Dr. Janet Edgette / Sport Psychology for Riders

04/24/2026

This is truly one of the most offensive things a trainer can say to a kid who probably lives and breathes horses and is at the barn six days a week....They may have other issues interfering with their performance, but a lack of desire is not one of them. A conversation about the matter at hand, led with curiosity rather than condemnation, is likely to deliver better results.

03/07/2026

It's one thing to worry about missed distances or forgetting your course, and another to worry about being run away with or ejected from your tack.

Come to this FREE one hour webinar on dealing constructively with your anxiety following a fall or crash or bolt or other riding incident that has shaken your confidence.

To get the link, send DM "Riding Fears" on Instagram

10/20/2025

Delighted to have my third article " 'B' Is For Bits — And Boundaries" published in The Chronicle of the Horse. If you're interested in reading about my approach to sport psychology, check out my first article with them - "When Affirmations Aren't Enough" (https://lane-press.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=66920&i=757377&p=54&ver=html5) and if you're struggling with fears after a fall or riding injury, check out my second article, "No, You Don't Have to 'Push Through' Your Fear to Get Over It" (https://lane-press.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=837835&p=58&view=issueViewer)


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i5wOQisRnOYD3Kr9ztgrtfZuPT4Htwse/view?usp=share_link

08/28/2025

08/28/2025

08/26/2025

06/30/2025

How getting homesick at eleven years old taught me that performance anxiety doesn’t have to stop me from riding my best.

I thought that if I could have anxiety about being away from home and still manage to have a good time, maybe I could be anxious about horse showing and still ride well.... and this was true and became a foundation for my sport psychology approach..

06/28/2025

You can’t use sport psychology to take short cuts with your mental prep.

Plastering over the thoughts and feelings you don’t like with things that you wish you thought or felt isn’t going to hold up to the robust force of performance nerves.

Let yourself be nervous and instead figure out how to make up for the ways in which your performance nerves change your riding. That’s something you can control - nerves, not so much.

If you get too aggressive with your horse or too impulsive in your decision-making when nervous, focus on the things you can control that will help you to ride with more finesse, more diplomacy, more tact.

If you become indecisive, spacey, or worry so much about making mistakes that you stop riding, focus on the things you can control that will help you to ride with more decisiveness, more assertiveness, more margin for error, even more pace.

04/10/2025

DO YOU SPACE OUT AT HORSE SHOWS??

Some riders “space out” when they feel anxious at horse shows. They say “It’s like I just disappear into my head,” or “I can’t remember anything I’m supposed to do,” or “I’m just sitting there waiting for my round/test to be over.”

When riders space out, however, their horse bears the brunt. Suddenly his rider has disappeared on him - there’s no support, no direction, nothing. Sometimes, a rider's recognition that My horse needs me to show up can be enough of a prompt to bring her back from orbit, clear-headed and ready to execute…

…. We will often do for others what we don’t do for ourselves….