Sports Performance

Performance Management for Professionals and Amateurs

The equestrian arts are one of the most mind demanding of all sports. The main reason for this is the interaction between two intelligent forms -- rider and horse. It is true that in what the horse knows and does, it is far more intelligent than the rider; and what the skilled rider knows and does is far more intelligent than the horse. The trick is to blend the two - what the horse knows and what the rider knows. When this happens, horsemanship rises in technical ability from both vantage points.

We are experts on the rider's mind confidence and its interpretation by the horse. We are not experts in hands-on horsemanship and would encourage you to seek out those that can offer such clinics. However, just as critical is honing the mental edge that is characteristic in competitive riders. The equestrian arts are unlike any other sport because equines have highly developed receptive and perceptive cognition -- an extra sense. Horses are intuitive. A horse already senses what a rider projects just upon approaching the horse. And they are almost like a lie-detection device in that you might be overtly confident but with some internal issues that project otherwise to the horse.

The horse is training you, as much as you are training the horse, possibly more so. What can you teach yourself and what can the horse teach you?

Horse Sense:

the mental ability to understand, discriminate, and correctly interpret a situation. 

Just whom do you want to be in control, yourself or the horse, when riding down a 1000 foot sea cliff drop that is only wide enough for either you or the horse, but not both?

When the rider-horse are in a competitive event, they must be totally connected and collaborative to achieve peak performance. The rider has to give up some control to the horse because the horse knows better than the rider. Likewise the horse must surrender its leadership at times.  This fine balance is what makes the winning champion.

How you engage your horse, is how your horse engages you.

Equestrian Arts

Equestrian portrait of Simón Bolívar.

José Hilarión Ibarra.

c. 1826

Be sure to view the

equestrine video below.

Here are some ideas for your consideration:

O Recognize your personal and riding insecurities.

O Identify your successes and transfer them to other riding tasks.

O Practice so you don't need to think it; then you can enter the 'rider's zone'.

O Integrate your thought patterns with breathing patterns.

O Synchronize your breath with your horse's breath.

O  Increase rider/horse cue sensitivity

O Trust both your abilities and your horse's abilities.

Odd:

The horse's name is rarely given in art.

When rider and horse fully synchronize, the result is a synergism -- an intuitive feeling that can not be achieved by either alone.

This 6 minute video is directly related to process, flow, and rhythm and directly applicable to your sport.   Watch, think, integrate.