Techniques to Get Energized Before You Ride

Some great tools for energizing before horseback riding include music, posture exercises and rhythmic breathing. Find ways to get the energy and motivation necessary before a ride with advice from a sport psychologist in this video on horseback riding techniques.

Hi I'm Tonya Johnston. I'm a Sports Psychology Consultant and it's my job to help riders be psychologically prepared and mentally tough. In this segment, we're going to talk about building your activation and energy before you ride. Sometimes we all could use a little pick-me-up. It's a misconception to think that all sport psychology tells people that they have to relax before they get on. Sometimes you've had a long day. You might be tired from school or work, getting to the barn for a lesson. You might be at a horse show and it's the end of a long day. Similarly it might be really early in the morning at a horse show and you're not awake yet. All of these things might require you to have a tool to increase your energy and help you get focused. Some of these techniques involve using music. These days, with MP3 players and iPods, it's really easy to make a playlist that contains music that gets you excited and revved up. Another idea is adjusting your posture. This is the outside-in principle. So, we have emotions and feelings that we associate with holding our body in a certain way. So, if you were an actor or an actress and you were playing someone who is tired and maybe a little bored, and maybe a little lethargic, your body would take on certain characteristics. In order to bring energy in, we can also then adjust our posture, sit up straight, lengthen our spine, open our chest and lift our chin. By putting our body in that position we can actually make it think, hey I'm prepared, I am ready to go be assertive and I'm ready to go be effective. Another idea for energizing before your ride would be using your breathing. So, a lot of breathing techniques are used in the relaxation process. They can also be used for activation by focusing on the inhale. As you inhale, you want to think about breathing in strength and energy and storing it in your body for later use. A lot of these techniques are great for activation. The main thing is awareness. You need to know where's my energy level, and what do I need. Once you identify where you are, then you can use the appropriate techniques to get you where you need to be.