Mental Focus & Confidence in the Warm-Up Ring

Exercising mental focus to build confidence in the warm-up ring is similar to any other muscle training, and it helps the rider maintain control. Find out how to incorporate mind exercises during physical training with advice from a sport psychologist in this video on horseback riding techniques.

Hi, I'm Tanya 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 being confident and focus in the warm up ring. Warm up rings present a lot of challenges for many riders. There's a lot of chaos; there are people going in many different directions. They often are coping with nerves themselves or wanting to be their best. So it's a lot; it's really a big melting pot of different emotions for many people. There are many techniques that you can use that can help you be more effective in the warm up ring and start your confidence early rather than having it be a stressful place. One of these techniques is practicing warm up ring scenarios at home. Perhaps you have two rings. You can actually warm up in one ring and then go right of course in a different ring. Or giving yourself the same kind of warm up. With your trainer's help, that can be really effective too; so that as much as you can you're mimicking what to expect in the horse show environment. Another important factor in getting yourself focus in the warm up ring can be controlling your peripheral vision. A lot of times you have to be aware of traffic; so you widen your focus. Okay, this horse is coming up on me or I'm about to pass this person. But if you keep your focus so broad for the whole warm up, you actually probably are not paying enough attention to what's going on underneath and making sure that you and your horse are on the same page. This can be very stress inducing. So by practicing making your focus wide and then narrowing it back down and widening it and narrowing it. Being able to feel like you have control of that can really be a help. Another factor in the warm up ring is having a reset button. We've all had warm ups where things are not going well or we have a jump that was not good or you chipped or you had a rail. Being able to say, "Okay, let me take the moment; I'm going to take a breath or I'm going to exhale quickly through my mouth, whooh", get rid of that experience and reset your focus. So by having a very specific reset button, you can make sure that you don't have any kind of a snowball effect from a mistake in the warm up ring. Warming up is a really important time to not only warm up your horse's mind and body, but also your own. You need to make the warm up ring your friend and look forward to getting yourself ready to go in the ring and shine.