.png)
Regaining my confidence and trying something different.
Hi everyone, welcome back to my latest blog. I hope everyone has had a good month and is settling back into their normal routines. I went back to college last week for my second year and it has definitely made things a bit busier now that I’m juggling college, horses, competing and part time work! This month has been fairly quiet. Buddy has had a short break from going out and jumping as he was having some physio treatment, although it’s looking as though we will be taking him out this weekend as I am writing this, so that’s exciting. Tottie has definitely enjoyed being the main focus and certainly enjoyed going eventing last weekend!
My confidence knock
Last year, before I was lucky enough to lease Tottie, I had had a few nasty falls out XC which completely put me off and I decided to stop eventing and just focus on showjumping Buddy instead. I don’t regret my decision and I know that showjumping is my focus now with the two horses and honestly the thought of going XC made me feel so nervous to the point where I almost felt sick.
This is obviously never a nice feeling no matter what discipline you do, and I never really shared how I felt online until I went XC schooling with Tottie for the first time back in April. I think confidence knocks are something that you shouldn’t be embarrassed of and actually they’re more common than you think. An account I really enjoy following is last year’s Eventing Bursary winner @flocartereventing. Recently she’s shared how she too had a confidence knock, and I think it made myself and her other followers realise that we all get them from time to time.
Regaining my confidence
In April I decided that it would be good to take Tottie out somewhere different, other than showjumping, so I went with a friend XC schooling at a local venue. I made sure there was no pressure, it was completely relaxed and actually a lot of fun! Having an experienced event horse like Tottie gave me that extra confidence boost I didn’t know I needed. Although I enjoyed it, I decided not to go again for a while as I didn’t want to overdo it.
However last month, when my pony club’s annual ODE schedule came out, I thought that it would be a good idea to take Tottie XC schooling again, and then enter the 90cm section. This was kind of a spur of the moment idea but I am so glad I decided to go. There is no feeling like winging around a XC course and Tottie aced every single combo that I was a bit nervous about. She really looked after me and I came back to the horsebox with a huge smile on my face. She really is a star and I’m so grateful to have her. I never thought I’d go XC again this year let alone compete in my first 90cm ODE! I guess my take home message to you all reading this is that, regaining confidence could take a couple of weeks, month or even a year in my case. Everyone is different and it’s completely fine to take your time with these things.
Results
The ODE was just for fun but placing in the top 5 was a bonus- 33.13 dressage, double clear and inside the time or 4th! I couldn’t be any happier to be honest, especially as we had been out to BS two weeks earlier and won our class there too. Tottie is now going to have a couple weeks break from jumping, as she’s been on amazing form the last 6 weeks, now time to get Buddy out again!
Just wanted to say my usual thank you to HorseQuest for the support, this month’s Bursary was spent on a Dressage lesson with my instructor Diana which helped us achieve the score we did. Also thank you to my Mum and Grandparents who spent all day Sunday out at Isleham with me - it was a long day!
Thank you for reading,
Paige
Comments