WITH the global pause on competition and travel, I, like many others, have had to adapt and adjust to a new way of thinking about business and life.

It has been interesting to hear the perspective of different individuals in the equestrian community over these past few weeks. While all affected, each and every one of us seems to be experiencing this time differently. It has given me some food for thought and especially shed some light on how much we depend on the sport, not just for the competition but for structure and growth, mental well-being and a sense of community.

One thing we strive on as humans is feedback. We use competitions to gain feedback on our progress with our horses; coaching sessions to receive feedback on our skills; and interactions to gauge our business success.

Feedback provides guidance in direction and motivation. These current times have more or less taken away our normal external feedback sources and while we continue to train our horses, we are left only with our own perception of how we are doing. We are left for possibly the first time, completely reliant on our own instinct and thoughts.

It’s hard to measure our success without any feedback. Restricted to our own properties, many are beginning to question if what they are doing at home is right or enough. It’s playing like a small hum in the back of our minds more so than a burning question. With limited ability to convince ourselves, many of us are turning to social media to measure our sense of productivity.

Social media scramble

Social media has played a huge role in the past month and while it is connecting us in ways that are important, it is also for some, creating feelings of isolation. It is easy to lose ourselves in the scramble to keep up with socially constructed expectations.

Without social media we probably wouldn’t feel an expectation that we should be partaking in daily home workouts, slimming down our 5km time, turning into chefs or creating endlessly inspiring activities for the kids to do.

We’d just be at home, trying our best to get through this time, focusing on ourselves and our family. And wouldn’t that be enough? I love that everyone is sharing their knowledge online, tips and tricks to help us get through, but I do worry that somewhere along the line we’ve muddled inspiration with expectation. Another person’s success is not a measure of your failure.

It’s important to receive your feedback from reliable sources such as calling a trusted friend for advice or a chat, it’s much more likely you’ll get a more realistic version of events in voice than online.

How about sending your training videos to someone more experienced? You might get some tips that will focus you on the following week or motivate you to improve something specific.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Focus on your baseline, what you have right now in front of you. Look to make 1% improvements or adjustments to what you already have and move away from the focus on other people’s actions.

Coping with anxiety

Anxiety is one of the more common feelings people have been experiencing over the past couple of weeks. Anxiety is a very normal response for our body to have to a situation like this.

Three of the main triggers for anxiety are situations which are ambiguous, new or novel or those that are unpredictable. It’s no wonder we are feeling it currently.

You might not feel that you are focused on worrying but the constant changing information and lack of any set targets or events can be challenging to deal with mentally. Many horse people are used to working in a routine shaped around events or targets such as certain shows or qualifications.

It gives our brain something to aim at, to focus on and to look forward to. When you remove those events or interactions our brain can lack direction and grab on to any information. I’ve heard lots of people feeling like they are just bouncing from one thing to the next.

We are truly fortunate that many of us are surrounded by horses and countryside at this time. If I had any advice, it would be to limit the amount of time we spend on our phones and engage in what is around you. There has been a fitness revolution of late and for good reason. Movement makes you feel better.

As horse people we can often take for granted that everyday movement in our lives, for which others have to motivate themselves to try and fit into their schedule. Movement can lessen anxiety, teaching your brain that a raised heart rate is not a threat.

Completing certain movement patterns such as pole work gives your brain a huge hit of feel good hormones as the brain loves to solve balance questions. As equestrians we don’t necessarily need to add more movement into our lives but we can connect more with it.

Try to switch off the autopilot in the saddle and challenge yourself to focus in segments on what you are doing and feeling. As a bonus to making you feel better, this will help in the long run when you return to the ring by improving your ability to switch on to ‘performance mode’.

Reset each day

Low mood generally comes when we concern ourselves with things that are outside of our control. It’s easy to become focused on all the things we cannot do and all the events which are being cancelled. I think we can all agree that losing Dublin Horse Show this year is hard. However, it’s out of our control and focusing on those issues still results in no solutions for us.

I’m a firm believer in good basics when it comes to mindset and each day we have a chance to reset. You can choose your approach to the day (positive/negative), you can choose your actions and you can chose the thoughts you give attention to.

Not everyday will be a good day but the key is in the reset each morning.

We are so fortunate to be a part of a community that is motivated, innovative and great fun. We must take care of ourselves now so when we get the green flag we are all ready to rock and roll.

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