Equi-Coach

01/10/2019

We haven’t forgotten the 10 day challenge - life has got in the way over the past week!

Holiday mode: on ✅

I’m exploring the beautiful island of Anglesey this week!

18/09/2019

Day 7 (we will get there eventually!)

This is Jasper B, who was bought from Ian Smith as a 2 year old. Colin and Karen Holmes at Westhills Equestrian owned him and he stood as a working stallion until he was 6. He was then gelded as the stallion operation was scaled down. An enormously talented horse, Jasper and Helen were invited on to the world class funding as an 8 and 9 year old, making it into the top 10. Helen trained him to his first Grand Prix with the help of Richard Davison.

Helen then decided to concentrate on her own horses and the ride went to Becky Moody. Since then Jasper has gone on to compete successfully at Grand Prix and now has a lot of very talented youngstock out competing!

16/09/2019

Days 5 and 6 in one - it’s time for the gingers 🍊 🍊

The story of the two orange ponies starts with the horse in the first photo, Beckhouse Cancara (Cara). Helen bought her from Ian Smith as a 5 year old, and got quite possibly the best buy one get one free ever - the 3 week old Dixie Chick 😍 Dixie is by Jelmar, who also sired Steph Croxford’s Mr Hyde. He is now out competing at advanced medium with Helen and loves a good cuddle! He’s the chestnut in the first two photos.

Wred Willow (Robbie) is also out of Cara, but by Helen’s stallion Longdean Westminster who we talked about earlier in the week. Robbie is currently competing at Novice and we both share the ride. One of his funny habits is neighing at you sometimes when you dismount!

15/09/2019

This sums up some of the things I’m starting to learn about as part of the Centre10 performance psychology course I’m doing.

Definitely food for thought when comparing how we felt at our most and least successful competitions!

How did you feel at your last competition? How did you feel at your BEST competition?
OK, so this looks complicated…. Well, that’s because what’s happening inside your body and brain when you’re in a pressured or challenging situation IS pretty complex. In so much as there are lots of different psychological, physiological, emotional, and hormonal responses going on all at once, interrelating with one another, ‘feeding off’ one another, at any one time. So please – do not feel a failure if all that helpful advice to ‘Stay calm’, ‘Think positive’ and – oh yes – ‘Just don’t worry about it!’ (ugh) just feels like it doesn’t make a dent in how you feel and act on the most challenging days. But, while it might appear that it would be nice (or terrifying, but let’s stick with nice!) to be able to reach in and turn a switch just to dial up or down our stress hormone, or our heart rate, or any other element, the best use of performance psychology really isn’t about that. What we need for peak performance is often just the right amount of challenge (which will vary across time), and just the right kind of stress. Or rather, the ability to shape stress into a form and energy that’s useful for us. Whether ‘stress’ or ‘challenge’ is useful or detrimental to our performance in this setting is largely determined by how it works with, or against, everything else that goes to make up our ‘performance state’. And with deliberate practice of managing your mind, managing your emotions, and from managing those, influencing your physiological state, YOU can determine where in this quadrant you spend your time on competition day. This is why, rather than teaching ‘strategies’ or ‘hacks’ to help you survive on show day, we aim to give you the understanding of what is going on, why it’s happening, and the various ways that you can develop the tools to work with your psychology, with your mind and your body working together, over the long term and in whatever challenging situations you find yourself.

Have a think about how you were feeling at your last competition, and at your best competition, and see how it fits...

14/09/2019

Sorry we missed day 4 yesterday... Friday was way too busy! Double post tomorrow, and here’s a fun one to make up for it today 😊

This is Nic (aged approx 11) with her favourite ever riding school pony, Goldie. I feel really lucky to have been able to spend my childhood growing up at the stables, where I’ve made lifelong friends. The perfect place for a ponyless but pony mad girl to spend all of her spare time!

The t shirt was one I made at school - we all had to make one in honour of a charitable cause. I’d just been reading about the Przewalski’s Horse so I based mine on that 🙈

Who’s the horse that started it all off for you?

12/09/2019

Day 3 in the equestrian challenge and we thought we’d move on to tell you more about some of the horses we are currently riding!

First up is the lovely Bonnie, the first one of Helen’s that I (Nic) ever rode. Bred by Steph Croxford and purchased from Westhills Equestrian, Bonnie is by Donnerschwee and has the most amazing temperament. Last year we brought her into work and I took her out to do some prelim and novice tests, where she really started to help me with my confidence out competing - they don’t come much more chilled than Bonnie, who I don’t think even notices she’s not at home 😎 She’s also a fabulous mover, and has quickly moved up the levels with Helen taking her out and about at medium.

11/09/2019

Day two and here is some more about the other half to Equi-Coach, rider and judge Helen! This is her and Longdean Westminster (Will), a stallion from Longdean stud who she competed up to Grand Prix - managing to get to the Nationals from Novice to Grand Prix. Helen spent a year in Switzerland training with Olympian Christine Stueckelberger and Georg Wahl, then continued her training in the UK with Carl Hester and Richard Davison. She has also trained with Ellen Bontje, who helped her train her first advanced horse.

Will was BEF performance champion stallion of the year and champion at the sports horse grading too.

10/09/2019

I’ve just started the brand new Centre 10 Foundation coaching course, and as the first topic is all about identity, I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to introduce the Equi-Coach team! I’ve also been nominated in the 10 days of equestrian photos challenge, so what better way to take part than show you some of the horses that have shaped us as riders, judges and coaches?

I have to start with Dan, who is still the only horse I’ve ever actually owned. Essentially I grew up with him, as I started riding him aged around 14 and he was just 6! I finally bought him 6 years ago but he’s been retired for the past 18 months and is now chilling in the field aged 22. He’s taught me so much and helped me achieve some life goals but mostly he’s helped make me into the person I am today.

Tell us more about the horses in your life, we’d love to hear more! 👇🏻