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How elite riders cope when their warm-ups go awry, plus tips to overcome blips in your best-laid plans

Ellie Hughes Ellie Hughes

    • The ideal warm-up will be perfectly executed to produce success in the ring – but horses aren’t machines. Ellie Hughes finds out how to cope when the warm-up throws you a curveball in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers

    As hard as we might try, not all warm-ups go to plan – and some go really wrong – even for the elites of our sport. Becky Moody and Jagerbomb were minutes away from dancing into the main arena at last year’s London International Horse Show when the big bay stepped one foot onto another and wrenched off a shoe.

    “One of the founding principles of sport psychology is to control the controllables, and I’m not sure pulling off a shoe falls into that category,” says Becky, reflecting on the moments leading up to their grand prix test.

    By the time the shoe had been nailed back on the pair barely had time to draw breath. But, cool as cucumbers, they went on to deliver a plus-75% score and take third place.

    No matter how well-honed your warm-up routine, sometimes a crisis can unfold when you least expect it. From lost shoes and practice-fence tumbles to weather disruptions and tack malfunctions, there are myriad ways your last-minute preparations can go pear-shaped. How do top riders deal with these glitches? And how can you minimise the impact of a crisis on your own performance?

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