Everyday training with goals, challenges and motivation!

At the moment I'm still pretty ill. I havn't been to ride the horses for a whopping four days! It's really no fun being ill when you live alone. No one to fill your hot water bottle, make you a tea (to just throw it up five minute later) and check to see if you're still alive. I found myself in quite a panic the other night actually because my stomach pains were so bad I was worried something might be wrong on the serious side. So I took myself off to the hospital yesterday, looking like a hobo from a rubbish bin, and sat (sprawled out across the chairs actually) in A and E for about two hours.

Finally the doctor saw me and told me I have something called Winter Vomiting Virus (lush name, I know) or Norovirus. Pretty much its highly contagious and I can't do anything but sit on my couch in front of the TV and feel like rubbish, dosed up with paracetamol for the fever. So that's what I've been doing, and every time I feel a bit better and almost up for riding, I try to eat and five minutes later the stomach goes again, and it won't stay down. So far the only thing I've found I can eat is vegemite and crackers. Thank god for that.

So I have no news on the riding side of things, but I have had a request to talk a bit more about how I prepare for a competition, what I do in my day-to-day training, challenges I face and what motivates me. I can still talk about that, because that pretty much is my life in a nutshell.

My trainer Sue Mcmahon is a judge, so she gives me advice through the judge's eye and pin-points the things that need to be improved to turn a 6 into a 7 and a 7 into an 8. Our training sessions are based around the Prix St Georges test, as that is the most important test that I have to get good scores in to have good chances of making it on the Young Rider team. We would go through particular movements, whether its the trot sequence, just the centerlines and halts, or the canter pirouette section, and play with exercises to improve that particular movement.

So for example, the centerlines I make sure I can bring the horse back to a very small collected canter on the spot so I could halt at any moment, but then go forward to make sure the horse is still in front of my leg. I do this a few times down the centerline before I finally halt (anywhere, not always at X!) and guaranteed it is square with this good preparation. Trot sequence is improved with basic suppling exercises and being able to manoevre the shoulder-in and half-pass steeper, shallower, more forward, more collected, and just having the ability to adjust and be in complete control.

We always look at my previous test sheets and if my walk pirouettes were a 6 then we work on them to make them an easy 7. The movements I can do well I make even better, for an 8, and the weaker points we do exercises to ease our way into the full movement to make it easier to do it well. Every day I am working on suppleness, constantly. Always making sure the horse can stretch down and lift his back, is light on the forehand when I bring him up and not pulling. I ride the horse the way I want it to feel and don't put up with any discomfort that they might give me. It has to be enjoyable and not a struggle every session! So if he is being heavy on the forehand and leaning, halt. Then give and go again, and as soon as he starts to lean halt again. It took me 7-8 halts last time to get it through to the horse that I wanted him to carry himself.

Challenges.... hmmm there are many, not going to lie! As I get older they become fewer, like I can drive now which I couldn't earlier this year. I had to catch buses and taxis to and from the yard every day to ride. Driving has been a lifesaver for me. College was a challenge, as I could never ride as much as I liked and found it difficult missing lectures when I went away for squad training and competitions. I dealt with that by leaving college and starting home-schooling. Currently the biggest pain in the bum is transport. I have a little 3.5 tonne lorry that I can take 1 horse on (it fits 2 but will be overweight with two warmbloods) but I can't drive it because I'm too young and the insurance is way too high. Sue or Gary are more than happy to take me places, but I can only ever take one horse. So we are in the process of dealing with that so I can take both Seb and Julius to squad training and competitions. Also Sue and Gary have to run their yard, so if I have to stay overnight somewhere I need to find a lift with friends with a big lorry and stay with them. Quite a logistical nightmare!

Another challenge? Perhaps not having an indoor. It has been fine so far, but the snow hasn't hit yet and the worst case scenario I'm dreading is that the snow comes down in January in the lead up to Addington High Profile and I can't ride. Might have to go to a nearby indoor, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

Living alone would be a challenge too. Never underestimate importance of having your family to prop you up when things go wrong. I've got loads of support all around me though, so I'm always reassured and comforted if things don't go quite right. But there is nothing like coming home to a family dinner and just talking through things and having people there for you 24/7 without the pressure of having to always give something back. Also little things like the food shopping, cooking, cleaning, random conversation, all those things that your family pull together and do as a team. It's quite a shock when its all left up to me, and takes A LOT of time. It took me a few months to just learn how to clean the bathroom, and even longer to learn that I DID have to cook dinner for myself and not live off toast just because there was no one there to eat it with me.

But aside from all that, I have some AMAZING horses that I am so so so lucky to have and make everything worth it. That is what motivates me. The support my family gives me, the belief my trainers Sue and Gary have in me and their dedication they have in watching me ride and helping me every step of the way, and the back-up of the BEF Excel Talent squad and the TASS.





I think every body has a particular thing or reason that motivates them, but I also believe motivation can be learnt. Time after time I have been told in presentations by psychologists and motivational sportspeople about how to find motivation and how to keep it. If we all knew how to do it, we wouldn't be hammered into having it! I pick up the points from pyschologists that I find work for me, like not focusing on just the goals but WHY you want to achieve them. With anything - riding, running, weight loss, homework, cleaning - ask youself WHY do I need to motivate myself to do this? If you can't find any reasons why, then for God's sake don't bother with it. I love motivational stories, quotes, people, pictures, anything! On the wall facing me where I sit and do my computer work, I have a list of reason WHY I do what I do, surrounded by motivational quotes. Next to it is a big yearly planner of my competition and training year so I am always reminded of what I have to look forward to and to work towards....



That is pretty much how I live my life, so there's the special insight! ;)