Improve Your Comeback Potential

Have you ever wondered how other people view your resilience as a rider? Are you known as the comeback kid or the choker?
I am pretty sure I am known as the snowballer. In fact I know I am. One mistake turns into another and another and I just crater. I hate that about myself! said Jill a junior rider with big aspirations. She knows all too well that she has to find a way to develop the hardiness associated with elite level riders if she wants to reach her goals.
Jill is not alone. There are a lot of riders and other athletes who lack the ability to turn around a poor decision mistake or bad ride. You dont have to be one of them. With some work you can improve your comeback potential.

Shift Your Perspective
One core thing all mentally resilient riders share is a very particular perspective on adversity. They are more likely to think of difficult circumstances in terms of opportunity. If the same error keeps reoccurring in training this kind of rider might think I love puzzles and once I figure this out Im going to be that much further ahead.
If they suffer some bad luck and their only horse is suddenly injured How can I best use this time? Maybe Ill ask around to see which other horses are available to ride.
Its not that these riders are ultra positive pieinthesky types they just think differently. They know that less than perfect is what sport is all about especially horse sport where you are dealing with so many variables. The riders with the most comeback potential are not surprised at all by adversity. They expect it embrace it and use it to their advantage and to other riders disadvantage. They can easily steal away a placing or even a win not because they ride better but because they think more efficiently.
So really reflect hard and confront yourself about what challenging circumstances mean. No one is forcing you to see them as horrible irreconcilable failures. That is your choice. If like Jill the snowball you are someone who could stand to tweak your view on errors be willing to try something different.
In training when you encounter an error either encourage yourself to smile right away or cue up a phrase like great now what? Both will help you change what has come to be your initial conditioned response to