Competition Saddle
Help Myself Hypnosis for Horse and Pony Riders: Manage your Competition Stress
Its that time of year again (in the UK at least!) and I thought you might be interested in a few pointers to help with the competition season. These techniques work well in a variety of situations though so even if your goals are not competition orientated, I think you’ll find them helpful. I hope so anyway!
If you’re stressed out taking your horse to competitions, you’re not alone. Confidence isn’t a stable commodity (arrgh!) and even the most experienced of riders suffer competition nerves. These can vary in severity from the odd butterfly suddenly deciding to strut its stuff in your stomach to absolute, downright debilitating fear.
Here’s what happens when you get nervous -
Your reaction to stress is largely generated by the so-called ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ response. This is part of our primitive emergency survival mechanism and many horse riders are astounded to discover that they are inadvertently adopting stone-age survival strategies that are often counter-productive in this space-age world.
What you/your body does
- Quick intake of breath
- Tense muscles.
Fuel reserves are mobilised and sent to the brain and muscles. Extra oxygen is taken in to burn the fuel.
Blood pressure and breathing rate increases making the heart beat faster.
Palms and feet get sweaty to give better grip (i.e. on spear or for climbing trees etc.).
- Cold feet (can still be sweaty!)
Blood is shunted away from the extremities, where it is not needed – also reduces blood loss in event of injury.
- ‘Butterflies’ in stomach.
- Loss of appetite.
- Dry mouth.
Energy consuming digestive processes are closed down, including the production of saliva.
- Loss of peripheral vision – becoming excessively focussed on object of ‘fear’.
Concentration improves. The pupils dilate to let in more light.
- Feel sick
- Urgent need to go to the toilet.
If the situation becomes really life threatening, we may even vomit or defecate to make the body lighter and less appetising.
- Get ‘goose’ pimples and/or hair ‘prickles’ on back of neck.
Muscles under the skin partially contract so that hair stands on end to make us look larger and more threatening to potential predators.
These physical and mental adaptations are brought about by chemical changes in the body. It is our perception of the challenge or threat that determines the cocktail of chemicals released and these in turn determine our emotional response. Contrary to popular belief, it is noradrenaline (not adrenaline) that gives rise to those lovely feelings of excitement and drive as well as physical strength. For this reason noradrenaline has been named the ‘kick’ or high performance hormone which in large amounts stimulates special areas in the brain that produce a feeling of pleasure. In contrast, the feelings and sensations associated with high levels of adrenaline are not pleasant – these are the ones generating the need to flee, leaving us overwhelmed, inadequate and afraid.
Here’s how you can help yourself -
Future Pacing
I think it was Linford Christie who described ‘future pacing’ when he said that he never ran a race he had not run many times before. He meant of course that he ran it through in his mind in the way in which he hoped to run it when he competed. If you want to use this technique to help you create those all-important positive perceptions of the competition environment, simply set yourself realistic goals and imagine yourself achieving them. Do this several times a day in the run-up to the competition, paying particular attention to the detail of what you will see, hear and feel when you get where you want to be.
Work out where your personal challenge lies
The perception of threat or challenge is an entirely individual thing. What stresses you may not stress someone else so working out exactly where your personal challenge lies can be helpful.
It might sound obvious but it’s surprising how many riders fail miserably on this score. So for example
- If you are the sort of person who performs best in an ordered environment (plenty of time to warm up etc.), it’s easy to predict that insufficient planning or lack of time will stress you out. The best thing you can do to improve your performance is to improve your organisation. Use your determination and your logical, rational abilities to help you manage your competition stress.
- If some of your competition stress comes from worrying about what other people might be thinking and whether you are going to let others/your horse down, you can help yourself by avoiding those ‘what if’ projections (such as ‘What if he runs out/spooks’’, ‘What if I forget the course’ etc.) and keeping a tight rein on your imagination.
- If you are the sort of rider who actually loves being the in the limelight, the main threat inherent in a competition situation for you might be the potential for loss of face. However, you can use this to your advantage by acting the part – just behave ‘as if’ you can do it or pretend that you are William Fox Pitt or Mary King. It will also help if you can guard against your inclination to become rather frenetic when stressed. More likely than not, this will simply result in you upsetting your horse and making ever escalating mistakes!
Control your breathing; Control your Stress
Breathing is one of the few subconscious responses to challenge that is within our conscious control. Its much easier to control your breathing than it is to control those butterflies in your stomach for example. Deep, slow breathing aids relaxation, reduces tension and gives a much greater sense of control over yourself as well as increased feelings of physical and mental well-being. When competing, make sure you take a few deep breaths before you go into the collecting ring and remember to keep on breathing! You could also say something like ‘calm’ or ‘confident’ to yourself at the same time. Smiling relaxes those jaw muscles and is generally great too 
)
Give yourself permission to be confident
This may seem simple but can actually be quite challenging. Many of us sabotage our own confidence by telling ourselves that we are ‘no good at competitions’, ‘hopeless’, ‘too nervous’ etc. Pippa Funnel is a superb example of why it’s worth working on transforming those negative statements into positive ones. She attributes some of her success to sports psychologist Nicky Heath and has been quoted as saying
“There were a lot of low points during the years when I never achieved at the top and Nikki got me believing in myself”
Affirmations are simple positive statements that you say to yourself over and over again. If you tell yourself something often enough, you will begin to believe it. That belief will then become a self-fulfilling prophecy -
A positive belief will build a more positive attitude that in turn leads to more positive expectations. This expectation means that you will start noticing when you behave differently and more positively and so you start to notice the small improvements. The positive cycle continues because as you notice these improvements, so more positive beliefs will grow.
Stretch yourself
Very simply there are three areas in which we can operate. They are the comfort zone, the stretch zone and the over-stretch zone. The basic principle is that we need to work mostly in the comfort zone, occasionally in the stretch zone and never in the over-stretch zone. (The same applies to your horse). To improve your confidence, experiment with expanding your comfort zone by working in the stretch zone – without over-stretching yourself!
Think about a time when you felt really confident.
Remember where you were, what you were doing, what you could see and hear around you and what you could feel. Really allow yourself to enjoy re-living that experience as fully as possible.
Imagine putting all (seeing, hearing and feeling) of that memory in something like a brown paper bag so that it is easy to carry around with you. Keep dipping into the bag (as you might with some favourite sweets perhaps!) and enjoy savouring those confident moments as often as possible. This technique is called ‘Resource Anchoring’ and is a great trick to use just before you go into the ring or start the cross-country course for example…
Use Self-Hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is the ultimate self-help tool. It’s versatile, safe, fast, simple, pleasant, effective, non-invasive and non-addictive. No wonder then that numerous well-known sportspeople have used it to enhance their performance, including boxers Frank Bruno, Steve Collins and Nigel Benn, former England cricket captain Mike Brearley, athlete Iwan Thomas and golfers Tiger Woods and Ian Woosnam. Olympic cyclist Levi Leipheimer credits a self-hypnosis audio CD as contributing to his success in winning the USA’s biggest race twice, achieving a third place in the Tour de France and a Bronze Medal at the Beijing Olympics.
I wrote my self-hypnosis audio CD, Hypnosis for Horseriders to help you manage your horse riding experiences positively by better managing yourself and your emotions. It’s suitable for riders of all standards and disciplines; whether you need some help to get back in the saddle, be a ‘happy hacker’ or to find that competitive edge. The CD/MP3 download uses hypnosis to enhance and expand the techniques described above by helping you to
- access your creative ability to find solution to problems so that ideas, insights and constructive information become more readily available and
- create an environment where you are able to accept positive and helpful suggestions without the restrictions ordinarily imposed by your conscious abilities and responses (as in “yeah but – it won’t work for me, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to …….” for example!).
Also available in the Help Myself Hypnosis series (via www.helpmyselfhypnosis.com ) are Help Myself Hypnosis (which teaches self-hypnosis), Help Myself Sleep, Help Myself Lose Weight and Help Myself Stop Smoking. More titles are planned, so watch this space!
About the Author
Sue McIntyre has more than twenty years’ experience as a hypnotherapist and horse rider and has used her expertise to produce a range of self hypnosis audio Cds and MP3 downloads available worldwide via
http://www.helpmyselfhypnosis.com
Sue’s qualifications include a Diploma in Advanced Hypnotherapy, a Diploma in Personal Development, a Certificate in Hypnotherapeutic Supervision and a Certificate in Counselling Skills. She is a Supervisory Member of both the Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy and The National Council for Hypnotherapy. She is also registered with the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations, which ensures that all hypnotherapists are safe and competent to practice and that they adhere to national standards of ethics and training. She spends much of her leisure time with her horse, ‘Sid’.
