Got Show Nerves?

[WYJumper]

I am a very nervous rider while showing, I tend to lock up/freeze/become as stiff as a board/stop riding and then just become a passenger while my horse does whatever he feels like "Hey, why are you upset? It must be that evil, roll top jump".

Though the odd part is that I have had so many people tell me they wish they were as calm as me, I guess I am good at hiding it from most people- my Mom and sister can read me too well for that though.

But it is only at certain kinds of shows with certain horses. I can show a mustang mare, that is having a total fit- rearing, bucking, etc. for her owners at a their show and never have any problems.

But then I show my paint, Pick, and will bearly be able to function and almost always end up crying in the warm up ring because I get so frustrated and mad at myself for being so nervous, scared, and stiff. It happens the most in jumper classes or a eventing fun days ( I haven't really shown in eventing as of yet because of other issues.) were I know I can/should do well.

I recently had my back worked on by a chiropractor, it is hard to believe how much pressure I use to have all the time on my back, I feel like I am so light that I could float away. Just had Pick's back worked on too, he was really bad also. So hopefully, that should fix a lot of the riding problems we have been having. Now if I could get more of a grip on these nerves, we could really kick butt in eventing.

I am a good rider and am a lot like the girl in the link below, but I don't hyperventilate (yet) or take three days to recover, thankfully. Whether I win is really not that important, I have lots of ribbons etc. but riding to the best of my ability is important to me. Admittedly I am a perfectionist, especially when it comes to myself. I want to feel that I rode well and did the best I could, but it seems like I never do.

I know that showing can be/is fun, I have experienced it before. So any suggestions? And for you that have the same problems, this article/link did help me.

http://equisearch.com/horses_riding_...eqforgetit766/


Wow, I can't believe how this has just poured out all of a sudden, thanks for listening and helping if you can. You guys are a great bunch.

[mandelyn82]

I used to freak out like that too, that feeling of nothing in your stomach as it flip flops around, not really seeing anything around you, frozen in inaction at random times during practice or what have you. Dressage was the worse.. since you go in alone. Group events I was ok for the most part. Dressage has to be so perfect too... really hard to be perfect when you're shaking in your boots.. you can't do a sitting trot well because you're so tense you can't disconnect your hip hardly at all, and worse of all, your horse feels it and gets jitters too.

I found it was contingent on the horse I rode. I was calmer on a high strung horse, since I had to pay attention to what it was doing, and maintain control. A dead broke horse allowed me to drop me gaurd and think about things like how I look, if I'm sitting right, when it's my turn to go into the ring.... After realizing that I needed to stay focused no matter what, and to concentrate on the horse, no matter how well behaved it is.. then my jitters started to go away. It also helped to always look between your horses ears, with the exception of jumping when you need to judge distance and things like that.. just never look at the judges until you salute, and never look at the crowd. It realy helped a lot, finding something to concentrate on.

[HoosierSuz]

Do you mind telling me a little more about your visit to the chiropractor? I'm thinking of going to see one. My lower back is really stiff and hurts a lot of the time - not while I'm riding, but I know the stiffness affects my riding.

As for your nerves, I'd recommend just keeping going to shows. I showed a lot on my intercollegiate team, and since you showed up and jumped on a horse you'd never seen before, somehow that made a lot of the pressure go away, since it wasn't like you practiced on your horse for months. I still get nervous, but it's not out of control.

[ThorArb]

No matter what kind of show Im in my heart always seems to go a hundred miles an hour. Then, when I get in the arena everything seems absolutely quiet and its just me and the horse. Even if there are tons of banging, clapping, whooping and hollering. To me, everything is quiet and its just me and the horse. I dont know how I do it, I just become extremely focused on the horse and our performance! Its so weird. Then out of the arena, and my heart is going at 100mph and I have to sit and breathe for a while.

Brittany

[appygurl]

Me too Brittany, my heart beats so fast when
im at shows. Even if im just getting ready to
run barrels, or poles, my heart takes off beating
fast the minute I cross the timer and the time
starts

[WYJumper]

Originally Posted by HoosierSuz

Do you mind telling me a little more about your visit to the chiropractor? I'm thinking of going to see one. My lower back is really stiff and hurts a lot of the time - not while I'm riding, but I know the stiffness affects my riding.

Nope, I don't mind getting me to quit talking may be the problem .

My back has given me a lot of trouble. I have spent hours and hours of saddle time in lessons with no stirrups, no reins trotting and cantering around with instructors yelling at me to relax my back. It never worked, my hips and back were stiff and inflexible. I could not follow a horse's movement no matter how hard I tried. Bareback was impossible. And now telling me to relax is a sure fire way to make me tighten up.

Then to top it off my horse, Pick, had a back problem too (but we didn't know it until last month) and would get upset when I was bouncing around too much. If I was really stiff he might buck or take off after a jump.

But anyway, after 5 to 7 years of this ( I have been riding for 7 years, english for 5). We ended up taking a different horse to a chiropractor and were very impressed with the results. So it got us thinking, what if it could help my Mom's neck/back/tail bone? ( she has had six kids.) She went to a chiropractor and it has helped her sooo much, she can now drive a car without her hand falling asleep all the time. That got us thinking again, could it help my back?

So I went and the guy worked on my neck, upper back, and lower back. I had a lot of stuff out of place and the muscles were tight because they were tying to hold everything together. It took a couple of visits but the results were well worth it. Like I said before, I feel so light in my lower back- no pressure now.

The chiropractor is very nice ( which is important, you have to trust him enough to let him pop your vertebra around), he explained that proper posture is one of the keys to a good back. Now I am a slim build and tend to slouch and roll my shoulder forwards, it has taken a lot of effort to sit up straight and push my rib cage up.

The difference in my riding is amazing, I still get tight when I get nervous but I can sit a trot! My hips can move! The other day I went out and jumped on Pick bareback with just a rope around his neck and did walk/trot/canter! I was very excited to learn how well trained he really is ( I have had him since he was 4 and very green, he's 8 now), he did flying changes every two strides down the arena when I was trying to learn how to go with his motion at a canter, he was like " is this what you want?"

But then he bucked me off after a jump because I hit him a bit on the back on the landing side. The buck felt like it was a ouch reaction. I went and got the saddle out and he felt like he was going to buck as soon as I got in the saddle. We decided to take him to a chiropractor just to see if that might be the problem. Well it was, he had a spasm in his back muscles, a lot of his back vertebra were off to the left, and he had a large lump of rock hard muscles on both sides of his back right above the kidneys. The doc said he must have had a wreck to do that much damage, probably he did it before we got bought him.

I felt so bad about not noticing the lumps before, it was/is right on a spot of white ( he is a paint) and just looked like the hair was different. A lot of the problems I have been having with him make sense now. After about three visits to the chiropractor, he looks and moves so much better. The lumps are a lot smaller but not all the way gone. We will be keeping an eye on them, watching to make sure they don't get bigger. I haven't been able to ride him yet because the ground in froze in the arena, but when he is running and playing with the other horses Pick looks way looser all over and relaxed in his back.

Sorry for writing a book , I just have a lot to say today.

[WYJumper]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I know that one of my problems it that I don't show enough. But the problem is that there are only a few shows a year out here, no hunter/jumper shows anymore , no open shows, just a mustang only show and three eventing shows.

[Rebecca]

Steph

I do not compete in hunter/jumper/eventing.
But I think it's pretty cool that you are involved in such a interesting sport.
I ride western-Team Penning and Sorting.
Lately I have hit a brick wall concerning my "Ranch Sorting."
In the last three out of four shows I have completely bombed.
When it was just fun, practice with my friends, I was fine.
Lately my husband and I have been going to big competitions, and it's blowing my mind.
My Team Penning is fine. I am used to competition and stay relaxed.
But the Ranch Sorting is really bumming me out. I think it's nerves.
I used relaxation technigues when I first started Penning.
I would get so relaxed I would almost go to sleep on my horse.
What are you thinking about when you zone out?
Are you watching the other competition too much before you ride?
Or are you staying focused on your technique.
I am having problems finding a balance between being aggressive enough so that
I do not run out of time, and careful enough so that I do not blow up the herd.
While practice has closed down for the winter,
I have the advantage that there are quite a few Shows during the winter.
I hope repetition fixes the problem before I embarrass myself too much.
I usually have a pep talk with myself that goes something like this,
"You've lost before and survived. Just get in there and do the best you can for your team."
If I am thinking about the abilities or preferences of my fellow teammates,
or how the cattle are behaving I have fewer nerves.
Rebecca

[HoosierSuz]

Thanks for all the info, WYJumper! It sounds like my situation is a little different than yours - my back hurts when I'm NOT riding! It's weird. Anyway, after I get health insurance, I'm going to go see a chiropractor too. I know people who have had chiropractors work on their horses and it makes a huge difference. My new horse, Sunny, has had a lot of work on his back because it was all messed up from racing, and I have to "pop" his back after I ride him to keep his spine aligned. Weird, huh?

[A J]

Show nerves - I'm still working on that one. I do fine till about 10 minutes before I'm supposed to go in the ring, then I get all nervous, tense, and jittery. I actually do better when it is just me in the ring (ie dressage) because I can just focus on us and our performance. When I am in a ring with a bunch of people, I am constantly comparing myself to them, plus I know I am being compared to them the entire time as well. Obviously, this makes my ride that much worse because I am NOT focusing on my horse. I also worry way too much about where my legs are - this has been a problem in the past, and I have improved immensly, and practice has definitly made it so it is more natural, which means I shouldn't worry about it so much, but....I still do, which stiffens me up, and then...well, you all know how that goes!

Thankfully, I've started doing a little better at least at a few shows, so that has gotten my confidence up a little. Before I would always keep kicking myself afterwards.

Keeping a show diary has helped, too. That way I can write down things to work on, things I did well, etc, which makes reflections on a show much more useful.

[ToveroMom]

OK repeat after me,
We do this for fun..we do this for fun.
Repeat as needed

It is very hard and we all want to do well but our lives do not depend on it. If you place-well done.
If you have the best ride you ever have had-great!
If you blow it-there is always another class
It is all good

[ohiohorsegurl3384]

WY Jumper I have a question for you about the chiropractor… I started having back problems when I was a senior in high school I went to a sport medicine doctor to get it checked out. They tried a bunch of different things to make me better and the only thing that every worked was a physical therapist that had worked on the problem I have before and I would feel great for about 3 months but then I would have to go back. When I saw her she did a lot of manipulation stuff, kind of like a chiropractor might do so when I went back to the doctor for like the 4th or 5th time and told him what she did he sent me to a chiropractor. One day after I had seen the chiropractor for the 3rd time I had a serious spasm, I mean really bad to the point that I couldn’t stand for more than two minutes without breaking into tears it hurt so bad. I stayed in bed for 2 days after that appointment and never went back. So I was just wondering if that happened to you at all. I got to thinking that it may have happened because he was moving stuff back to the way it should be and that just caused me to have a spasm because my muscles weren’t used to stuff actually being right. I know it’s a little off the subject but just thought I would ask.

[WYJumper]

Yes, my back muscles were sore/hurt in different places after the chriopractor worked on me. My Mom was/is really sore after her appointments, it takes about 3 to 4 days and then she feels a lot better then before the guy worked on her.

Like you said and our chiropractor said, you are going to be sore after he works on you because your muscles, nerves and stuff aren't used to being in that position. It takes awhile for the nerves get ajusted to the new postition, after having my back worked on my hands would tingle for a few days.

Ouch, your back spasm sounds REALLY painfull .

I use to have a small spasm in my neck, it bothered my a lot when backpacking in the moutains. It is gone now though thankfully. Pick had a large back spasm ( I think thats what it was anyway) right after the chiropractor worked on his back, the guy just ran his finger lightly down Pick's spine and the spasm started right by his withers and rippled down his back until he kicked out with violently both back feet. Really weird looking.