12/09/2024
Fitness, strength, stamina, preparation, and recovery are top priority for these horses competing! Not just at NFR but at the futurities and your top level shows. Comparing yourselves and your horses to this caliber isn’t fair to either one of you. Make sure you put your horses welfare at the top of your list and if you want to get the best out of your horse, put the time in.
💁♀️ Let's Talk... Truth Bombs About Gold Buckle Dreams
It's December so most of us are playing couch jockey while the best in the business are doing their thing in Vegas. It's a crazy couple of weeks out there... 10 high powered rounds of competition, autograph signings, practice before the sun comes up, and of course stalls still need mucked....
Is the NFR on your vision board as a future goal?
Let's break down what it really takes to make it through 10 rounds in Vegas.... Therapy Edition.
✅ Fast Horses - We've watched most of these pairs work all year long. We know they're lightning fast. But more important than being fast.... These horses are displaying the ideal level of fitness and stamina. It doesn't matter how fast your horse is, if he breaks down after round 2. There's no room for shortcuts in fitness at this level. The foundation of stabilizing muscle allows the horse compete without depleting oxygen and energy supplies past the point of recovery, so when that fast twitch muscle engages you get a whole lot of horsepower without running the tank dry.
➡️ Truth Bomb #1 - The average competition horse isn't fit enough to make 3 runs at a weekend show on manicured ground. That's why you see more hit barrels as the days progress. Your horse isn't "Out To Get You." He didn't sit in his stall the night before plotting how he was going to smash your knee on the barrel or how he would run off to embarrass you. Their brains simply don't work that way! A horse reacts to a stimuli... Meaning if his muscles are depleted of oxygen before he makes it to the next barrel and he's already fighting soreness from the run before... His body's going to shift that compensation, stiffen up, and slice that barrel.
I've been guilty myself of blaming a horse for "just trying to hit out of spite." After nearly 2 decades of studying the body and fighting a personal health battle, I've learned to look for that underlying problem that is always there lurking....
➡️ Bonus Truth Bomb - You will Never see a professional level rider on fb bragging about how their horse worked when they drug them out of the pasture after not being ridden for weeks.... Your horse deserves more respect. Do Better.
✅ This horse race is 10 rounds of two athletes working in sync and helping each other navigate whatever changes need to be made with each round. Maybe a turn angle needs adjusted or they need one more step behind the barrel. Core strength, finely tuned Fast Twitch muscle and Proprioception allow for these adjustments to be made at the blink of an eye. No rider was born with these skills... They are conditioned with fitness, training, and repetition. Experience is what makes it looks so natural.
➡️ Truth Bomb #2 - Fitness... It ain't just for horses!! - It's been proven through numerous studies that a rider's fitness level has a direct impact on the performance of their horse. A rider that dumps forward over the point of balance at the wither will make their horse take more concussion to the joints in the front legs. A rider that leans in and has more weight in the inside stirrup unloads the horse's hind leg that gives them the strength to drive into the turn... So both shoulders drop (horse and human) and the barrel goes down or they squeeze by angling the turn towards the timer and making a "V" on the back side. .. It's all about that core, Y'all...
➡️ Here's a bonus Truth Bomb... Riders get the same body fatigue that horses do. So when you're exhausted from 3 days of mucking stalls and walking miles at a race.... Your body is automatically creating compensation patterns and trying to force adrenaline and fast twitch muscle to take over for a nonexistent foundation of stabilizing muscle. Your horse feels every compensation your body takes and reacts accordingly. Tension in your muscles creates tension in your horse... File that fact to your memory bank.
✅ Mental Fatigue will drain your body faster than a slot machine can drain your pocketbook... Every day is jam packed with autograph signings, pictures, crowds of people... Oh yeah, and then you have to do the thing you actually showed up to do. Sounds super easy right? These contestants are just living a dream...
Seriously, the average person (myself included) can't begin to imagine the mental demand they're going through. Mental strength is something that takes time to build and master. Staying grounded, hydrated, and keeping the body nourished is key to keeping the mind sharp.
Preparation also breeds confidence. How many times have you read an article where the winner said.... "I just trusted my horse. I knew my horse was feeling great. He really wanted to work tonight." Those feelings aren't just luck. They're the result of preparation, consistency, and positive results.
➡️ Truth Bomb #3 - When you enter a race, how mentally prepared are you? In counseling they talk a lot about emotional flooding. Any resting heart rate over 100 means your body is in flight, which limits your ability to make rational decisions, causes muscle tension, and depletes your muscles of oxygen as fast as exercise does. Have you ever been up next to run and can literally hear your heart beating in your ears? Then as soon as you take off, your brain just shuts off and you remember nothing? It's because you're emotionally flooded. Your brain is the central command for your whole body and right now it's all alarm bells and chaos. Being a prey animal, your horse is going to react to the stimuli you're putting out. Tension builds more tension, and muscles cannot perform correctly stiff and uncomfortable. The result is an unfavorable performance.... And a horse that will end up with ulcers.
➡️ Fun Therapy Fact: A nervous rider will have more downward force in their stirrups which also puts more pressure on the horse's spine.
Now, we have all had a case of the nerves. It's human nature. But you can't blame your horse for poor performance if you weren't in the right frame of mind either. Ever notice that fractious horses often have fractious humans? It's not a coincidence.... If your nerves are affecting your performance, I suggest working with a sports coach or counselor.
There is no reason to destroy your body doing an event that is supposed to be fun. It's ok to need some help on your mental game. It'll probably help more than the 12 calming pastes you just bought for your "crazy" horse....
👉 Can we take a minute to just stop and appreciate the level of dedication these top athletes have? Most of us will only ever see those lights in Vegas from the stands.... But I know there's a young kid out there with NFR written on a vision board that will make it. I hope this post finds you and gives you some insight to things most don't think about. As you're standing in line for autographs, try to appreciate the fact that your idol came physically and mentally prepared enough to give you their time and energy... And just what stress that causes the body. They may be the best in the business, but they're also human just like you and me. A kind word and a compliment help relieve stress and boost energy.
💜 Let's be good humans...
