20/07/2025
The other side of what you see….
I thought I’d share a bit about the “other side of what you see “ by which I mean what I go through bringing a horse back from rehab to compete again. It’s lovely to share the positives that we’re experiencing but it isn’t all there is.
For anyone who(and I know there are many of you) have rehabbed a horse back to where you were before, this doesn’t have to be competing either, it’s mentally extremely hard.
The worry they aren’t ready, whether that be mentally or physically or both, that’ll it’ll undo all your work or they may just not enjoy it is real. Regardless of how long your rehab has been it’s always tough as we want to do right by them.
You do all the work, the small steps, for me we took things slowly at home then started venturing out on a few lorry journeys, then arena hires and lessons. I know I’d put the right work in but there still comes a time you have to suck it and see.
Although I had some anxiety about our first competition I was worse for the second. Thinking this time he’ll really know what’s going on and may just find it too much. Our first visit to Bicton he got worried about the sprinklers behind the judges box on the first test but I stuck with it and showed him I was there to hold his hand and he finished the show well. But it was on mind that being the emotional horse he is that on return he may be concerned. I’m also very aware that he’ll pick up on my nervous system so if I get anxious so will he. For both events I’ve had a few human calming cookies from which have really helped. Knowing he’ll pick up on my worry could easily become a very negative spiral so it’s really important to me to prevent it.
In reality on the day he was mega, gave me a great feel and I had moments in both test where I had time to think remember to be soft and work on my hand position and I think we produced some of our best work in the boards to date. Which was just the best feeling, my worries were all the unfounded. We need to be able to put trust in ourselves that we’ve done all the right things and worked on building a good relationship with them so that we’ll read the signs if and when they’re 100% okay with the situation.
Our minds can be our greatest asset and our greatest downfall and something we all have in common and something I think it’s healthy to discuss. I know I am not alone and for whatever reasons we can struggle on bigger occasions as well as the smaller ones.
We all love our horses and whether you compete or not the worry for doing our best by these amazing animals is real. Having the right team around you can really help and being aware that staying present for them is better than wasting our energy creating a story in our heads that may more even happen, easier said than done but something to keep in mind.
The path is never linear and set backs will happen but as long as we stay true to our horses and stay curious to what they are communicating to us we will be doing our best 🦄
