June
~THE CENTERLINE~
2014
Equestrian Sports Seminar with Jonah Oliver By Teri Patton-Rich On April 19 of this year I flew to San Diego to attend a seminar titled “Riding Mindfully” with Sports Psycologist Jonah Oliver. I had read the article from Dressage Daily: http://www.dressagedaily.com/article/riding-mindfully-sports-psychologist-jonah-oliver “You know the signs: Your heart is pounding, and you can’t catch your breath or feel your feet, let alone remember what comes after the second trot extension. And then a styrofoam cup blows in front of your horse in the warm-up, and it’s off to the races. “Breathe deeply,” you think. “Relax.” Jonah Oliver will tell you you’re doing it all wrong. “You can never overcome fear,” he says. “You need to accept it, but not let it define you. Breathe to focus, not to relax! Jonah doesn’t teach athletes how to achieve a state of perfect calm. “I want to show you how to change your relationship with your brain,” he says.” Jonah had spoken with some 25 riders in San Diego in January including, Shannon and Steffen Peters, Rebecca Rigdon and Elizabeth Ball. I learned that Lientje Schueler was organizing another seminar when Jonah was coming out to work again with Steffen. I decided it was worth checking out. I have been a very successful competitor with many years of showing but I have learned that we all have a certain amount of ‘useless chatter” going on in our heads at times. I could certainly benefit from any ideas he might have. I was also hoping I could get some tool and ideas to help my students overcome some of their fears about riding and showing. I have several students lately that have to literally decided to quit showing because of the stress and anxiety that showing their horses puts upon them. I found Jonah to be very interesting as well as entertaining. He has a witty sense of humor combined with his Aussie accent that made the 4 hour seminar fun and educational. His approach, however, doesn’t care much about your past problems, excuses and idiosyncrasies. He works on using tools to let you create a different relationship with your emotions. It is not about trying to make those emotions go away. It is more about acceptance and staying focused on your competence. He gave numerous examples of how to stay more “mindful” in our riding, for example, asking ourselves, “what do we want to DO RIGHT NOW?” Not, “how do we feel” or “what do we NOT want to do?” Afraid of making a “MISTAKE”? Jonah likes to use the word “errors” as opposed to “mistakes”. A mistake is not doing what we know we are capable of doing. Riding “safe”, not trying, and not performing to your potential are mistakes. Errors are just a breakdown in skills or communication with your horse and are bound to happen (and should every now and then). “If you aren’t making errors, you aren’t working on getting better.” We should shine in competition, not just cope. Jonah led the group in a series of exercises in which they rated themselves in four areas: combativeness, rule-following, risk-taking, and concern for others. A healthy dose of combativeness and risk-taking, for example, can help a rider get into a “competitive mindset.” Too much combativeness, and a rider tends to “over-communicate” with his horse. While a tendency to follow rules may result in an especially coachable rider, high rule-followers should explore what it means to ride with a bit more risk and combativeness. “You don’t have to become an adrenaline junkie, but don’t be content with mediocrity,” Oliver said. “Go for the 8!” Jonah asks, do you want to feel good before or after the competition? Don’t wait to feel good to act good. Are we fully embracing the competition? To worry about an outcome is a useless attempt to solve the future. Stop trying to avoid the feelings of “fear”. He discusses fear vs the fear of fear. Don’t let it define you. Don’t focus on it. The feelings are going to be there so get used to it. Welcome to being a human. Accept it, saddle up with it and ride down centerline, don’t focus on it or try and get rid of it. He talks about using your fear to help you.
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