~about 7min read 🙂
There’s no denying it, stress is the stigma of our times.
It hardly surprising, between work/school, relationships, social pressures, health, family… it’s no wonder we are stressed!
In fact, many of us initially got into horse riding as a way to escape reality and all its stressors.
I remember, in the early days, as a middle school student, going for my riding lesson was the highlight of my week! It made me forget about the tests I wasn’t nailing, the bullies at school and everything in between.
However, being a perfectionist at heart, the idea of competitions was too tempting to resist. After all, I had just found something I was actually good at, in spite of my learning differences!
Along with competitions though came something I then hadn’t anticipated – Competition Stress.
It was so important for me to do well, I was freaking out weeks in advance!
Even when I was too green to even think about being placed, the desire to be better than the previous day/week was enough to stress me out.
Needless to say that when I began competing at a National level in the Junior’s classes and the stakes were higher, stress was draining all the joy out of training!
Over the years though, and as I gained more experience, I found ways to deal with stress because, let’s face it: A little stress can be constructive, a LOT of stress is definitely destructive!
So in this post I thought I’d share with you how I’ve been dealing with competition stress!
1) Discover WHY you are stressed:
I believe that knowing WHY you’re stressed is the absolute first step to dealing with it.
Is it fear of failure? Is it fact that there will be people watching? Is about perfectionism? Is there an exercise that you’re not yet confident about? Is your horse spooky? Are you afraid of letting down the people who believe in you?
The above are only some reasons one might feel stressed – it doesn’t even have to be a rational reason! Just be honest with yourself!
Practically though, this means that you have to break down your thought and those mental dialogues.
Example:
- “I am so worried about this test, it’s a new class, I’ve never done it before but I’ve trained sooo hard and I reaaally want to do this right”
There are three themes: fear of performance, fear of letting oneself down and perfectionism.
2) Argue with yourself:
Now that you have found out why you’re stressing, the next step is to (constructively) argue with yourself.
It is so crucial that arguing does not turn into negative self-talk!
It doesn’t matter whether one is competing in an elementary class or Grand Prix! We all have the right to feel 
stressed! It just means we care!
However, we need to talk ourselves out of the stress spiral. To do that we need to have a mental conversation (yes, looking in the mirror while doing so helps).
Example:
- “I am so worried about this test, it’s a new class, I’ve never done it before but I’ve trained sooo hard and I reaaally want to do this right”
- To that I would answer:
“It might be stressful but it is also so exciting to compete in a new class! Exactly because I have worked so hard at training I owe it to myself to be confident that I will execute it to the best of my ability! But even if I don’t, it’s still ok! Mistakes make us better. My aim is to do the best I can, on that particular moment in time”
This answer essentially acknowledges the stressors and provides a rational response.
That’s why Step 1 is so important. Because if you don’t know what’s stressing you there is no way to respond.
Of course, the above are easier said than done. It takes time and a great deal of self-awareness to break down your thoughts!
3) Get Inside Your Bubble
Although the above are incredibly important and useful steps, having a constant dialogue inside your head can be distracting when you’re in the warm up or when you’re getting ready.
An hour before I get on the horse I like to enter an imaginary bubble. I take a moment to myself, in a quiet place where I feel comfortable, and I visualize a bubble forming around me.
I take deep, calming breaths and with every exhale I imagine all the stress leaving my body, all the negative thoughts exiting my mind.
Once I do that, I don’t let anything enter that bubble. Every time I feel myself tense, I use deep breathing to counter it.
I also pat my shoulders (since that’s the part of my body where I seems to collect tension)– much like the way I’d pat my horses’ neck when he gets nervous!
These three steps are some of the ways I deal with stress. I use similar techniques whenever I’m feeling nervous, whether that maybe work, personal life or even when posting a new blog post :P.
Most importantly though, if you’re stressing to the point of destruction, my advice it to ask for professional help.
Counsellors are trained to help us deconstruct thoughts, identify hurtful patterns and provide us with tools to deal with them.
What are the ways you deal with stress? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment or send me an email!
Most importantly, don’t forget to…
Smile, keep your chin up, heels down and enjoy the ride.