Noreen Esposito Ed.D., PMHNP-BC www.noreenesposito.com
Presented at Eno Triangle Horsemasters (USPC)
February 9, 2012

• The best riders have “mental toughness”
• The what, why and how of emotions
• Understanding worry and anxiety
• A thinking rider’s thoughts
• Tricks and tips
• Mindfulness: a way of being

• Mental toughness is:
• A characteristic that helps the best (elite) athletes to succeed.
• “She has mental toughness”
• How athletes such as Olympic riders cope with the stress and pressure of competition.
• It’s multidimensional (different components)
• Where does it come from?
• Inherited: 50% comes from genetics & biological history
• Learned: 50%

Self belief
Resilience
Success mindset
At t ent ional cont rol
Emot ional awareness
Cont ext int elligence
Opt imist ic t hinking
Handle a challenge

• Two key components of mental toughness, both associated with managing anxiety are:
• Emotional awareness
• Attentional control

That saber-tooth tiger might eat me!
• Emotions come from thoughts and bodily sensations
Yikes ...
I'm scared
• Thoughts including interpretations, judgments and beliefs influence our emotions and their intensity my heart is pounding
• Thoughts elicit physical responses
• Body sensations lead to thoughts

Quick...where
can I hide from that tiger?
• Emotions have physical characteristics :
• Crying (sadness & grief)
• Butterflies in stomach (anxiety)
• Physical urges (hugging when happy, running when scared)
• Emotions lead to “motion”
• Emotion is thought & feeling & readiness to act

• An emotional state is a moment in time
• Like tides, emotions are temporary…come and go
• Last a few seconds to minutes
• Remembering that an emotion is temporary can make it more tolerable
“This will pass”

Vary in intensity from
• One situation to another
• One person to another
• Some people experience emotions more intensely than others
• Some people seem generally calm
• Some people heat up quickly and calm down slowly

On I-40

• Joy
• Love
• Interest/Curiosity
• Sorrow
• Surprise
• Fear
• Disgust
• Guilt/shame
• Anger

• In response to our primary emotions & subsequent thoughts/feelings and judgments
Event primary emotion: anger secondary emotion: guilt thought about emotion: it's bad to be angry
• 2ndary emotions are a complex pattern of learned responses such as being
• Angry about being angry
• Angry about being sad
• Anxious about feeling fear

Physical stresses that affect our basic human needs for food, shelter, warmth and comfort can interfere with our ability to regulate emotion:
• Thirst, dehydration
• Hunger, poor nutrition, junk food
• Too much or too little sleep
• Insufficient exercise
• Pain, physical discomfort
• Prolonged stress
• Illness
Drugs/substances may have negative effects
• Too much caffeine
• Medications
• Substances like cigarette smoke, alcohol or other drugs

• Thoughts and words can also make us more vulnerable to emotions
• Judgments about ourselves and about others
• Negative self talk or stories we tell ourselves
• Invalidation: discounting our emotions, thoughts and things we do.

• Invalidation… discounting our emotions, thoughts and things we do.
• Invalidation: “there’s nothing to be anxious about, you shouldn’t feel that way”
• Leads to secondary emotions…guilt, frustration and social isolation
• Validation: “it makes sense that you might feel this way”
• Leads to positive feelings of happinessy, a sense of social connection and normalcy, allows the body to relax

• Fear:
• A present (in-the-moment) emotion
• Elicited by actual or potential danger, alarm or apprehension of something specific
• Purpose is to prepare to do battle
• Ends when danger is over
• Anxiety
• A future-oriented emotional & physical response
• Elicited by an imagined future situation
• Continues until you convince yourself otherwise.

• Underlying emotion is fear
• Possibility of failure, danger or misfortune but not actual or real threat
• Fear can be of external or internal
• Sometimes the fear is fear of the possibility of anxiety
• Physical symptoms:
• Increased heart rate
• Shortness of breath,
• Sweaty, cold clammy hands
• chest tightness,
• dizzy
• Anxiety can be State (temporary) and/or Trait

• A trait: An enduring characteristic
• Anxiety trait: Responds to most challenges or thoughts of challenge with worry.
• Predominantly worrisome thoughts about situations

What does this mean for our performance at horse
(and other life) events?
Someone who has:
• Low trait anxiety(Quarterhorse) + high state anxiety
(what if wolf appears horizon?) = peak performance
• High trait anxiety (Arabian) + high state anxiety
(what if piece of paper (or wolf) appears on horizon)
= difficult to impossible performance

Thus
• No physical arousal (no anxiety): inadequate performance
• Low level physical arousal: good for performance
• High level physical arousal: detrimental to performance
• If very high physical arousal, steep drop in performance, reversed ONLY by reduction in physiological arousal

Mark Twain: “I’m an old man now. I’ve lived a long and difficult life, filled with so many misfortunes, most of which never happened.”

Oh well, I missed a lesson stop worrying what's wrong with me?
everyone else is calm
What if they drop the leash?
what if my horse steps on the dog?
I don't want to fall off
Stayed up to clean tack, slept
4 hours last night woke up tired
START HERE he hates dogs oh my, there are people with a dog got to barn
I have butterflies, I feel a little sick my muscles are tight time to load horse into trailer
Does the judge understand
Arabians?
Will I lose points?
what if he spooks?
He's going to spook what if the show doesn't go well?...
it's blowing this way!
I should have practiced more
I can do this!
there's a piece of paper on ground
He sees it worry
Did I bring the
Coggins ?
Did I bring my boots?
stop thinking about every thing and just RELAX!
we enter the ring & halt It's almost time
JUST
RELAX!
he's stiff, why is he stiff?
Arrive at show my muscles are tight
Is he going to spook?
He gets so tense, maybe he's the wrong horse for
I might fall off
I'm worried
I'm scared
I could get hurt he's going to be hard to handle my horse spooks when its windy
Oh no, it's windy
I'm clutching the reins
He's looking at everything
Practice arena it's windy just do it
I Tack up
RELAX!
NOW!!
Score 42 on dressage test
I'm afraid he's tossing his head he's tense come on,,, pay attention
...
flex damn it!
why doe he do this
?
That transition took too long...
That lost points
My score is going to suck
Why do I even do these shows?
I should just give up these competitions
Focus!!
I am focused he's paying attention he's maybe it stepping under will be okay
Damn! Went off-course during the test, how did that happen?
I just can't do this
© N Esposito, 2012

• 2 nd wave: Cognitive and behavioral approaches target an athlete’s psychological and social characteristic .
• At this point there is very limited research that shows the usefulness of these now standard interventions by themselves.
• Goal setting
• Imagery
• Self talk
• Arousal increase or reduction
• Psyching up
• Relaxation
• 3 rd wave of interventions: A growing body of research on indicates that the incorporating MINDFULNESS with C_B can have a significant long term effects on anxiety.

• Worry time
• Schedule 15-30 minutes/day.
• Intentionally worry, just let worry run its course
• Things that don’t work
• Trying to suppress worry
• Reassure yourself or get assurance from others, won’t really help
• Criticize yourself for worrying
• Relief from panic: Panic episodes that are disrupting your life deserve professional consultation and are treatable. In the interim, these may help you through an attack:
At the earliest signs of panic:
• Remind yourself these are harmless fight or flight symptoms
• Unpleasant but normal
• Unpleasant but you are safe
• The 5 minute rule (adrenaline takes 5 minutes to be eliminated from you circulation, so it takes 5 minutes for physical symptoms to lessen and leave)
• Sit with the symptoms until they are gone

• Progressive muscle relaxation:
• When: post competition
• What : progressive muscle relaxing
• Goal:,
• increase awareness of muscle tension
• decrease arousal post performance
• Enhances positive feelings and wellbeing
• May also work with difficulty sleeping night before.

• Cognitive restructuring
• When: pre performance & post
• What: reinterpret thoughts to develop different interpretation of situation
• De-emphasize the importance of competition
• Reframe interpretations, for example in the chain of thoughts, there are many cognitions that can be interpreted differently

• Imagery
• When: Pre competition, at least a week or more
• What: see next imagery slide
• Goal: increase familiarity with tasks & gives positive feedback of imagined performance

• Ability to imagine yourself successfully (or unsuccessfully) completing a act.
• Pick skill to imagine.
• Do relaxation before visualization
• Make imagery as realistic as possible
• Smells, sounds,… all senses
• Bring skill into focus (ie test), view from your own eyes (be in the experience).
• Try to feel the movement,, the connection between your body and your horse”s
• Practice skill in real time

• Go over the test in your mind, play it like a video, rewinding and replaying until it is the way you want it to be.
• Visualize this excellent video in your mind every night before going to sleep
• Imagine yourself smiling regardless of what happens.

• S: SPECIFIC: about your goals. How will you know if you met the goal?
• C: CONTROLLABLE: Make the goals challenging but within your control.
You can’t control how a judge will score, what the weather will be. You can control your personal performance “I will hit all the marks in my ride”
• A: ATTAINABLE: work on step-by-step goals so you build your confidence and can actually succeed in meeting your goals.
• M: MEASUREABLEL Be able to check yes I did it, no I didn’t, perhaps how well you did it on a scale of 1-10…. So you can see improvement
• P: PERSONAL AND PROGRESSIVE: Devise goals that will help YOU progress based on where you now

• You can’t control weather, the mood of the judge, your other competition but you can control how you react to those things.
• Minimize vulnerabilities:
• Get sleep, eat well, check out competition, visit show site ahead of time,
• Find a way to think positively about challenges an adversity If it can’t be changed, accept it and find something positive about it.

• Any of the 4 major categories
• Emotional support
• Esteem support
• Informational support
• Tangible support
• Perceived support helps people feel safer and situations are less stressful. (knowing you are going to a show with supportive friends)
• Received support
• Sometimes helpful if person wants it
• Sometimes increases stress if person is not ready for it.

• Medications
• Antidepressants
• Anti-anxiety
• CBT
• Long lasting effects (at least 10 years)

• Anxiety is the physical unpleasant feeling interconnected with worry thoughts
• Worry is a fear of uncertainty “what if”
• Worry is always focused on the future
• Worry can’t persist if you are focused on the present moment worrywarts

The goal is to experience reality as it is in the present moment

• MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction Kabat-Zin)
• MBCT (COGNITIVE TX)
• MB-EAT eating awareness
• MBRP (relapse prevention :substance abuse recovery)
• DBT (Dialectical behavioral therapy: Lenihan)
• ACT (Acceptance commitment therapy: Hayes)
• ABBT-GAD (accept based behavr tx for GAD)

• Increases emotional awareness
• Helps decrease
• worry and ruminating
• distractibility
Mindfulness is being who are are, not who you want to be
Mindfulness is being in the moment

• We are doing the very best in dealing with our emotions
• We can get better and be more skillful in dealing with emotions
• Learning emotion skills and behaviors is not just at horse events, but in all areas of our lives.
From Lenihan, 1993 DBT

Self belief
Resilience
Success mindset
At t ent ional cont rol
Emot ional awareness
Cont ext int elligence
Opt imist ic t hinking
Handle a challenge

• Mindfulness can be learned at any age
• Examples of readings for children
• Mindfulness for children
• The mindful child (Grenland)
• Maclean & Maclean (Peaceful Piggy
Meditations).

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Guilford Press.

• Morris, T., Spittle, M., & Watt, A. P. (2005). Imagery in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
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Nova Science Publishers.
• Stevens, L. (2008). Group Resilience. Equestrian Life. Retrieved from Equestrian Life website: http://www.equestrianlife.com.au/rider-skills/group-resilience
• Savoie, J. (2003). It's not just about the ribbons : it's about enriching riding and life with innovative
tools and winning strategies. North Pomfret, Vt.: Trafalgar Square Pub.
• Spradlin, S. E. (2003). Don't let your emotions run your life : how dialectical behavior therapy can
put you in control. Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger.
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Oxon ; New York: Routledge.
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Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.