The riders I work with are often a little surprised when I say they need to look beyond thinking positively. Surely as an NLP practitioner I should encourage riders to only visualise the perfect scenario with the most desirable outcome. And yes, sometimes that’s great but as riders we know unfortunately that’s not always the case. The weather isn’t always going to play ball, your horse may well get over excited or get distracted by goings on outside the arena. So, what then? do we stamp our feet and reproach the universe for not aligning itself with our positive visualisations or do we respond by drawing on a well-rehearsed strategy established through the use of metal rehearsal. Taking a proactive approach to ensure the best outcome despite the challenges.

 Only visualising the positive can also be insufficient when dealing with riders’ anxieties and concerns.  Riders often come to me with anxiety around various “what ifs” and as much as they reprimand themselves from straying from their intentions of only thinking positive, its extremely difficult to not think about what you’re trying not to think about. For example, if I ask you to try really hard not to think about a white bear, Chances are you’ll have thought about a white bear. You will not quieten your what if’s by just telling yourself not to think about them, unfortunately it just isn’t that simple! Not only that but the brain has a tendency to catastrophise, by not bringing your what ifs to a conclusion you can allow your brain to run away with all kinds of dramatic scenarios causing further anxiety. So, what if your horse spooks at a bird in that hedge, can you visualise the best way of coping with the situation then walking your horse away calmly after the spook, bringing the situation to its conclusion.

So, remember when using visualisation for competition visualise every situation you can think of, can you visualise your strategy for when your horse is stuffy and behind the leg, or when your horse is unsettled and spooky or when its blowing a gale. Secondly don’t be afraid of addressing those “what if’s” allow yourself to build confidence through your ability to cope with any situation. By taking this proactive approach you can gain confidence that whatever happens you have the skills to cope and there’s definitely something positive about that!