Constructing your confidence within the saddle begins with assessing your strengths and weaknesses. When a specific talent is straightforward for you, it’s pure to really feel extra assured. However when a talent is harder so that you can be taught, it’s straightforward to lack confidence in your self or your horse. Relatively than feeling ashamed or pissed off about your weaknesses, acknowledge them as a few of the best alternatives to construct your confidence and aid you develop into a greater rider.
Give it some thought this fashion: it’s human nature to gravitate towards practising expertise we’ve already mastered. Once we know we will do one thing and do it properly, we like to do it. It makes us really feel assured! And once we wrestle to do one thing, we don’t love to do it. In consequence, we by no means get higher. For instance, you might be nice at loping circles however wrestle with flying lead modifications. If you happen to spend an hour loping circles and also you don’t even try to vary leads, you didn’t get any higher at that maneuver—and also you don’t really feel any extra assured performing them, both. That’s why it’s necessary to develop a plan for build up your weaknesses and sustaining your strengths with the intention to proceed to develop.
Make the Plan, Trip the Plan
To begin your journey towards turning into extra assured, carry out an trustworthy self-evaluation of your expertise and skills. Then set life like expectations for your self about the way to enhance. Begin by asking these three questions:
- When do I really feel essentially the most assured within the saddle?
- When do I really feel the least assured within the saddle?
- What do I wish to enhance about my talents within the saddle?
If you happen to wrestle with self-evaluation, ask your driving coach or a trusted barn buddy that will help you reply these questions. By evaluating your driving talents on this manner, you’re recognizing your consolation zone, you’re seeing what’s exterior of your consolation zone, and also you’re setting objectives for the way to develop your consolation zone and develop your competence and confidence.
Subsequent, set life like objectives for your self. For instance, if you end up within the penalty field in your lead modifications in reining, it’s not life like to set the aim of incomes a plus-one-and-a-half at your subsequent present. However it’s life like to set the aim of incomes a zero at your subsequent huge present. By setting small, incremental objectives for your self, you’re setting your self as much as succeed one step at a time. Identical to it takes time to construct your bodily health, it takes time to construct your confidence.
[More on Confidence: Control the Lope for Confidence]
Lastly, make your plan. After I acknowledge that I lack confidence in a specific space or talent, I wish to design a plan to sort out it head-on. For instance, in reined cow horse competitors, we carry out in three occasions: reining, herd work, and cow work. I’m most assured whereas reining, so it might be straightforward for me to spend three or 4 days per week reining. But when I did that, I’d by no means get any higher at my herd work or cow work, and I wouldn’t really feel assured in two out of three occasions in my self-discipline. This yr, we’ve developed a schedule in my program. We do herd work on Mondays and Tuesdays; we rein on Wednesdays, and we do cow work on Thursdays and Fridays. By making and driving that plan in my barn, we’re spending extra time constructing my confidence and my competence in these occasions. I evaluated my strengths and weaknesses; I set life like, achievable objectives; and I made a plan to perform them.
Construct a Assist System
Discovering good individuals that will help you obtain your objectives is invaluable. If you happen to don’t have a very good coach, discover one! I’m an expert coach and a a number of world champion, however I reached out to a chopping horse coach to teach me in order that I can get higher at chopping. It’s all the time a good suggestion to ask for assist, particularly in case you’re struggling together with your confidence. If you happen to journey with pals, ask them to maintain you accountable to your driving plan—and provide to maintain them accountable
to theirs.
Along with getting exterior assist, acknowledge that the way you communicate and take into consideration your self and your talents issues, too. If you happen to wrestle to lope, it’s straightforward to suppose to your self, “I’m not good at loping. I’m fearful of loping. I’ll by no means be good at loping.” However in case you consistently have interaction in that form of unfavourable self-talk, it’ll develop into a self-fulfilling prophecy and your confidence will erode. As a substitute, inform your self, “I like to lope. It’s enjoyable to lope. I’m going to maintain loping, and ultimately, I’ll be superb at loping.” By setting objectives, planning, and giving your self a extra optimistic outlook, you’re naturally going to develop into extra assured.
Gradual and Regular Wins the Race
Identical to studying a brand new talent, constructing your confidence takes self-discipline. If you happen to wait to work on a talent till you are feeling motivated to do it, you’ll by no means do it. As a substitute, self-discipline your self to work in your objectives in small quantities each single day. You’re going to develop into essentially the most profitable at conquering your objectives once you break them down into small, bite-sized items that you could sort out a number of occasions per week. That’s one method to encourage your self within the journey. One other method to encourage your self is by monitoring your progress by way of expertise. Ask a good friend to file your rides, or if that’s not doable, put money into a wi-fi auto-tracking digicam assistant on your smartphone that may observe and video your rides. By videoing your work, you possibly can watch your self later to evaluate what wants work. You too can preserve observe of your progress all year long by recording your self as soon as per week or as soon as monthly. That manner, you possibly can see how a lot you’ve improved over time and construct your confidence by seeing your progress.
