Ep 71: Building Confidence & Preparing for Competition
I work with many trainers who struggle to gain confidence in certain arenas or certain setups.
Over the years, I have found that the real issue isn’t usually with their confidence in their horses. Instead, the issue lies with their level of confidence in themselves to optimize their horse’s strengths for that particular scenario.
The best way to build confidence is through action.
To build confidence in a variety of setups, we have to be willing to put ourselves through the challenges of that new setup.
As a competitor, my confidence comes from knowing that I have my horse prepared. When I know that my horse is where it needs to be, I know that I have put myself in a position to use my horse’s strengths to make my job easier.
Truthfully, no horse is going to excel in every setup out there. That is why, as trainers, we have the responsibility to identify our horses’ strengths and figure out ways to optimize these strengths in each new setup.
When you reach a point with your horsemanship where you can say, “I felt what went wrong,” that’s when you have confidence that you can fix the communication gap that is causing the problem. This is simply a matter of establishing good feel, timing, and balance with your horse. These foundational skills are built through correct repetitions performed over a period of time.
It is a proven fact that it takes a human being a minimum of 67 days to create a new habit. That’s why consistency is so important in this game.
While you may be able to make a quick adjustment and “steal” a run, the problem will still exist on a foundational level.
If you want to build your confidence and consistency over time, you must commit to the daily repetitions that create correct muscle memory.
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