I Took Action To Improve My Show Ring Anxiety, And You Can Too.

I know I’m not the only rider who struggles with confidence. We all struggle - some of us struggle every day, and some of us struggle occasionally, but confidence issues are real.

Here’s the thing: at home, I consider myself a pretty confident rider. I feel comfortable on a horse, love to jump, and don’t mind when my Thoroughbred gelding, Da Vinci, gets a little frisky. But something weird that happens to me at shows: my mind goes blank, my hands get shaky, and I feel that sense of anxiety in my gut.

Unfortunately for me, this feeling – pretty typical ‘show nerves’ – manifested in the show ring as petering down to a walk in front of the first jump in a lot of my hunter classes. My horse and I would have a refusal at the first jump in a course every time - you could set your clock by it. Sure, the jumps can be pretty spooky, and ‘Leo’ can get a little nervous, but for some reason, instead of riding harder when I was presented with an uneasy situation, I’d just freeze. I would sit there and do nothing. All of a sudden we were at a polite halt, and the round was wasted.

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Article written by: Anasofia Vazquez