I notice that a question that gets asked and talked about a lot in the world of horses is " How do I keep myself from getting so nervous that I, in turn, get my horse so nervous?" I have asked myself this question a lot as well, and I believe that the answer lies not so much in what we do at the competition, event, trail ride . . . but more in what we do every day. I also hear a lot of people say that when they go into competition or to participate, they "leave their brain at the gate" or freeze up and they can't remember anything that they were supposed to do.
Well, this is completely normal, and everybody does it because when your adrenaline gets pumping, your sympathetic nervous system kicks in and your brain shuts down and you go into survival mode. 'You don't rise to the occasion, you drop to your level of experience' You must start off practicing controlling your emotions, your thoughts and your energy as a daily practice. Then start practicing them when you are stressed at work, in an argument, or when life gets hard, so then when you enter the gate for competition, start on your trail ride, take a lesson . . . you will be prepared to control your energy, your emotions and your thoughts because that's what you've practiced every day. You don't get good at something by only practicing when you need it.
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