Posts
By Barbra Schulte
Strengthen Yourself Mentally Now for the Rest of the Year - Use Indoor Days to Boost Your Riding From the Inside Out
When chilly temperatures arrive, we usually spend more time indoors.
During winter months, do you feel like you're losing ground in your riding?
While there is no substitute for time in the saddle, winter can be a GREAT time to strengthen the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of your riding.
The first step is a shift in perception. Swap the thought, "Winter is the pits!" ... for ... "Winter is a great opportunity!"
After you giggle for fibbing to yourself, try on these ideas anyway(!):
Map out a mental and emotional strengthening program.
Days huddled by the fire are perfect to reflect upon last season's gains, your dreams, and where you need to improve. Use this time to get to know yourself again. The first step to getting stronger is to face your weaknesses honestly.
To get going, arm yourself with paper and pencil and answer the following questions:
During pressure situations, like a horse show or whenever you want to be at your best, what outside person, place, horse, or situation triggers an uncomfortable feeling inside? An example might be feeling less than ideal when a certain person watches you ride. Another example might be going to a particular place to ride where you've had a bad experience. List them all.
What exactly are the uncomfortable feelings associated with those situations? Are you feeling insecure, defensive, or angry when a certain personal stands at the rail? Are you feeling fearful for your safety or do you just lack confidence overall? The answers to these questions form the starting points for your winter mental and emotional work.
Then, devise a plan to replace unproductive ways of thinking and acting with empowering ones. Challenge your fears and insecurities head-on with an effective plan.
When you reflect on the specific situations that trigger the unpleasant feelings, ask yourself, "What do I have control of?" If you find that you have no control over the person, place, or situation, tell yourself, "Let it go." Try some humorous visualizations like putting the whole situation in a hot air balloon and watch it float away. Then, mentally practice getting back to the task at hand by asking yourself, "What's my job?"
Letting go of things over which you have no control, releasing blame, and taking responsibility for yourself are your real jobs. To know and live this is a powerful, productive, and liberating attitude.
Here's another example. If feeling safe is the issue, you can take control by mapping out a new riding instruction plan for the near future. A feeling of safety is within you. The action you take to remedy this challenge is something you have control over.
What positive emotional replacements could I condition instead of my old weak ways of thinking and feeling? For example, confidence might replace insecurity, while calmness could replace tension. One of the simplest truths of productive thinking (that evokes POWERFUL results) is to focus on what you want instead of what you don't want. For example, forget the troubling person ... (they might be in the hot air balloon anyway (-:) ... focus on a wonderful ride in your mind. Get into it!
Spend at least five minutes a day getting into the FEELING of your positive emotion and then another 15-20 minutes visualizing yourself riding with calmness, confidence, and energy. Add emotion, color, size, sights, sounds, smells, and touch to your mental pictures for maximum effectiveness. Get out the magic wand, baby! Go for it!
Keep a daily journal. Each day jot down the new feelings you are activating and how you are doing. This doesn't have to be a big deal. Make it fun. Daily writing keeps you in touch with yourself. Make some kind of notation ... even if it's only a sentence, "I LOVE winter!"
Map out a physical toughening program. This is the idea you knew would show up sooner or later! You can dramatically improve your confidence with more time in the gym. Here's the short course:
Priority #1: Abdominal strengthening. Build your skills ideally up to between 50 and 100 curls per day.
Priority #2: Interval aerobic exercise. Raise and lower your heart rate within your personal aerobic training zone for 20-30 minutes, 3-4 times per week.
Priority #3: Overall body strengthening. Alternate strength building exercises every other day between your upper and lower body.
Priority #4: Flexibility training. Do stretching exercises daily.
Enjoy your new found winter treasure of time to do the essential mental, emotional, and physical work that is easily overlooked when you get busy during the rest of the year.
Thirty days of conditioning positive mental and emotional skills will replace old sloppy patterns that hold you back!
As winter thaws you will emerge mentally clear and physically fit. That's a life treasure, too.
By Barbra Schulte
Get VERY Clear About Your 2010
[the words, barrel racing, were inserted by me :]
So often we get swept away by what happened last year, what our best friend is doing, or what someone else thinks we should do.
But, what you want to accomplish this year is up to your desires, your current horse, family, or financial situations.
No matter what someone else is experiencing in our sport, it is important to decide what you want to achieve this year. Setting these goals is not the responsibility of your trainer, your spouse, or your friends.
Here are five suggestions to help you gain clarity about your goals:
1. Take time to reflect on why you cut. I know that may sound so elementary, but it can be easy to lose sight of what makes this sport tick for you.
It doesn't matter if you want to be the world champion, an affiliate champion, or if you want to cut in your neighbor's back yard once a month, be sure you know why you are cutting. Somewhere, gleaming in the answer, should be the word FUN.
If you are the champion type, it might be because you love to take on a challenge and follow it through. If you are the once-in-a-while cutter, it might be to completely get away from work and spend time with friends. All the rest of your decisions should hinge on if that road leads you towards fulfilling your reason for cutting.
2. With your purpose in mind, set long-term measurable goals and short-term performance goals you can control. This distinction between long-term measurable and short-term performance is very empowering. Here's how you do it:
Set long-term goals that have an outcome you can measure. Examples would be to win your affiliate's 50K class or cut with your friends at least six times this year. It doesn't matter if this measurable goal changes as the year passes, just set one now that's meaningful to you.
A short-term goal is PERFORMANCE driven and under your control. An example would be, "During my next run I will be calm in the herd so I can make the best decisions possible during each cut."
The distinction is very important about these goals as each plays its own critical role. A long-term goal is the FUEL for your endeavors. However, they are absolutely out of your direct control. Short-term goals are the focus for your riding in the moment and provide the blueprint for your advancement. They ARE under your control.
The SECRET to accomplishing long-term goals you're so excited about is to be clearly focused on performance stated short-term goals. Focus to improve your weakest areas first and build methodically from there.
3. Map out a clear plan for your instruction and your horse's tuning. There are any number of ways to design both of these programs, but they are NOT the same. You owe it to yourself to know you are a work in progress (we all are) and you need mentoring (we all do). Your horse deserves to stay conditioned and tuned. Keep these two aspects separated in your mind. Then, typically with a trainer or mentor, figure out how they blend together.
Focus on your weakest areas one practice session at a time and one show run at a time.
4. Take advantage of any number of varying opportunities to educate yourself about cutting. For example:
Seek a mentor to act as your guide. Most often this is your trainer, but it can also be a well respected peer. Search for and introduce yourself to successful individuals. Pick their brains. Digest what they say. Adopt what works for you and leave the rest.
Repeatedly watch or read cutting resource materials like books and videos. Review them often. You will always find something new.
Find out who offers clinics and when. Plan to participate in or at least observe as many clinics as possible to gain new perspectives. If the NCHA holds a clinic in your area run, don't walk, to attend it. I loved my experience last Fall.
Read and understand the NCHA rule book and case book. Study it from cover to cover. The NCHA has also produced a judging DVD with examples of all rules.
5. Make having fun THE most important goal of 2010. In the world of high performance training, as well as in the business of living, having fun is paramount to success and joy. You are in control of the people you choose to be with, as well as the situations you choose to be in. You don't have to have a logical decision to make changes. You don't have to rationalize it to anyone. Consider your goals for 2010 (step #1) and be guided by fun and excellence as you take your next steps to a great cutting year.
