How to stop overthinking while riding – Stay focused in the saddle
Of course, the ability of thinking is great. Thinking things through is helpful as long as it serves you and your goals. However, it becomes a problem when thinking turns into overthinking or non-stop ruminating while riding, when you get mentally “stuck”. This often leads to negative emotions. You may struggle to concentrate properly, you can no longer trust your intuition, you lose focus and get “stuck” on a problem.
A “scary corner” in the arena
An example is a “scary corner” in the riding arena, where the horse spooks everytime you ride past it. The more the rider focuses on this problem, the bigger it becomes. The more the rider tries to push the horse into the corner, the more anxious, tense and resistant he will become. When it comes to “over-thinking”, there are two common patterns: ruminating about situations in the past, analyzing them again and again. “Why didn’t my horse want to go into the corner? Is he trying to annoy me? What did I do wrong?” And then there is over-thinking and worrying about future events – about what may happen and about mistakes that might occur. “Today my horse will probably spook in the corner again! I’m already fed up because I know we’ll have the corner problem again. How am I supposed to practice the dressage task if my horse won’t go into the corner?”
Both thought patterns act like a brake. They stop you from concentrating on the essentials: training in a relaxed and focused manner and from making progress despite or precisely because of mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process, training and development – nobody is perfect! Overthinking doesn’t get you anywhere, it costs time, energy and joy. To change such counterproductive thought patterns and stop the endless cycle of overthinking, there are a few strategies.
How to stop overthinking while riding
Ruminating often happens unconsciously, and you only realize afterwards that you have spent far too much time thinking about something. So, the first step often is to make yourself aware in the situation that you are starting to ruminate. It makes sense to think if you can achieve something as a result. So, try not to think about the problem, but about a solution or about how you can handle or “defuse” the problematic situation.
If your emotions are already tense or negative, creating some distance can help you – “sleep on it for a night” and the situation usually looks completely different and less negative. There are also a whole range of mental techniques that can be used to stop the endless cycle of thoughts. Visualization and positive “self-talk” are two examples that many successful athletes use. You can find practical instructions on the topic of “Visualization in equestrian sports” HERE.
Positive “self-talk” refers to short, positive affirmations. Instead of long, negative sentences, many successful athletes think in short, positive affirmations when competing. Long-winded thoughts cause you to lose focus and to no longer be in the present moment. You can practice this technique by not only thinking your short positive affirmations while riding, but also saying them. You’ll notice how much time is lost if you say much more than “Yes”, “Good” or “Never mind”. Jessica also regularly coaches herself while riding with short affirmations and self-checks. Watch and listen to her training here.
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