reproduce your best performance in training in the ring? But for so many riders, competitions do not bring out the best in us. We grapple with competition nerves, we doubt ourselves, we don’t really know what we’re aiming for –and the movements that felt so soft and easy back home feel alien and awkward under pressure.

Performance coach Charlie Unwin works across sport, business, and the military to help riders optimise their performance from the inside out in training and competition. The proof is in the pudding – his clients won four gold medals in Tokyo last summer, as well as three silvers and one bronze.

Here, he outlines three principles to help riders cope with pressure and bring out their best when it matters.

Manage your inner game

Charlie works with riders on the concept of reproducing their peak performance, and calls it “managing your inner game”.

“Take your best-ever performance and think about it hard – you know you can ride that well because you’ve done it before,” he says. “But what if you could repeat it every single time?

“Managing our ‘inner game’ is about consistently recreating our internal conditions to make our external performance the best it can be. The inner game can be a curious concept to equestrians because, in this sport, the animal forms the focal point and that can draw attention away from what is going on in our heads. However, the horse largely performs as a function of how you perform and what goes on inside our heads affects our outside performance.”

Charlie breaks this down into two aspects: thinking and feeling.

“‘Thinking’ involves training ourselves to focus on the simple things that count – like rhythm, straightness, accuracy,” he says. “It sounds easy, but in the high stakes of competition, there are distractions that pull our attention away from what we focus on in training.

“‘Feeling’ is both the emotional and physiological side – managing both so we can perform at our best. Nerves are a factor, but also how our body responds to stressful thoughts, in the form of tension in the muscles, which means suddenly our body doesn’t respond in the way it normally does. We are stiff or robotic, and the horse responds differently.”

If you’re riding at grassroots, perhaps aiming for your riding club team debut and think this all sounds a bit high-brow, it applies to you, too! Most of us who have ever competed know the feeling of tension and nerves.

“This is as important for someone competing in their first event as at the Olympics,” Charlie confirms. “The way you think and feel affects how you perform on your horse.”

Set effective goals

Charlie calls goal-setting one of the “most profound tools in sports psychology”.

“Athletes who are able to set real effective goals are able to manage their attention and direct their efforts towards what they want to achieve,” he explains. “Most of us don’t think about our goals that much. We have an idea in the back of our heads, but we don’t spend time working out what it will take to get us there and what it will feel like along the way.

Charlie says goals should be “specific, measurable and achievable”.

“No single goal will solve our problems,” he says. “For example, say we want to compete at Badminton or get our jockeys’ licence – a heck of a lot has to happen for us to get there, so it doesn’t play a role in our day-to-day behaviours.

“Conversely, if we set tiny little goals, we need to know they are moving us towards a bigger goal, which will motivate us. So goal-setting is a dynamic process; a blueprint that gives us a focus every day and all our actions should be connected to the process that gets results.

“I’d urge you to put pen to paper, breaking down your goals into as small chunks as you can. For instance, say your goal is to go clear at a particular level – certain components will always be true, like maintaining a rhythm, accuracy, using the corners and sitting up after the fence. Use these smaller goals in training as well as competition.”

Charlie cautions that the brain cannot focus on multiple thing at once.

“When you make goals for competitions, set really deliberate, controllable goals about one or two things on which you will be able to maintain your attention from beginning to end.”

Develop a winning mindset

All competitors know they need a winning mindset, but how do you develop and shape this? Charlie calls this an “inside-out” mindset – enabling riders to focus on the things that they can control and achieve their big goals.

“My starting point is to get riders thinking back to when you were a beginner,” he suggests. “The first time you rode, your only concern was to stay on and just doing that was a success. As you learnt about balance and started getting a tune out of the horse, you started jumping and before long you’re competing. At the first competition, you’re excited to be there, a bit nervous but you have nothing to lose and you end up doing well. It’s called beginners’ luck, but actually beginners have a very powerful mindset because they are focused wholeheartedly on the things that count, the things they can control, with no expectation of the outcome.”

Conversely, an outside-in mindset focuses on the outcome – clear rounds, results – and when it doesn’t go to plan, there’s nowhere to go, because the mind has not been trained to focus on the ingredients of the performance.

“Inside-out focuses on the inner game and allows the outcome to take care of itself,” Charlie explains. “It becomes more challenging the better the results, because your brain connects the reward system (dopamine) with the outcome, and you become vague about the process.”

Charlie urges riders to write down the little things that make a difference – whether that’s from lessons or any positive experiences.

“Before long you will have a ‘good news bible’ full of golden nuggets to fill you with confidence and remind you of the little things that enable you to get results,” he says.

So, take it step by step, work from the inside out, and get ready to bring you best into the ring – every time.

• For more tips and details on psychology and coaching courses, visit centre10.com

Charlie’s book, Inside Out: Train your Mind and your Nerve like a Champion, is available on Amazon.

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Even the world’s elite riders aren’t immune to competition nerves. Martha Terry discovers how they channel their jitters into a winning performance

Nerves happen to the best of us. When Emily Philp was contesting her first Burghley, in 2019, she passed Pippa Funnell’s lorry en route to the cross-country. Bear in mind Pippa has a dozen Olympic, world and European medals, six five-star trophies and 30 five-star starts under her belt. Pippa leaned out of her lorry window to wish Emily good luck and check she was OK.

“I said, ‘No, I feel dreadful,’” Emily says. “And Pippa laughed, and said, ‘Trust me, it gets worse, not better.’”

Pippa went on to win, proving that nerves are no barrier to success. But how familiar her angst is to so many riders, whether we’re at British novice or Badminton.

On online equestrian forums, discussions about how to cope with competition nerves abound. Instant solutions such as gin, Rescue Remedy and Human Kalm Cookies (a human version of the equine ones) are suggested, alongside hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming and performance psychology.

After last year’s stop-start competition season, we might be yearning to feel those butterflies again. But when the new season resumes and the sickening nerves do kick in, it’s helpful to remember that top riders, too, have to battle with their own fear of failure – and have learned to channel these negative thoughts into winning results.

1. Maintain perspective

Mary King’s perpetual smile, win or lose, masks the nerves she still feels even after a lifetime at the top of the sport.

She overcomes her jitters by keeping a sense of perspective.

“Older riders may look relaxed but there are always nerves underneath,” she says. “I make myself remember how lucky I am to do this sport. I think of all the wars and starving people in the world, while we are prancing around on horses. We are just so fortunate.”

Team GBR dressage rider Gareth Hughes views nerves as “anticipation”, the desire to perform. He finds perspective a useful lens.

“The main thing to remember is that dressage is not about life and death,” he says. “We’re not paid millions. It’s more of a personal challenge. You have to put it in perspective.”

2. Embrace the nerves

Performance psychologist Sarah Huntley works on “reframing riders’ nerves into something positive”.

“The physiological sensations of nerves – butterflies or clammy palms – are not negative in themselves; it’s the emotion we attach to them,” she says.

“It’s part of our fight or flight response. So instead of interpreting nerves as a negative, try to think of them as a positive: ‘This shows I’m ready; nerves will help me perform better’.”

William Fox-Pitt, who believes nerves are “universal”, uses this approach: “The trick is to turn them into something positive – accept you can’t avoid them and instead embrace them. Nerves get your blood up, make you ride with more attack and positivity. You have to control them so they put you in the groove.”

Piggy March, who had a record-breaking season in 2019, actually thrives on the adrenaline nerves bring.

“Of course you start thinking about what can and can’t go wrong, but you feel sharp,” she says. “I like the pressure, I think it makes me better. I wake up. I’m quite laid-back naturally, what will be will be, but I think that also comes with age and experience.”

3. Stick to your plan

Piggy’s other method for coping with the big occasion is to “take my system to the competition”.

“It’s either good enough or it’s not,” she says. “So you have to program yourself to ride exactly how you ride at home. You go into your bubble, do the best you can, then feel amazed when you see the scoreboard.”

Treble CCI5* winner Hazel Shannon has such a specific plan that when she landed her third Adelaide, last season, she didn’t even know she’d won.

“Nerves don’t change the skills you have, so you have to stay disciplined,” she says. “My coach Heath Ryan has prepared me how to jump last when I’m in the lead. I watch the first few, then from warming up to going into the ring, I don’t watch anyone else as I don’t need to know how they’ve done. When I won Adelaide, people wondered why I didn’t look happier, but I’d knocked two down and had no idea I had two fences in hand.”

4. Visualise

This is a classic psychological technique, to imagine performing whatever test lies ahead. Gareth Hughes admits he doesn’t always sleep well before a big championship, but sees it “like being excited before a holiday”. He uses any sleepless time to go through scenarios and past tests.

“I try to give myself the mental image of what the judge will see, to help me present the best picture,” he says. “I also watch video snippets of myself working at a competition and ask myself if I’m happy with what I see, or whether I need to adapt my approach. Visualisation is a big thing for me, because dressage is all about the impression we give.”

Showjumper Chloe Winchester also uses visualisation to diffuse anxiety before an important class.

“I try to relax myself by walking the course and then visualising jumping it in my head so that when it comes to riding in the ring, it’s like I’ve already jumped it.”

5. Diffuse the pressure

Gemma Tattersall showjumps alongside her main eventing career and has talked about how the nature of eventing makes it much more nerve-racking.

While for her brilliant five-star campaigner Arctic Soul there are only one or two targets a season – putting huge pressure on the potential for a tiny mistake – showjumpers can jump grands prix every weekend.

William Fox-Pitt deals with this by looking at the bigger picture.

“You’ve done your prep and have got to this stage – that’s already a good situation,” he says. “You have to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. In the grand scheme of things, if you make a mistake, who really remembers except you? It’s annoying and it hurts but life goes on.”

Showjumper Joe Stockdale diffuses the pressure by making half-goals rather than long-term ones, and focusing on the process rather than results.

“You can say you want to jump on this team or at that show, but anything can go wrong and put you back three months – you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself,” he says. “But I can look at myself and say, ‘I want to be in a better position, lighter in the seat, be more like this top rider’, and the results will come.”

Top jockey Rachael Blackmore says the pressure of expectation can mount up when you’re riding a big favourite, so she “tries not to think about it”.

“When people talk about me winning championships, I’ll just smile and not really respond,” she says.

Jockeys have ample opportunity to practise under pressure. Perhaps frequent competition is the solution to steady the nerves. As three-time champion Flat jockey Silvestre De Sousa says: “I used to get nervous but not now. When you have 12 races a day you don’t have time, and you’re used to it.”

6. Remember why you do it

Some riders wake up on competition morning so sick with nerves they question whether they enjoy the sport at all.

Sarah Huntley reassures “it’s normal for motivation to fluctuate – especially when it’s 6am and lashing down with rain.

“Think of what you love most about riding, aside from competition,” Sarah suggests. “Sometimes a simple love of horses gets forgotten.”

Chloe finds this helpful: “Mum always says I have to remember I do the sport because I enjoy it. Sometimes you can become so focused on going well you forget the reason you go into the ring – that you love what you do and that’s very important.”

7. On the day

The key is to do whatever suits you.

• Me time: “I like to sit alone in the lorry for an hour and watch a DVD, have a bit of time to myself,” says Gareth Hughes. “At the Euros I fell asleep on a chair in the stable block. Some people get tired with nerves, others get skittish. If you’re that type, it’s best to keep busy.”
• Take a deep breath: Chloe Winchester says, “I take three deep breaths while relaxing my shoulders before I go into the ring. It really focuses my concentration.”
• Organisation: “You don’t want any surprises on competition day,” says Sarah Huntley, “so have everything really well planned for the morning of a competition, including a plan B so if, say, the horse doesn’t load, you still have time. This helps maintain a level of calm.”
• Most of us will never reach the giddy heights that Pippa Funnell has, but those nerves, common to us all, are surmountable. Keep calm and carry on kicking on.

Sport psychologist Sarah Huntley (pictured) co-runs Centre 10, offering performance-applied psychology training to equestrian coaches and riders, and also competes at international level in aquathlon and rowing. Sarah’s advice is:

• Humans naturally have a negative bias – we feel negative thoughts five to seven times more strongly than positive. Remember that’s a normal bias that makes all of us prone to nerves and remembering negative experiences more readily than positive ones.
• For riders who feel sick, work out over time what food is OK for you as you’ll need something – perhaps plain toast or an energy drink in the morning. And focus on deep, slow, nasal-breathing to help you relax.
• Focus on the process not the result or outcome. How do you need to ride to get that clear round? Concentrate on doing that, not what’s at stake. In Centre 10, we call this the “inside-out” mindset. You may want to focus on a couple of words, like “rhythm” or “calm”.
• The rider’s environment on the day is very important – who they’re travelling with and how that person should behave with them, whether calm or motivating. This needs to be communicated before so that partner can support rather than stress the rider out.
• And if it doesn’t go well, don’t catastrophise. Pull out three or four positives from the experience before moving on to what you need to work on. And remember we learn more from perceived failure than when it all goes smoothly.

How did you overcome nerves? Write to us at hhletters@futurenet.com

Ref: 7 January 2021

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Anyone who has experienced competition riding nerves will know just how debilitating they can be. We asked Danielle Olding, of From The Neck Up, how to eliminate competition riding nerves.

Danielle says: “Nerves are the brain’s way of alerting us to potential dangers and protecting us from doing anything rash. Many of us experience clear symptoms from anxiety, doubt and negative thoughts, through to nausea, sweating, migraines, or an increase in breathing and heart rate.”

Sound familiar? Well the good news is, nerves can help our riding — they speed up our reactions and make us ride with more purpose. The bad news is, for some, they have the opposite effect, making competing an emotional trial.

The trick, Danielle says, is to learn to work with your emotional responses, channelling them into the job in hand rather than trying to eradicate them altogether. Here she explains how.

1. Understand the positive intention behind the nerves. Are you concerned for personal safety, delivering a competent performance in front of others or is it something else? Find a positive, practical way to satisfy this concern, so your brain can relax and not feel the need to press the warning buzzer.

2. Identify any possible causes behind your nervousness, such as a previous bad experience, and get some professional help to scramble your brain’s recollection of events.

3. Notice what process you are going through in your head to generate your nervous reaction. Are you creating pictures of everything that might go wrong, or are you using a running commentary to talk yourself into a negative state? Try changing the order in which you do things in your head. Change the volume, location or tone of the voice. Make colour pictures black and white, big pictures small, close pictures far away, movies into still shots, disaster into success.

4. Take the word “nervous” out of your vocabulary, both in your outward conversations and in your inward thought dialogue. Replace it with the word “excitement”. You’ll be amazed how your brain will adapt and generate a totally different state.

5. Keep yourself in the present. There is nothing a ‘What if’ junkie loves more than to catastrophise and create a damn good drama. If this is you, get a job writing thrillers. This marvellous skill has no place in the real world. Our horse has no comprehension of the nightmare you have on continual replay in your head. Learn to stay firmly rooted in what is actually happening underneath you right now. There is more chance of Richard Branson toppling out of his hot air balloon half way through your round than your elaborate script joining the ranks of reality. Try to recall any rare occasions in your riding career when you didn’t die, or get banished from the venue on account of your hopeless riding, and compare this to the number of times in your career when you did. This should give you a better sense of reality.

6. Learn to keep your body physically relaxed. If you can keep your body soft and relaxed, your brain finds it very hard to generate a negative emotional state (because it associates a soft, relaxed body with a happy, confident emotional state). The best way to keep your body soft is to breathe. Learn to ride with slow breathing based low, behind your belly button. If you get really good, you can synchronise your slow breathing to the horse’s strides in any pace, this will help you maintain your breathing and a good rhythm.

7. Learn to ride with a soft jaw. Think back to how your jaw felt last Saturday night on your way home from the pub. Your jaw needs to be totally floppy and ‘disconnected’ and the rest of your body will soften with it. It is impossible to have a soft, relaxed body if your jaw is tight. So all you actually have to do is open your mouth very slightly and keep the jaw ‘floppy’. Learn to do this in downward transitions, lateral work, collection and coming over poles and fences until you can keep it totally uninvolved all the time.

8. Start riding in peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is another thing that your body naturally does when it is relaxed. Put yourself into it directly, and your brain assumes that you must be relaxed and everything is ok with the world. It is that soft, blurry gaze where your eyes remain firmly fixed on one spot out in front of you whilst taking in everything around you by way of vague shapes, colours and movement. Learning to ride like this makes it difficult for your brain to generate a negative state because it is not natural. It will also improve your balance and sense of feel.

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9. Actively create images and movies of you riding confidently. You have to teach your brain to do this. Take a few minutes three times per day to mentally rehearse yourself using one or more of these tips every time you ride, out hacking, or in competition, until your brain starts to develop them as a habit.

10. Remember, confidence is like a muscle, the more we use it, the stronger it gets.

From the Neck Up is led by Danielle Olding. Danielle is an experienced business, executive and sports coach who is CIPD qualified and is also a trainer member of the the Association of NLP and the International Coaching Federation. She is an NLP Trainer, Master Sports Practitioner and UKCC Level 3 Accredited Coach.

We are continuing to produce Horse & Hound as a weekly magazine during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to keep our website at horseandhound.co.uk up to date with breaking news, features and more. Click here for info about magazine subscriptions and access to our premium H&H Plus content online.

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Nerves — we all feel them. But what if they’re making competition days a stress and taking away from the fun of it all? There is a wealth of tips on how to combat competition nerves online, but do they work for everyone? Rachel Fraser spoke to real riders who reviewed what works, and what doesn’t, for them.

Leading performance psychologist Charlie Unwin knows a thing or two about nerves. He explained that often riders fail to prepare for the reality of a competition, noting that competing is more of a mental challenge than a physical one and that it’s important to re-create a high-pressure environment when practising at home.

Charlie also recommended working on your mindset when it comes to successes and failures, noting that elite riders tend to visualise their successes, which nurtures their confidence and the importance of setting achievable goals. His last tip was to remember to breathe – one which I’m sure many of us can relate to!

But do the same techniques work for everyone? I spoke to real riders to find out…

Sarah Shepheard, of Totally Amateur Eventing, said: “There’s something about shows that really gets the butterflies in my stomach flapping, so these tips are ideal for me. I completely agree with Charlie’s point about practising. If I feel prepared, having put the hours in training before a competition, I always feel more relaxed on the day. I like to feel prepared mentally as well — so knowing my dressage test inside out, or trying to walk the showjumping or cross-country course the day before where possible.

“Personally, I haven’t found visualisation to be helpful, but I know it really works for some people. I’m quite competitive by nature, so visualising everything going well just makes me more competitive, fuelling my nerves rather than calming them.

“The tip about setting small, realistic goals works better for me, rather than visualising our performance going amazingly and winning all my classes — which is about as likely as finding Valegro in my stable tomorrow!

“I also use a brain training technique where I substitute the word ‘nervous’ for ‘excited’. It sounds silly, but I’ve found that just by saying I’m excited about the competition, it totally changes my mindset and I actually feel more optimistic and less worried — try it.

“I’m also definitely one for writing things down. My blog has helped with that, as I can go back and look at how far we’ve come and remind myself that actually, we’re doing ok.”

Carly Warren, a seasoned Trec competitor, agrees that preparation is key to feeling calm on competition day: “When you compete in Trec, venues can be off the beaten track and finding some can be difficult. I recommend buying an Ordnance Survey map of the area you are heading to, so you can find the venue before you leave home, as some are off narrow country roads. The prospect of stunning orienteering in the countryside on your horse, and a full weekend away with Trec friends, means that long and occasionally stressful journeys are soon forgotten.”

For some riders, the fear of show-day builds up in advance. Sophie Hawkesford, who rides at The Dressage Secret Training Centre & Riding School, explained: “I don’t have a horse of my own, but I’m lucky enough to ride an ex-one-star eventer, Nico, at my riding school.

“My nerves build up way before the competition. Even if I’m just riding at a clinic, held at the riding school, I can feel my riding go to pot. Having an instructor constructively critique my weak points challenges my capabilities and helps me get out of my comfort zone so I can ride Nico to his full potential.”

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Preparation remained a key piece of advice from our riders, with Nic from Diamonds In The Rough Dressage (pictured top) saying: “Prepare as much as possible. I allow an extra half an hour ‘messing around time’ so I can stay focussed on preening and polishing rather than worrying about traffic and a shorter warm-up.

“Learning your test so it becomes second nature means you can really ride in the ring, rather than just playing pilot. I tend to stay off social media for the day too — it’s great for many things but can wind me up so I close my eyes and ears to it.”

Still looking for the tip that works for you? Read more expert advice on how to conquer competition nerves on Horse & Hound.

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

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Victoria Brant, author of the blog 'Diary of a Wimpy Eventer', is on a mission to get her nerve back and get out competing. Here she explains why you're not alone if you're suffering with sometimes crippling eventing nerves...

1. It is perfectly fine and 100% normal to be nervous. If you can admit it, then you can deal with it. Pretending won’t get you anywhere, it really is okay.

2. It can be beneficial to feel that flutter of terror. When it happens, adrenaline is produced to aid our focus and reactions. Embrace it — try to feel the focus, not the fear.

3. You look around, no-one else seems to be terrified? Wrong. Almost every rider, at some stage in their life, has a wobble. For me, it’s weekly. Am I smiling all the way from dressage warm up to cross-country finish line? Yes. Am I nervous to the pit of my stomach? Absolutely. It’s normal and it’s happening to more people than you think.

4. Insurance and legal requirements of all aspects of eventing are rife and extreme safety precautions can make you feel like there is something to worry about. But remember — compulsory safety elements of the sport are preventative and in place to help keep you and your horse safe, so embrace them, rather than being alarmed.

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5. Can we predict 100% what those long, dangly legs are going to do? Not blummin’ likely. Just make the best of what you’ve got on the day and try to not think too far ahead about what COULD happen, instead focus on dealing with the here and now. It will help you to stop predicting a negative outcome if you focus on the job in hand.

6. Try to work out when the nerves kick in. Is it during the entry stage, the course walk, the night before or just on the day? Deal with each phase individually, don’t bundle everything together in your head. Step-by-step processing will help to make the situations seem much less daunting.

What are your tips for dealing with competition nerves? Let us know below…

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After years of fearlessly riding other people's 'project' horses, Victoria Brant was finally in a position to buy her own horse. But after opting for a four-year-old warmblood, she quickly realised she had made a mistake...

Growing up in rural Lincolnshire and riding anything I could get my grubby, child-size mitts on, I soon developed a taste for bringing on ‘lost causes’. You know the types that no one wants to ride? Those were my ‘projects’. Fearlessly, I collected a decent amount of rides and competed at a respectable level before turning 23 and being in a position to buy my own horse for the first time.

The combination of coming from a non-horsey family and a mountain of student debt, meant that I didn’t have enough disposable income to purchase a ‘safe’ option — no big deal, I though! This is where my steep learning curve really began.

So I took myself off on a two-hour trip to purchase a four-year-old, Polish warmblood.

Alarm bell 1 – Unpredictable occurrences/fate?

Buying a young well bred horse with a very brief description and taking a trailer on the first trip seemed very exciting at the time. Four hours later, reality hit. The big grey lump that waddled onto the trailer soon decided he wanted to be anywhere but and flipped upside down. Parked up on the side of a cleared motorway with a set of bolt cutters wasn’t how I had predicted this day going.

Alarm bell 2 — The ‘long haul’ realisation

Home and dry, all my money and time was spent on rehabilitation and getting some sort of trust established. With the woods and trees all merged into one, I couldn’t distance myself enough to overcome the problems we were facing. All the riding I had done for other people had not prepared me for ownership when you can’t turn your back and walk away.

Alarm Bell 3 — Doubting yourself

I began doubting whether I had the capabilities to help him develop and progress. Doubting yourself when working with horses, especially young horses that need defined instruction, is only ever going to end in confusion, which will result in a less than idea outcome.

Alarm Bell 4 — ‘Ding – Dong’… Confusion

Rearing was his way of telling me he was confused. I was in WAY too deep now and every inch of confidence was draining from my trembling body. Eight months passed, I wasn’t sure I knew what I was doing any more and I sought the help of professionals.

Alarm Bell 5 — Outside influencers

The imaginary pressure from people around me wasn’t helping and I felt required to take him cross-country schooling to prove I still had ‘it’. The biggest bell of all — the pressure of external influencers; you do stupid things to prove you’re not a giant sack of rotting fruit. No surprises, we parted company. Shattered, beaten and terrified — I waved the white flag.

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Alarm Bell 6 — Wishing you had a hairy, half dead horse to love

So I advertised and sold my ‘too much’ horse. It was a quick process and ohhh… the relief. Six years on, I have gathered up the remaining shreds of my dignity, borrowed some hypothetical balls and re-built myself with a more sensible option.

Alarm Bell 7 — Sweating palms? Racing heart? Making excuses not to ride?

If I have learnt one thing from this experience, it’s that perseverance isn’t always the right path to tread — know when enough is enough, you’ll be thankful in the end. And be honest with yourself about what type of horse would suit the time and expertise you have to invest in order to avoid living through the heartache that I have.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Alice Dunsdon, 31, shares her remarkable story of losing her nerve as a 19-year-old — to the extent that she couldn't jump a two-foot fence — and how she regained it to ride at every four-star event around the world

I think many eventers are terrified of losing their nerve — some of us think it’s like the plague and if we are not careful we might catch it.

It may surprise many people that I once lost my nerve, when I was 19-years-old. I was aiming for the Young Rider European team having been successful on the Junior European team. I had done my first advanced at Aston Le Walls and I was placed sixth on my horse Master Taldi — I was on cloud nine.

The day came when I was competing another one of my advanced horses War Paint. He was a cracking little 15.1hh skewbald with the heart of two lions. He was brave enough for the both of us and I felt we could take on anything. We were competing for the second year at Wilton Intermediate and after a good dressage and just one pole rolled showjumping, a clear and inside the time cross-country would be sure of a top five placing.

The fall

We set off with enthusiasm and confidence. I came around the corner to a double of trakehners and set up. I moved Paint forward onto the stride and we were taking off when suddenly he put back down again. Our forward motion took us over the fence but War Paint had for some reason tried to add another stride.

There I was lying on the ground between the fences. Luckily Paint was unharmed and had cantered off none the worse. If I was knocked out it wasn’t for very long and I came round to the fence judge at my side telling me to stay still. I felt the taste of blood in my mouth and as my tongue moved forward I realised both my front teeth had been knocked out.

The ambulance came and I was carted off to hospital. My whole top lip had been split in half. I was with a plastic surgeon within minutes of arriving at the hospital and it took two and half hours to reconstruct my lip. The following day I went up to London to see a specialist dentist to be x-rayed and they saw I had broken my top jaw. Bone had to be removed and it was a very long process to reconstruct my jaw and teeth.

Taking baby steps

A few weeks later when the stitches were out and the swelling was down, I was back riding. Nothing had changed. I felt perfectly normally sitting on a horse. I was back schooling Paint and little did I know the fear I was about to feel.

My mother walked into the school. “Right, shall we give Paint a little jump?” she said. It was the first time either of us had jumped since Wilton.

I cantered round and began to approach the small fence. As I came off the corner the fence was in front of me and suddenly my vision went blurry, I pulled away from it and circled.

“What are you doing?” My mother said.

I shrugged my shoulders and I cantered around again but the same thing happened. I began to feel hot and flustered. My chest was tightening, my breathing became quicker and faster. I felt dizzy, I felt the sides of the school were closing in on me. What was happening? Tears were filling up my eyes, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t jump the fence.

For the next few days I just cantered over poles on the ground. A week or so later my mother said: “Shall we try a little jump?”

I looked at her with utter fear in my eyes. My brain was telling me, “No, too soon! Too soon!” But a part of me, the old Alice was telling me, “Just get on with it. Kick on!”

My mother put up the smallest cross-pole. As I cantered round there were thoughts rolling around my head but I was determined not to turn away this time. My arms were locked in place. Here we go, ready, and jump! Paint cantered over it exactly how he had been cantering over the ground poles. Over the next few days mum and I gradually built the fences bigger and bigger until they were at least 2ft.

On this day mum was riding too and she said we should go for a hack around the farm. We cantered up to a little set of rails jumping down into a wood. They would be no bigger than 2’6ft and even the leading rein children jump them out hunting. My mother jumped them down, shouting back at me, “Come on, follow me!”

I froze. I felt flustered, I couldn’t think straight, my eyes became blurry and I began to panic. Paint started to become restless and started bouncing on the spot. He clearly wanted to follow. Before I knew it sobs of tears were coming from no where. I just wanted to wail like a baby but at the same time my brain was saying: “Why are you crying? You have nothing to cry about. Stop crying!” But I knew I couldn’t.

Mum jumped the fence back towards me and Paint calmed down, as did my crying.

“What are you scared of?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” I said wiping the tears from my eyes

“I’m scared of the unknown, I’m scared of falling off again, I’m scared of falling and failing, I just want the feeling to go away.”

I knew deep down there was only ever one way to find out if I were to ever jump again. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone and give it everything I had. I had to try. I had to be the bravest I had ever been in my life and just do it.

Without a lead I trotted down the hill and popped over the rails. I didn’t feel brave. In fact I hated myself.

The winter was fast approaching and my mother and I had decided not to enter any more competitions for that season and I was to focus on hunting. I would hunt as many days as I could with as many packs as I could and jump as much as I could.

Going hunting and having like-minded people around you, with horses loving jumping and following each other in a herd-like environment for me was the best way to battle my demons and losing my nerve.

I hunted all season come rain or shine and soon it was March and the start of the eventing season.

A set-back

I was competing at Gatcombe Intermediate on a brilliant horse I had called Ted. Dressage and showjumping had gone well but before the start of the cross-country the ugly demons chose to show their heads once again. I was sitting in the lorry when my mother walked in. She found me staring at myself in the mirror. Tears began to appear in my eyes and I was not in a good place.

I turned to her and said: “I’m scared.”

“It’s good to be scared,” she said. “It means you want to do well and your adrenaline is running, it’s natural.”

More tears began to stream down my face.

“No,” I whimpered. “This is different, I’m scared I’m going to fall off, I’m scared I’m going to…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I was scared I was going to fall off and die. There I said it. I was scared I was going to fall off and never come back again.

“How about this then,” mum said. “You warm up for cross-country and if you don’t want to go into the start box you don’t. You retire. If you do want to start, you jump the first fence and see how you feel, if you want to pull up, you pull up. If you want to carry on then carry on and jump the second, but again if you wish to retire at any point on the course you just pull up and retire. Just jump one fence at a time.”

“But what will other people think? I can’t just retire after fence one?!”

My mother looked at me with reassuring eyes. “Of course you can — and who cares what other people think. They are probably too worried thinking about themselves to care about what you’re doing.”

“Ok, I can do this,” I thought to myself.

‘I had got my nerve back’

As I climbed on to Ted straight away I felt more relaxed. I warmed up over the practice fences and Ted felt good and surprisingly I didn’t feel too bad either. No pressure, I could do what I wanted. I remembered what it was all about. As I was in the start box and the steward began to count me down, I almost began to smile. We set off, I jumped the first fence!

“Right, how do I feel? Do I want to retire?” By the time I had thought this the second fence was upon us. I saw my stride and we flew it.

“Right, refocus. How do I feel? What was I asking myself again? Wait there’s the third fence — come on Ted!”

By the end of the course I had tears of joy streaming downing my face. As I walked back to the lorry I gave Ted a big pat and wiped my tears and gained composure again. I had got my nerve back.

Every now again the little nerve demon will poke his ugly head up again but I have control over him.

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Alice’s rules for coping with nerves

1. I only do what I want to do and I only do it for myself and no one else.

2. Take each jump as it comes.

3. Don’t feel like you have prove to yourself or others you have to be brave — the greatest bravery is sometimes admitting defeat.

4. Medals aren’t always won through bravery. You need a level head and a clear understanding of what you need to do to win.

5. We must learn to trust others. Accept their compliments and acknowledge constructive criticism. But don’t let the compliments go to your head and don’t let the insults go to your heart.

6. Don’t have any regrets. You only regret the chances you didn’t take, so consider every opportunity that comes your way. Don’t try and run before you can walk but also don’t wait too long as the opportunity may pass you by.

7. The bravest, most successful riders out there are the ones who are not afraid of hard work. They are not afraid of trying, they are not afraid of giving it their all and they are not afraid of failure. It doesn’t matter how exhausted they get, they are 100% dedicated to their sport.

Have you overcome losing your nerve? We’d love to hear your story. Please comment below…

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Ever wondered whether you’re the only one feeling crippling nervousness about an upcoming show? Fear not, for you are not alone.

Steph Croxford’s final centre line aboard Mr Hyde at Keysoe’s High Profile show last weekend — the last major national dressage fixture of the year — was what clinched her the win, according to judge Harry Payne.

Steph looks full of self-assurance when she rides into the ring on her eye-catching driving-bred gelding with four white stockings, Mr Hyde.

But going down the centre line is what fills Steph with dread.

“I get very, very nervous,” Steph tells H&H. “It’s the thought of going down that centre line and all the pressure to get it right first time. You can’t say ‘Oh hang on, I messed that bit up so let me just come back and do that half-pass again.

“I get so nervous I feel sick and think, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

With 673 test results to her name on the British Dressage database, Steph has come down at least 1346 centre lines, which you’d think would make her a seasoned pro, immune from show anxieties.

Conversely to most people, Steph’s nerves are far worse when she competes in the UK compared when she rides at big international shows abroad.

“There’s so much pressure on me when I’m riding here,” she explains. “I hear the commentator — at the nationals for example — saying, ‘And next in is crowd favourite Steph Croxford’, and I just think, ‘Crowd favourite? Me? Really? Please no! It’s too much pressure.

“When I go abroad, I know I’m not going to win, and that totally takes the pressure off. I know they’re thinking, ‘Oh look, there’s that carthorse again, bless’, but that’s fine because it makes me relax.”

So instead of being fiercely competitive, Steph aligns her international show schedule with the things things her family want to do while “on holiday” — and they take Mr Hyde with them.

“I’d like to do Compieigne, because that’s close to Disney and we want to take the children there,” she says. “And we fancy the Apls, so we’d like to go to Fritzens.”

Continued below…

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Unfortunately Steph’s husband Simon can’t help with exercising Mr Hyde because the horse is so particular about how he is mounted.

But combining competing with family holidays seems like the ideal way to combat nerves.

For the full report from Keysoe’s High Profile show (10-11 December), pick up a copy of this week’s H&H magazine, out today (15 December)

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

In her new book "Transform Pressure to Power: 8 Mindset Strategies to Achieve Eventing Success", Helen Rennie looks at how rituals and routines are key mindset tools that enable you to switch yourself into performance mode and get into your zone

You may have noticed that professional sports people have routines that they always go through before and during competitions. Often these routines are labelled as ‘superstitions,’ which makes them seem like they are frivolous and irrelevant, but they are actually the key to helping the athlete or sports person unlock their performance potential.

The reason routines are labelled as ‘superstitions’ is because they have meaning to the competitor using them but they may have no logical or rational meaning to other people.

You can argue that triggers fall into the same category. It doesn’t matter if the routine, ritual or trigger makes logical sense or not; it just needs to help the competitor perform at their best. If it serves that purpose, that is what matters.

Obviously in equestrian sport, there is the horse to consider in all of this and so any routine, ritual or trigger must be safe for the horse and rider, and it must also not compromise the horse’s ability to perform. So for example, a warm-up routine must effectively warm up the horse to prepare it for the athletic challenge ahead and prevent injury, whilst also helping the rider to get focused and in their performance zone.

Here I’m going to outline some of the most common rituals and routines that help event riders. These are repeatable processes that you can use as often as you need to throughout all three phases of an event.

Effective routines and rituals

Effective routines and rituals give you certainty, control and a plan of action. When you are at an event, you are competing in an environment that is often uncertain and unpredictable, so having routines and rituals in place will give you reassurance and a greater sense of control.

Routines and rituals are essentially about getting you into your performance zone and helping you to conserve vital mental energy and control your emotions.

Camilla Kruger, international event rider and Zimbabwe Nations Cup Team member, told me that she has a series of routines that she has designed and refined in training at home so that when she goes to competitions, she focuses on doing what she’s trained to do at home.

This is a great strategy because it provides Camilla with greater control and an ability to more easily transfer her performance level at home to the competition environment.

Make sure you plan each event knowing which rituals and routines you need in order to be successful, because this will help you focus on yourself and what you need to do to perform at your best. If you are competing in a big class, this will help you to manage the pressure of other riders because you will be more focused on your performance.

Here are the most common rituals and routines that I find are most helpful for event riders:

• Pre-competitionThe purpose of this routine is to help you stay organised before competitions and focus your attention on the upcoming event. This type of routine covers everything from the last work session you do with your horse before an event, to the process of packing your lorry or trailer for an event. It is common for riders to have a series of these pre-competition routines that they carry out in the final week before every event.

• Warm-upHaving a warm-up routine is good for you and it’s good for your horse, particularly if you ride young or inexperienced horses. Routine gives horses comfort in the uncertain and unpredictable environment of a competition. It also has the exact same benefit for you and, because it gets you focused on riding each step of the routine, it enables you to get in to your performance zone. The better you know the routine and the more precisely you ride it, the more effective the routine will be in a competition environment. So make sure you practise it at home and know it back to front!

• RefocusingHave a routine or ritual that allows you to refocus and get back in your zone quickly. This could be a deep breath, saying something to yourself or simply riding a shape like a 10m circle to give you time to refocus. This will help you to limit the impact that distractions have on your performance and help you refocus more quickly.

• Mental rehearsalAs well as being a mindset strategy, mental rehearsal is also a routine that you can use to switch yourself into performance mode.

Continued below…

A Thermos flask was your favourite present — and other signs you’re a competition junkie

Hurrah! The competition season will soon begin in earnest — and the following may well sound familiar to you…

Pre-competition routines

Very often a mistake made at an event can be directly linked back to the pre-competition routine and preparation of the horse and rider. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you already have pre-competition routines and rituals; it’s just that they may be unhelpful rather than being something that aids your performance.

One pre-competition ritual I have come across is something I call ‘the wind-up.’ Some event riders use the time before an event to get nervous and wound up about the conditions and the challenges they may face. Clearly this isn’t going to be helpful to them on the day, as it is merely building up their stress levels in advance of the event, which in itself will raise their stress levels.

So it’s important that you establish some clear pre-competition routines as well as event routines and rituals that help you manage your stress, conserve your mental energy and get you ready to switch into performance mode and get into your zone!

Effective pre-competition routines are essential for getting you in the right state of mind to perform at your best and get the competition outcome you really want. These routines will give you a greater sense of control going into the competition and will help your horse remain calm.

The best pre-competition routines are simple. Keeping it simple means your routine will be predictable and easy to repeat for every competition.

This will give you a greater sense of control, and the predictability of the routine will help keep your horse calm. Write down everything you believe you need to do in order to prepare for the competition, including what exercise routine your horse needs to perform at his/her best.

Being clear about the optimal plan for your horse is essential. This will depend on your horse’s preferences and fitness. Only you will know what works for your horse; just make sure you have a clear plan that gets your horse prepared and ready to perform. Once you’ve completed your list, go through it and evaluate the importance of each item. Check that you have included the essential things like checking your horse’s shoes, packing your equipment, food, first aid kit, etc.

Your pre-competition routine must include a deadline for finishing up practise. This is really important because last minute practise can be damaging to your competition performance, especially if you are struggling with something, like a section of your dressage test. It is much better to practise the things that you are finding difficult and could be the weakest link in your performance way before you get to the competition, because trying to fix that last minute will likely damage your confidence and not set you up for success.

The next element you need in your pre-competition routine is a routine for eating, sleeping and just generally taking care of yourself. To make sure you have sufficient mental energy for all 3 phases of your event, it is very important that you rest and eat well in the week leading up to the event. Your muscles also need to be well rested and this needs to be balanced up with the riding preparation you are doing.

Your pre-competition routine needs to be designed to reduce your stress so that you’re not leaving things to the last minute and so that you are well-prepared. This means preparing all the logistics well in time and knowing when you’re going to do things like plaiting up and loading equipment on to your lorry.

Structure is your friend

Build a checklist for the event itself to help guide you through the event so that if things start to get overwhelming, you can simply review your checklist and identify the exact thing you need to do next. This will help you focus and give you back control.

Be completely open with your support people, or whoever comes with you to competitions, about what you need from them in order to remain calm and focused. Remember rituals and routines are all about giving you control and allowing you to remain calm under pressure, so make sure you’re really honest with the people around you about what you need them to do for you so you can implement the rituals and routines you need to get into performance mode and into your zone in each phase.

Design your own

So now you know more about the most common routines and rituals that help event riders get switched on and into their performance zone, it’s important you understand how to design your own rituals and routines. This is something I help competition riders with so I have a lot of experience and here are my top tips:

• Keep it simple! Simple routines are more powerful than complex ones so make sure you keep it simple.

• Remember the aim of a routine is to help you stay organised and feel in control before and during competitions so you can focus your attention on your performance.

• Focus on creating a routine or ritual that enables you to be in peak state and remember that what works for other people might not work for you – find what works for you and stick with it!

• Make sure your routine or ritual enables you to get into your performance zone, so you quieten your inner critic and maintain the right level of stress and pressure that enables you to thrive and perform at your best

Action

Make a list of all the rituals and routines you use before a competition currently and include all the unhelpful ones as well as the ones that help you perform at your best. Then design new routines and rituals using the information and tips above, that you will implement in place of the unhelpful ones so you remain calm, in control and ready to perform at your next event.

Transform Pressure to Power: 8 Mindset Strategies to Achieve Eventing Success by Helen Rennie

Price: £14.99

Visit: www.transformpressuretopower.com

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Sometimes it feels like the older you get, the more you're aware of how easily you can break. But don't worry, there are all sorts of strategies you can try in order to beat those riding nerves

1. Singing

Many riders report that bursting into song helps to relax both them and their horse, and it’s also recommended by Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner Jo Cooper on her website www.equestrianconfidence.com. Singing will also stop you from holding your breath, which your horse will pick up on and which could make him anxious. So break out the Justin Bieber, your horse (if not any passers-by) will appreciate it…

2. Gradually stretch your comfort zone

Confidence and performance coach Jenni Winters (www.flyingchangescoaching.co.uk) suggests that you take small steps towards your goal, instead of just plunging straight in and possibly over-facing yourself. If, for example, your goal is a one day event, then think of what the next small step towards this might be — it can be as small as just getting out and about on your horse. Gradually stretch your comfort zone — and eventually it will emcompass the thing you’d like to do. Sometimes it can help to start with your end goal in mind and work backwards towards the thing you can do today.

Continued below…

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3. Hypnotherapy

They don’t work for everybody, but some people report success with MP3s designed to put the listener into a trance-like state and reprogramme their subconscious. From Paul McKenna to Glenn Harrold, there are loads of self-hypnosis MP3s on the market which offer to do everything from building confidence to beating phobias, or you could try one of those targeted specifically at riders, such as those by hypnotherapist Sharon Shinwell, co-author of the book Ride With Confidence – visit www.confident-rider.co.uk

4. Positive visualisation

If you have visions of yourself flying through the air, or being bucked into a hedge, before you’ve even got on the horse, you need to get rid of that negative image and replace it with something more positive. Jenni Winters suggests you take time to visualise your ride going well — think about what you’d like to achieve and imagine doing it. Banish any negative thoughts. The more you think of something, the more you are actually practising it (your brain doesn’t know the difference between real and imaginary). So practice the good stuff in your head.

5. Focus on the present

Again, forget about the “what ifs”. They haven’t happened — they probably won’t happen. Hypnotherapist and horse trainer Amanda Kirkland-Page (www.confidenthorserider.co.uk) recommends grounding yourself by rubbing the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth — this action will help keep you focused on the here and now.

6. Breathe!

It’s easy to forget to breathe when you’re stressing out. Amanda Kirkland-Page suggests the following: take four deep breaths, imagining all the muscles in your body relaxing, becoming softer. As you breathe out, say the word “CALM”. The more you do this, the more you’ll associate feelings of calm with deep breathing.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

You trained for it, looked forward to it, dreaded it and now it is finally here — competition day.

Despite the fact that most of us enter a show out of our own free will, it remains something of a double-edged sword: the potential for lots of fun and utter humiliation combined in one neat package.

So it’s not surprising that despite our best efforts to prepare for the big day, come competition day the army of butterflies that decided to show up out of nowhere ends up having the upper hand.

This is what sport psychologists refer to as pre-competitive anxiety — most riders call it stress or nerves.

What are ‘butterflies’?

Here’s the thing: from an evolutionary point of view, all these physical changes make perfect sense. When presented with a possible threat to a person’s health or life, the body readies itself for a “fight or flight” reaction.

More frequent breaths mean more oxygen to be taken up by the red blood cells, which then have nothing better to do than deliver it directly to the muscles.

Once there, oxygen combined with glucose is transformed into ATP, the energy currency of the body. Add a liberal dose of the body’s own legal drug adrenaline and cortisol, and the body is ready for whatever it takes to stay alive.

And even though the type of stress riders experience is often just a threat to the ego, the physiological reactions are the same. The body readies itself for action.

So really, that flutter of nerves can be a good thing. It makes you more alert, improving your reaction times. It might even help you to focus a little better on the task at hand. You’ll also get tired less quickly.

But being stressed is definitely not a good thing once it starts undermining confidence, either in yourself, or in your horse. Because once you lose confidence, you no longer feel that you know what you’re doing, let alone what you’re supposed to be doing.

Get your butterflies flying in formation

To help you turn your nerves into something that’ll help you perform better, here are 3 simple rules:

Rule no. 1: don’t try and control the uncontrollable

There is absolutely no point in worrying about the things that you can do nothing about on the day of the show. This includes: the weather, the judges or course designers or your fellow competitors and how nice their horses are. Instead focus on the things you can control, such as arriving on time, having all your kit ready, knowing your test, and having a competition routine.

Rule no. 2: routines rock

Put simply, a competition is not the time to start experimenting. Sticking to a planned routine gives you a sense of security, even if all else fails. Routines can involve anything from what music to listen to on your way to the show and how to tack up your horse, to how to structure your warm-up. Just before entering the ring, many riders benefit from going through their test or the course one more time in their heads, seeing themselves perform at the very best of their ability.

Rule no. 3: KISS: keep it simple and specific

Simplicity and specificity are key to knowing what you are supposed to be doing, and, as an extension, remaining confident in your own abilities. On the day of the competition and prior to getting on your horse you should give yourself two or three very specific instructions as to how you intend to ride your test or the course. If you want your horse to be relaxed in the ring, instruct yourself to loosen up through the shoulders and wrists. Or if your horse needs to move forward with more impulsion, be adamant that your horse reacts to your leg the entire time while in the ring.

Find out more about sport psychologist Inga Wolframm’s work at www.ingawolframm.com

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

New research suggests that a rider’s confidence can be significantly improved by just one session of hypnosis.

Sherree Russell Ginger, a clinical hypnotherapist and qualified BHSAI, conducted the research as part of her BSc in clinical hypnosis at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, earlier this year.

“The findings showed that confidence can be increased by up to 51% with just one session of hypnosis,” she told H&H.

Ms Ginger studied 21 female volunteers aged from 20 to 62, from novice to professional riders. They were randomly assigned to two groups. One received a single session of group hypnosis, the other group was given a presentation about fear, anxiety and confidence.

Data was collected by questionnaires completed by the volunteers before and two weeks after the sessions. In the hypnosis group, 10 of the 11 participants reported an increase in their confidence score. The average was 16% but one rider reported an increase of 51%.

Ms Ginger said the results supported her experience that hypnosis is a very effective way of improving riding confidence and performance.

“The majority of riders will experience a loss of confidence or increased performance anxiety at some time in their riding career,” she said.

“The results of this research are clearly relevant to any sports psychologist, riding instructor and coach,” she added.

One volunteer, Claire, said of the hypnosis session: “It clearly had an impact on more than just my riding confidence. I think it helped to refocus my whole mind.”

Ms Ginger explained: “These things [loss of riding confidence] are rarely happening in isolation. So clients may make changes across the whole of their world.

For more information visit www.sherreeginger.co.uk

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

US dressage rider, trainer and author Jane Savoie, who passed away in December 2020, explains how to stop anxiety from impacting on your competition performance

A rider has a talented horse, which is working well at home, but when they go out to a competition their performance goes to pieces. Does this sound familiar?

Tension can be a major problem at competitions. When you’re tense, your work can’t be of as high quality as when you’re relaxed. That’s true for both horses and riders. A certain rush of adrenalin is normal, and even welcome, but when you’re so tense that you feel immobilised, you’ve got a problem.

First, try to figure out why you get so nervous at shows. Are you worried about what people think of you? Have you put unrealistic pressure on yourself to win? Are you afraid you won’t measure up to the expectations of others?

If these things make you nervous, focus on “performance goals” rather than “result goals”. In other words, rather than having a goal of scoring 65% or placing in the top three, make a new goal that reflects your effort rather than the outcome. For example, how about maintaining a metronome-like rhythm for an entire dressage test, or focusing on your breathing while jumping round a course?

Do you ride defensively because you’re worried that your horse will be fresh? If so, consider giving him some time on the lunge before heading off to the show, and then again on arrival if possible. Arrive early enough that you can walk him round in hand and allow him to see the sights and relax before the venue gets too busy.

Stage some dress rehearsals by hiring out a range of venues, or even by just visiting other local yards with suitable facilities. Treat it like a show day with your preparations, turnout, clothing etc and on arrival, warm up and “compete” like you would at a real competition. Do this frequently until going to a new place and “performing” gets to be old hat for both of you.

Physical tension

Think about what happens to you physically when you’re tense. Muscles get tight while respiration and heart rate increase. With a little work, you can learn to regulate these reactions.

The more you tighten a muscle, the more deeply it relaxes when you let go. To learn the feeling of muscular relaxation, sit in a chair and tense every muscle in your body. Hold the tension until your body quivers. Then let go and feel yourself sinking heavily down into your chair.

Now, go through this process starting at your head and working down to your feet section by section. Each time you release the tension in a muscle group, anchor this feeling of deep relaxation. Eventually as you ride, you can scan your body for tight places and make a conscious decision to relax those areas.

Normally, when you’re tense, your respiration becomes more rapid and shallow, and you may occasionally hold your breath. To combat this, practice deep breathing. As you inhale through your nose, keep your shoulders down and let your stomach get “fat”. As you exhale through your mouth, feel your seat lowering into the saddle so that you “dissolve” into your horse’s body. Consciously breathe like this when you first get on, during every break, and as you go around the outside of the arena. One of your performance goals can be to take a deep breath in every corner.

You can also train yourself to regulate your heart rate by using the stress and recovery cycle that occurs during exercise. Go for a 20min walk and periodically increase your heart rate by walking faster or even jogging for 10-30 seconds. Each time you slow back down to a comfortable walk and feel your heart rate and breathing returning to normal, anchor this feeling and aim to recreate it when you ride.

Remember you’re not alone. Everyone gets tense when competing. Contrary to popular opinion, professionals are not immune to sweaty palms and rubbery legs. But the exciting thing is that you can learn to deal with your anxiety so that you can still do your job well and enjoy yourself. All it takes is some handy tools in your toolbox.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: www.janesavoie.com