Confidence is a choice

Heading into the next show season, I always get feeling a little nervous. But this year was a little extra.

I got questioning my abilities a lot and it dawned on me, confidence doesn’t just come to you when you need it. Confidence always starts with a choice.

So I went to the show and I chose to be confident. I chose that every jump I went to I would ride with a little grit and a belief that I would keep my leg on and see something useful and ride positively.

And it worked. The more I believed, the more I got in the groove. The more my horse started to feel like himself, the more I started to enjoy it.

I read in Daniel Coyle’s (no not the show jumper) ‘Little Book of Talent’ that grit is a muscle and has to be exercised and developed, and when you forget to work on it, just like any other muscle, it deteriorates. Well I’m putting confidence in the same category.

Confidence doesn’t come naturally. It is chosen. At least for most of us.

So choose!

Happy horse showing!