Elite Yet Imperfect
Let’s talk about the 2024 Olympic equestrian events. It was quite a mix of thrills and spills, wasn’t it? So, let’s start with a recap of it all.
The Olympics kicked off with eventing, as Great Britian secured the win for team gold and Michael Jung won individual gold for the third time. Moving onto show jumping, Great Britian won team gold with USA just behind in silver. Germany then won the dressage team gold medal. The next dressage gold medal was individually awarded to Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, resulting in her fourth Olympic gold medal. Finally, Christian Kukuk secured the gold medal for individual showjumping. Besides all the wins awarded to different teams and individual riders, there were also a mix of alternates, withdrawals, and eliminations. For example, there was a total of 6 rider withdrawals across 5 countries, including France, USA, Egypt, Holland, and Mexico for showjumping.
Across eventing, dressage, and show jumping, there were a multitude of changes and adjustments made for both the individual and team qualifiers and finals. Before the Olympics even started, Charlotte Dujardin withdrew and was later banned from the Olympics as a video resurfaced of her repeatedly using a lunge whip on a horse’s legs as it was being ridden during a lesson. At the last minute, Karl Cook took the place of Kent Farrington as Kent’s horse was experiencing allergy issues that could affect both her performance and health. Julia Krajewski took Sandra Auffarth’s place on the German eventing team due to Sandra’s withdrawal. Will Coleman started as an alternate for the eventing team and was then replaced by Liz Halliday after the first horse inspection. Marcus Orlob was stopped during his dressage test then eliminated due to blood on his horse’s leg. Nayel Nassar had to drop out due to an injury sustained by his horse after the first inspection. After a clear round in the showjumping team qualifier, Pedro Veniss was eliminated due to blood on his horse’s flank. Carlos Hank Guerreiro withdrew from the team showjumping final due to veterinary concerns surrounding his horse with no alternates available. Harry Charles withdrew from the individual showjumping final due to a lack of fitness in his horse. During the individual showjumping final, Andres Azcarraga fell off of his horse at the water jump and was eliminated. Henrik von Eckermann, currently ranked number one in the world, experienced a fall resulting in an elimination during the individual showjumping final.
Besides the reported stories, there were many time faults, rails down, and mistakes made for other riders competing in the Olympics. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that these talented, big-name riders experienced trials, tribulations, and failures due to their elite athletic status and highly successful track record. Not only is this the nature of equestrian sports, but also for all other sports as well as in life in general. In a perfect world, the athlete would compete in the Olympics and win, but it rarely, if ever, turns out as simple as that. The fact of the matter is that negative, unwanted circumstances are going to occur no matter your or your horses’ athletic level and status. It’s not a matter of if these negative situations may happen, but instead when they will happen. Injuries, miscommunications, lapses in judgment, missed distances, distractions, fear, thrown shoes, and falls, to name just a few circumstances, are all a part of riding. Some of these aspects are in the rider’s direct control, while others are completely out of their control and cannot be prevented. Before we learn how to deal with the immense difficulties that come with riding, we must first be able to accept their presence. There is not one rider in the world who does not struggle, no matter how elite and well known they may be. Fortunately, riding is not always going to be a constant struggle. As riders, we experience many difficulties, but we are also all capable of reaching great success and reaping the benefits of our relentless hard work and true efforts.
The key in both riding and life is to develop an exorbitant amount of resilience, or mental toughness as some like to call it. The dictionary defines resilience as, “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties.” When everything in our ride comes easy, flows, and ends up just the way we wanted it to be, riding feels so simple and ideal. Too many times our high hopes and expectations of success are crushed by preventable or extenuating circumstances, often leaving us in a negative or even hopeless state of mind. This low state of mind often features a lack of motivation, lowered perceived competence and confidence, discouragement, and little to no productive action taken after the fact. Success, whether a medal or ribbon is awarded, is crowned to the riders who prevail during tough times. We all fantasize about the big wins, the best distances, and the smooth, effortless rides. Although these all exist, they also come with the occasional failures and difficulties both in and out of the saddle. When the lows hit, we have the choice to let it affect us in either a negative or positive manner. Setbacks have the power to either help or hurt our riding, depending on how they’re viewed and what is done after the fact. Do we dwell on it and possibly give up, or do we learn from it and move forward? The riders who stay connected and sustain their best efforts through the lows are the riders who will stick around the sport the longest and travel the furthest in their riding. In the end, it’s not about what happens to you but how you move forward from it that matters the most.
I applaud the Olympic riders who adapted, prevailed, and came out on top, whether they received a medal, performed at their personal best, or learned valuable lessons along the way. Even if the Olympics didn’t go the way they’d hoped for, they can still walk away wiser, inspired, and prepared to increase their skills for future competitions. It’s not always about the results on paper but more so about the learning opportunities that further our personal and athletic development. A lot of the time, the journey ends up being much more significant than the outcome itself. Hard work and complete dedication will always render positive results, but not during every ride. If personal success is only measured by performance outcomes, such as ribbons awarded at horse shows or number of mistakes made during a ride, it will only bring great disappointment. It’s impossible to win every single ride since perfect does not exist. Accepting the wins is easy, but effectively dealing with the losses is where we start to lose athletes’ interest, confidence, and motivation to prevail in the sport. The fact of the matter is that this sport is incredibly hard, and we need to have tools in place, such as various mental skills like resilience, to successfully work through the many difficult aspects that this sport we love so much brings. It’s imperative for riders to adopt a resilient mindset in order to move forward in their riding.
No matter what level of riding you’re currently at, know that all riders experience hard times, struggles, and slumps. Good riders are negatively affected by their struggles, while great riders use their struggles to their advantage. It’s the difference between regressing or progressing in the face of failure; we have to keep moving forward and shifting our mindset in order to reach our goals. The good rider is temporarily stunted by a setback while the great rider is propelled forward due to their setbacks. Difficulties for great riders are viewed and responded to as challenges they can overcome and further improve as a result. The difficulties don’t come easy to the great riders, but they’ve learned and practiced the skills to recover and get back on track on the path towards their goals. Some riders seem naturally optimistic, but most of the great riders have learned and developed their resilience over time. These riders believe in trusting the process and finding both the good in the difficulties and all the ways they can benefit from them. The main difference between good and great riders isn’t natural talent, but instead how they view and respond to their athletic failures. At the end of the day, it’s the rider’s mindset that determines their level of success.
If there’s anything we can learn from the Olympics, it’s that elite riders go through similar struggles of amateur riders. We may be riding at different levels, but none of us are immune to experiencing mistakes and setbacks. What defines us is how we view and respond to our mistakes and setbacks, whether that’s in a helpful or unhelpful manner. The best riders and athletes in the world learn from their downfalls and become better because of them. Many of us can look back on different struggles and identify the learning opportunities that were present, but we’re able to speed up the process of gaining great progress in our riding when we remain resilient through our present struggles. Although we display the results of our physical and mental practice at competitions, we also need the ability to adapt to difficulties as they arise. Success then becomes so much sweeter after a comeback from failure is made, and success also occurs much more frequently through a resilient lens. A rider’s resilient mindset offers motivation, commitment, optimism, confidence, competence, and so many other mental benefits. The blue ribbon may not have been awarded, but the rider still won. We must not only develop resilience for ourselves, but also for our horses; they should always come first regardless of our personal riding goals. This is your sign to prevail, push through, stay connected, and make it happen no matter where you’re currently at in your riding. If you struggle to adopt a resilient mindset, please reach out!
