"Welcome to the first of my blogs in which I hope to offer you an insider’s perspective into working as a sport psychology coach with competitive equestrians. I would like to use this blog (which I will be posting fortnightly) as an opportunity to convey some of the more interesting aspects of sport psychology. Having had the pleasure of working with athletes of all abilities across a great many sports I deem it a great privilege to share with you the trials and tribulations of professional sport in the hope that it might give you plenty to relate to regarding your own equestrian experiences. With that in mind I would like to break from the norm and take an unstructured and “real-life” look at how riders are influenced by their mental approach to training and competition. Naturally, I am sure you understand these thoughts and feelings are often very personal, therefore I will rarely mention specific issues or cases unless the individual or team have offered their permission.

Despite having been a dedicated rider and athlete myself (although as far as horses were concerned I was a typical boy and never really settled on any one discipline) the personal sacrifice of equestrians never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps we don’t see it as a sacrifice, but even the most hardened of horse-lovers must have questioned this during the current ice-age. Mental toughness is as real during the winter months as it is during your biggest competition of the summer, and for me, this is where my quest to help people achieve their ambitions begins.

"The moment of victory is much too short for a person to live for that and nothing else."
Martina Navratilova

Psychology is all about associations and key to achieving a winning mind is understanding these associations. One of the biggest mistakes I see in sport is an association that’s consistently made by adults and never by children (unless they are the unfortunate victims of highly competitive parents). As a young rider, almost all of our behaviour is geared towards getting better at our sport, so much so that we are happier spending money on tack rather than holidays! We are happy to do this because our aim is to improve and, as long as we keep improving, we remain focused and fulfilled. This “higher” motivation inevitably guides us towards a string of great results. Our sense of fulfilment peaks and suddenly we feel recognised. As humans, these feelings are exceptionally valuable to us, therefore without realising it our brain starts to make winning more important than improving.

The problem here is that the notion of winning starts to pre-occupy our mind with new information that is largely irrelevant and negative, i.e. How good are my competitors? Are people expecting me to do well? Since these are things that are largely out of our control, the brain produces a more fearful response than usual, taking away feelings of enjoyment and the desire to challenge yourself. There are many ways of preventing this, but ultimately we should always stay focussed on what we CAN control.

Start by writing a list of all the things that you would like to get better at this season. Think of each one as a challenge and decide realistically how long it will take you to achieve each challenge. More importantly, HOW might you achieve it and how will you know WHEN you have achieved it? BE AWARE: If you remain honest through this process you may have to admit to some things that require you to make tough decisions. If this is the case, I can pass on some great advice offered to me by the head of UK Sport:

“There should be no compromise in thinking about what it takes to be the best. Ask questions and answer them frankly, without getting emotionally involved.”

Listen to any World Champion and you will notice that there are two things they will always attribute to their success – enjoyment and challenge. Here’s to 2010!"

Editor's note: If you are interested seeing Charlie speak, he is doing a series of presentations entitled “The Power of Psychology in Equestrian Sport”. Visit the link below for more details.