Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, commonly known as ACT is growing in popularity among sports psychologists. It offers an alternative to the tradition of positive thinking. Encouraging athletes to instead accept difficult feelings and rather than wrestling with them,...

  If you haven't already, before reading this blog head over to YouTube and look up ‘selective attention test’.  ........................................................................................................................................ ...

3 Reasons why riding can be good for your mental health   Equestrianism, as a sport, of course brings with it many sources of stress and challenge. Firstly, there's the huge investment of time and money. Often certain aspects of riding can be anxiety inducing, in...

When you watch a highly skilled rider in action, a dressage rider performing a flawless flying change or an event rider skillfully navigating a cross-country jump. it’s easy to marvel at what appears to be mystical talent. But behind every polished performance lies a...

Goal setting has become a popular subject amongst equestrians. You don’t have to look far to find goal setting journal or workshop encouraging us to set SMART goals. But what happens when those goals aren’t met? Or when the pressure to achieve them becomes...

Self-talk is something we all use a lot of the time. However, it is not always helpful. At its best self-talk has a variety of uses, it can be used to motivate, to aid focus, build confidence and aid skill acquisition. A good way to think of self-talk is as either...

For me motor imagery is one of the most valuable yet underused psychological skills within equestrianism. The term imagery is often used interchangeably with the word visualization. However, imagery is largely considered the correct term due to the most effective...

As a coach one thing that has always intrigued me is how some riders have considerable knowledge around correct riding technique, however they sometimes struggle to put it into practice, but at the same time some riders have high levels of riding ability but can not...

4 Steps to overcome rider anxiety I have always had considerable admiration for those riders who experience high levels of anxiety but push through and do it anyway! However the point is, it doesn’t have to be that way, there are many tried and tested methods that can...

Parenting the equestrian athlete I was born into a non-horsey family; I am however lucky enough to have a mother that has always encouraged me to follow my passions. As a result, throughout the summer weekends of my childhood, my mum alongside my friends equally...