Dealing with Nerves - with Bert Sheffield

Every rider, every sportsperson has nerves. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be passionate about what they do. Nerves are part of the motivation and enjoyment of competing, they give you the adrenaline to perform at your best. Unfortunately, they can also destroy a performance. Learn to make friends with your nerves. It is not silly to be nervous, it is normal. Good nerves sharpen your reaction speed, help you ride well subconsciously and perform with maturity and brilliance.

There are 2 types of ‘bad’ nerves; mortal dread and usual competition nerves. Mortal dread is the one where you are worrying that your horse is going to injure/kill you because he is uncontrollably spooky or badly behaved, the test is the least of your worries! For this situation, you need to work with your horse and a behaviourist/trainer to give both of you the preparation that you need for best chance of survival and enjoyment. For you, it is all about preparation and building trust.

With the more normal competition nerves, it is often fear of failure or letting yourself down. Before you even get to the show, work out what you want to achieve, and what aspects of that picture you can control. Letting go of trying to control the uncontrollable is a huge step to allowing yourself to enjoy and excel. You cannot control what score the judge gives you, you can only give her the opportunity to give you high marks by riding well. You cannot control that loose horse that decides to run through the arena or the hailstorm that’s starts and finishes during your test but you can control how you behave to those situations by staying in the moment, you can decide whether to ride like a winner or crash and burn.  

Bert Sheffield is a World Equestrian Games Canadian Para-Equestrian Team member and dressage rider with Rheumatoid Arthritis, based in the UK.  Bert has qualified her top horse, Double Agent, for the 2016 Rio Paralympics and scored above the Canadian Team's selection criteria at all her international competitions this year.