Plaidcast 397: Tonya Johnston’s Inside Your Ride with Val Renihan by Taylor, Harris Insurance Services

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Tonya Johnston, Mental Skills Coach speaks with Val Renihan, one of the country’s top trainers. Tonya also discusses looking back on your defining moments as a rider as a way of claiming your best qualities and traits. Brought to you by Taylor, Harris Insurance Services. Listen in!

GUESTS AND LINKS:

• Host: Tonya Johnston, Visit her Website, Facebook and buy her book Inside Your Ride
• Guest: Val Renihan is the owner and head trainer at Findlay’s Ridge LLC where she specializes in hunters, equitation and jumpers. Val has ridden and shown all of her life and started training students at the age of 16. Val has had success at virtually all of the top horse shows across the country and has had many riders who have gone on to have meaningful and decorated professional careers. 
• Title Sponsor: Taylor, Harris Insurance Services, Taylor, Harris Insurance Services (THIS) was founded in 1987 to provide specialized insurance for all types of equine risk. THIS places their policies with the highest rated and most secure carriers, meticulously selected for reliability and prompt claims settlement. THIS is proud of their worldwide reputation for responsive and courteous service, and welcomes the opportunity to discuss your equine insurance needs and provide you with a quote.
• Photo Courtesy of Val Renihan
• Subscribe To: The Plaid Horse Magazine
• Sponsors: American Stalls, Purina Animal Nutrition, BoneKare, Show Strides Book Series, With Purpose: The Balmoral Standard, Good Boy, Eddie, HITS Horse Shows, Sentinel Horse Nutrition, Laurel Springs School, and Great American Insurance Group
• This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.
• Tonya Johnston: This is episode 397 of The Plaidcast. I’m Tonya Johnston, Mental Skills Coach, and this is Inside Your Ride. Today’s podcast is brought to you by the Taylor Harris Insurance Services and The Plaid Horse Magazine. On today’s show, I speak with Val Renihan, who is one of the country’s top equitation hunter and jumper trainers. I also discuss looking back on your defining moments as a rider, as a way of claiming your best qualities and traits. 
• Thank you for joining me today. I hope this episode finds you well as we head into fall horse shows and fall season. I want to start today with a quote from Gary Mack, who said, learn from the past, prepare for the future, perform in the present. You may be like many of us this fall, returning to a show or shows that you’ve been to in the past, but after a long summer away from your normal routines, you’re kind of getting back into the swing of things. Perhaps you’ve had great success at a medal final or championship or indoor show that you’re headed to and maybe you’ve had great disappointment. Sometimes these fall shows are things that you only go to once a year, and so they’re sort of laid in with specific memories, different than a circuit where it’s sort of week after week, right? But either way, right, no matter what your memories are like, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a new year with a new you and different opportunities, right? You’re not the same person as you were the last time you attended the same horse show. So let’s read that quote again. Learn from the past, prepare for the future, perform in the present. So this is your new motto for the fall. It takes into account how to use the past as lessons and information. Mind you, not predictions or definitions, okay? And it also addresses the preparation work that you’ve been doing and will continue to do on yourself and your horse as far as mental and physical strengths, right? You’re building on your strengths. You’re preparing for a great future. And this quote also gives you a cue into how you will ride your best. By staying present in the moment with your horse, as you navigate the show as a whole, and certainly your rounds in the show ring, you can do it. I’m rooting for each and every one of you to go out there and whether it’s your first time at that show or your fifth, to be able to demonstrate what you know, enjoy every step of the process along the way. I want to take a moment now to mention that the fall 2024 session of Mindset Boost is happening. Thanks to everyone who responded. I did put it out on social and wondered if I keep being so thrilled and excited that I keep getting such a nice response. This will be our 12th session of Mindset Boost. So we’re going to be starting on Monday, September 9th, which is right around the corner. And we will meet as a group via Zoom on eight consecutive Mondays through October 28th. If you miss a meeting or two, you can always catch up by watching the recordings, which do get posted on our private Facebook group. So for more information, please see my website, tonyajohnston.com welcome to everyone at all levels and ages. And I’m just so excited and grateful for your support and looking forward to this session. Okay. Now let’s talk to my guest, Val Renihan, someone who knows about peaking at the fall shows and championships. 
• Val Renihan is the owner and head trainer at Findlay’s Ridge LLC, where she specializes in hunters, equitation and jumpers. Val has ridden and shown all of her life and started training students at the young age of 16. Val has had success at virtually all of the top horse shows across the country and has had many riders who have gone on to have meaningful and decorated professional careers.
• Tonya Johnston: Welcome Val. Thank you for joining us.
• Val Renihan: Hi Tonya. Thanks for having me.
• Tonya Johnston: Yeah, this is great. I’m excited to speak with you. I know that you’re someone who has operated at the very top of our sport for a long time and you and I have never gotten a chance to have a conversation. So I’m very excited and thank you for taking the time. I know this is a busy time of year sort of gearing up for fall shows.
• Val Renihan: Yeah, we are definitely getting into full swing this week. All the kids have had a little break. The horses have had a break and they start filtering back in starting today.
• Tonya Johnston: Oh, OK. All right. Great. So just I know as we focus on on mindset and mental skills, in my show, you know, what could you say? Maybe we start by thinking of what are some of the most common reminders, would you say, that you give your riders about focus and confidence or or mindset in general as they approach sort of the bigger fall shows? Because anyone listening, you know, whether it’s a national medal final or a local medal final or championships, you know, a lot of people are are sort of gearing up for shows that they don’t go to all throughout the year. In the next few months, you know, special shows that, you know, sort of stand out on their calendar. What are some of the most common things that you try to talk about with your riders regarding that?
• Val Renihan: The first thing I talk to them about is that they do have to have a positive mindset. You know, I’m always like, don’t lose before you walk in the ring. So I tell them, you know, when we go over the courses, I always tell them that it’s important to visualize exactly how they want to do something. You know, if they’re coming to the turn and it’s a forward line, I tell them to tell themselves, stay on my pace, follow with my arm, you know, tell them, chant to themselves how they’re supposed to be doing it. If it’s a forward line and they think, oh, if I get there deep, I’m cooked. Right. They’re going to get there deep. I mean, they got a 95% chance of getting there deep. So, you know, I try to get them to think of it one step at a time. And I always tell them, think how you want to do it. Never tell yourself what you don’t want to do. 
• Tonya Johnston: Right. Excellent. Yeah, absolutely. Was that something that you learned the hard way growing up? Or how do you think you arrived at that?
• Val Renihan: I’ve listened to lots of books on tape and read books about sports psychology and psychology in general. And what really resonated with me was a story that was on one of the books on tape about a famous baseball player. And they were pitching in a championship game. And he’s focused on pitching. He’s ready to go. And it was right at the end of the game. And the coach was like, time out, runs out, tells the pitcher, whatever you do, don’t pitch it low and left. And it totally threw off his psyche for it. And he’s trying to get refocused on exactly where he wants to pitch it. But he’s like, why did he just say that? Now all I feel is like it’s in my head, low and left. And he really struggled to try to get back on track. And sure enough, he pitches it low and left. And the guy hit the ball, hit a home run with it. And he was just like, why did he say that? That was so in my head. And then they were talking about how the brain doesn’t process, don’t pitch it low and left. The brain hears the low and left and goes, that’s what happens with it. So I always try to get my riders to think about exactly how they want to meet a jump. I tell them at this point, it’s not if they’re going to see a distance, it’s how you’re going to meet the jump. They’re experienced enough, they’re going to see something. So you have to think exactly, visualize how you want to meet it and ride accordingly, set the pace you need for that, and visualize exactly how you want to meet it.
• Tonya Johnston: So you want to make sure you’re planting the right seed, right? And does that then, that sounds like something that would permeate sort of as you walk. Maybe you could talk about your course walks and what you tend to do with your riders. How do you structure that? What’s the language like?
• Val Renihan: I try to give them an opening circle that will best benefit each rider. If there’s a particular lead they need to come off of, or if they’re worrying about a swap, but how to approach it. And I do that at the end of our course walk. We go through and we walk it first. I usually try to dictate it into my notes, what each line is, and what I think when I’m walking it. So when I get to the end of the course, I can go over it with them and go over it clearly and accurately. So, and then as I do the course and you find out where it’s forward, a lot of times I’ll walk through the course, I’ll walk before they walk even. Okay. And if there is a forward line, I’ll be like, okay, jump the first jump, really set your pace. I said that you need to jump this on a forward pace. I said, they’re not asking you to leave long, they’re just asking you to show a little pace here. And same with if it’s short, if you have a short line coming up, do your homework in the turn, get them back, get them rideable so that you can still get a good jump at A, and get them back for B. I try to tell them different ways to approach certain jumps, if they are worried about a swap or the line in the landing, exactly how to do it. I always go over where they should approach if you have a particular horse, cut just a little bit early to this turn, or go a little bit wide, that’s going to set up this lead. I try to tell them the benefits of, if you turn here, this makes this easier, and things like that. I try never to tell them something that could cause a problem, but if I see something that could cause a problem, I try to tell them what I want them to do in that area, rather than calling attention to the problem. I always say, focus on the solution, not the problem. So if there’s a spooky flower box, I’ll just say, stay in a little bit here off of that rail, and try not to draw attention to things that could cause a problem, but give them a solution on what they need to do in that part of the course. 
• Tonya Johnston: Right, right. Yeah, excellent. Well, is that something you see? What would you say that you observe around you as things, perhaps, that you hear other people talking about that you think, maybe common mindset mistakes in this fall indoor season, what would you see around you that you think, I want to be careful as a trainer almost, like those are sort of maybe cautionary tales of like, yeah, I definitely want to make sure I’m, like you said, focusing on solution instead of labeling a certain corner as, okay, this is going to be tricky or what have you.
• Val Renihan: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And I hear it, I hear it all the time, you know, once you sort of have it in your mindset on teaching the positive, you, it’s, it’s amazing how often you hear it. Somebody is like, don’t pull. You know, and instead of saying, don’t pull, I say, you know, come forward, loosen up a little bit here. Right. And it’s amazing how often you hear it. And even people, you know, I train a lot of trainers, kids or people for trainers that they sort of hook up with me and stuff like that. And, you know, I try to tell them that, you know, in our conversations beforehand. And it’s funny that, you know, they’ll get ready to say something and they’ll be like, now don’t do this here. And I’ll turn and I’ll look at them like, don’t tell them what you don’t want them to do.
• Tonya Johnston: Right. Right. Reminding.it’s a part of language that we just have to be on the lookout for.
• Val Renihan: It really is. You know, once you get in the habit of it, it’s easier, but it is, you know, it pops out.
• Tonya Johnston: Yep. Absolutely. Was there anything, you know, when you remember your own riding career as a junior, or are there things that sort of stand out to you that you learned about how to shape your own mindset and how to prepare yourself for the ring? Are there things that have stayed with you that you maybe learned when you were younger?
• Val Renihan: Yes. I wish I would have had more access to sports psychology then. I think it would have really benefited me. But when I was showing, if I was sitting around a group of people that were, they’re friends of mine, but they would talk negatively about someone on course, or negative, you know, about the course, or just negative in general, I would, you know, try to politely excuse myself and go sit someplace else. Because, you know, I felt like when you start hearing people say, oh, yeah, that rider just did that. You start thinking, oh, no, am I going to do that? So you have to, you know, you have to distance yourself from negativity. Right. You know, I feel that that part’s really important. And, you know, that really helped me. And if I would be worried about a combination, I learned to block the out of my mind and only think of the in and think of that one piece of that jump. You know, think of a point on the jump and just think about jumping that. You know, I think sometimes if you let yourself get worried about what’s to come after, you don’t get your entrance jumped the way you should.
• Tonya Johnston: Gotcha. So staying very organized about like order of operations, like this first and then this allows this. Yeah.
• Val Renihan: Correct. Exactly.
• Tonya Johnston: Right. Yeah. And I think that your point around, you know, politely removing yourself from those conversations, I often say, use your feet. You know, you get you’re in charge of where you are at the ring. You know, and I think that so often happens, whether it’s indoors and everyone sits in the same place or even a regular fall horse show, you know, people sort of tend to group. And it doesn’t mean you have to stay there. You can do what you need to do. And I always encourage watching from all different places around the ring as much as possible to get different vantage points.
• Val Renihan: Exactly. I do that same thing. I tell them to, you know, just get up and walk around and go sit by yourself over here and watch it from this end. See what it looks like there. Just, you know, remind yourself about what it looks like from all over the ring and don’t get stuck, you know, chatting with your friends or now, you know, we didn’t have Instagram and things like that back in the day. But, you know, they’ll get on Instagram and they’ll see something. Even if they see a friend that did something great, it might go through their head that, oh no, I cannot possibly be that great. So I try to encourage them to just focus on themselves and doing the best they can for themselves and not compare themselves to other riders. I have them watch other riders a lot, but I have them, you know, it’s your job that day to focus on you and not the outside things.
• Tonya Johnston: Right, right, absolutely. And so also, as we know, horses and riders feel energy, you know, good and bad. And I’m curious over the years how, I mean, you’ve been doing this a really long time, and I’m sure you’ve really honed in on, you know, how to manage your own, you know, stress levels or even nerves as a coach that you, so that you maximize the positive impact that you have. Like, how do you do that for yourself, even as you’re on the ground and training and coaching? What kinds of things do you use?
• Val Renihan: I try to just rely on the preparation. I do a lot of preparation with them. And, you know, I try to set them up for, you know, for success and, you know, set an exercise in the schooling ring maybe that, you know, is going to help them get gain confidence. And, you know, the other thing I tell them, if they’re, you know, if they’re getting nervous and they’re overthinking it, you know, go listen to music, you know, still watch, but put something on that’s going to soothe you. We have a running joke about the song Nine to Five. A lot of times I always have a radio in the ring and I’ll turn the song up for them and let them ride to like their favorite song so that they can just relax and get in the rhythm. And we had a group lesson going on and I got to one of the young kids. And as I went through each kid, I was like, all right, what’s your favorite song? And they’re all like, oh, I don’t know. And I’m like, well, you know, give me a hint. And so I get to the young kid in the lesson and she looks at me and she goes, Nine to Five by Dolly Parton. And I was like, you know, I don’t have that on my playlist. So you know, I went home that night and I downloaded it and she had a lesson. She was a worrier and she had a lesson the next day. And she’s getting ready to do her first course. And I blast nine to five and she starts laughing and jumps course beautifully. And I was like, amazing. So then I had another girl and she was struggling a little bit with the courses.  And I’m like, I’ll try it. So I blast nine to five and sure enough, she looks like Beezie Madden riding around there. Wow. So I started using it a lot and then every single kid could ride to it. And then when Gwyneth Babington was doing finals the year her dad got injured, I kept trying to get her to come out and leave the hospital. And she didn’t want to leave the hospital. And Diane, her mom, was like, we got to get her to get out of here for a minute and stuff. So I went down to the hospital and I picked her up. I’m like, come on, let’s go back. I said, I got three horses there for you to do a lesson on and let’s go. So she came back and I think it was really good for her to get out. But she gets on the first horse and really had the yips. I mean, it was like a 17 hand horse and she’s doing the double ad everywhere and just nervous and I could totally understand it. And I’m trying to get her to loosen up and trying to get her loosen up. And sure enough, I put nine to five on and all of a sudden she rocks the course out. And I was like, awesome. So she actually went to indoors that year. Langmire’s were really nice to give her Mikayla’s old equitation horse and she made the top 25. And so then the next year we’re walking up to the ring and she was really nervous about it. Like you could just tell by her body language and the look on her face. And I slide my phone on my pocket quietly and I pull up 9 to 5. And I hold my hand up and blast it to her and she just bursts out laughing in a way she went. And it doesn’t have to be that particular song, but things like that where you can just add a little humor to it, I think really helps them shake off the nerves.
• Tonya Johnston: Absolutely. That’s a great story. I feel like we’re getting such, I think there are people that are going to go out and try using 9 to 5, which I think is going to be fun.
• Val Renihan: My friend, Tasha Visokay, she’s been with me a lot out here and stuff. And I had told her that story and I had a kid that she had sent out to me that, same thing, kept slowing down, slowing down, slowing down, and I played that for her. And so that’s sort of our little secret. She’s like, I had to 9 to 5 it.
• Tonya Johnston: Oh, that’s awesome.
• Val Renihan: So it’s fun. It just has a good beat to it. But I do like adding the humor to it, too. That I think helps them lighten up. I go over the course and do it. But if there’s a jump that I really want them to support, I’ll be like, now get here and stretch the way off the ground because this jump has John Deere written all over it. They laugh. So it’s a way of telling them what they need to do there, but still having a sense of humor to it so they don’t just get so caught up. 
• Tonya Johnston: Well, the fun brings breath and it brings perspective. Also, I think people sometimes get to these heightened environments and forget to bring fun. Fun is a part of being in the zone. Fun is a part of excellence in a way that I think can sometimes get lost. That sounds really productive what you’re doing. I love it.
• Val Renihan: Yeah, I agree with that. Our lessons, our boot camp lessons, they’re hard work. September is probably one of my favorite times of year because we do set lots of different courses and as many tricks as you can and they’re hard work, but it’s also fun. There’s always humor to it and I think it really helps them learn how to do it. And it should be fun.
• Tonya Johnston: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. There’s no way, there’s no, I think, see people forget, there’s no rule that says hard work is not fun.
• Val Renihan: Yes, exactly.
• Tonya Johnston: You know what I mean? And so much better and so much more positivity and optimism and strength comes when you include fun and joy in the work. So that makes a ton of sense.
• Val Renihan: Yeah, I totally agree with that.
• Tonya Johnston: Yeah. What advice, I have a question for you. What advice would you give a rider who’s going back to a show or a medal final, they’ve maybe been to before but maybe had like a major or a minor mistake due to overthinking or anxiety? Because I think a lot of these, again, with a medal final or a championship or a special show, maybe it’s a place that you only go once a year. And so if we have in the past had those places loaded with maybe some memories that are like, I hope this doesn’t happen. How do you talk about that? You have riders that will go to, say, Harrisburg once a year for a few years with you. How do you shape that for them?
• Val Renihan: I try to do enough preparation and tell them, look, you’re not the same rider you were last year. You were so far ahead of that. And I try not to bring it up too much. And they all know that I don’t want them rehashing problem areas. Like when we watch videos, if they had a big mistake in a video, I’ll let them watch it once or twice. And then I’m like, all right, now I want you to edit that out and watch all the good parts of it. I said, I don’t want you to keep watching that problem or if they fell off. Don’t watch that. Okay, you saw it, you know what mistake you made. Now, go slice it, edit it off your phone and watch the good parts. And it’s sort of the same thing when they go to, you know, Harrisburg or whatever. I’m like, you know, you’re really ready for this. There’s nothing they can set. We haven’t practiced at home. And, you know, you know how to do it. When you go in, I want you to take a huge deep breath and then let it out slow and focus on your job one step at a time. I said, it’s no different than the job you do every day that we work on at home. I said, it’s no different than that. And I try at home to stress to them, you know, they don’t give you mulligans in the show ring. So if they make a mistake, you know, I’m like, fight for it. You know, keep working, keep making it your best. Get as many points out of it as you can. Don’t have one little mistake that could have turned a score that, okay, maybe it was into the low 80s. You know, don’t turn it into a 60 because you got so disappointed and, you know, that that particular jump didn’t come up right.
• Tonya Johnston: Right. Absolutely. So I think one of the myths that is perpetuated is that the people who succeed at those kinds of bigger shows, that their rounds are 100% mistake free because they’re not. They’re just, they’re just managing it so well and so quickly that it’s a tiny, tiny, tiny little thing that maybe only they and their trainer realize. But it’s there. Do you know what I mean? And so we don’t do ourselves a service by thinking, oh, I have to be perfect in order to win or in order to ribbon or what have you, because that’s just 100% not true. Would you agree with that? 
• Val Renihan: Absolutely. Absolutely. They, you know, I tell all the kids when they start to get frustrated that they had a mistake, you know, I bring up Mclain, you know, I tell them, you know, look, you’re not going to be perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. And if they say they don’t make mistakes, then they don’t ride. I said, Mclain Ward chipped at the last jump of the Olympics so badly that they’re still picking up parts of that Chinese wall. I was like, you know, it happens. And, you know, McLain does a lot of work on his mental, you know, he really felt the pressure and, you know, can still, I mean, he’ll totally he talks a lot about the mental side of it. And, you know, I tried to tell them, look, mistakes are going to happen. I said, you get as prepared as you can for the finals. And then when it gets down to it, it’s either your lucky day or it’s not. That’s it. You do your, you take your best shot. We do our best job preparing the horse. And something, sometimes something will happen that is beyond your control or, you know, you have a mistake that, that day, that’s life. If it’s not, it doesn’t define you. And, you know, I try to get them absolutely as prepared as possible and try not to let them think about a problem or how they did last year. They’ve got to think about their job right now.
• Tonya Johnston: Yeah. And just not letting them go to that place. Absolutely. And if anything, like you said, you know, you’re not the same rider as you were last year, and you’re stronger for all of your experiences. And that’s where we leave it. We’ve minded and turned it into strength, and now we’re going forward.
• Val Renihan: Exactly. You know, and sometimes, you know, people will have a little bit of an issue and they do fight through it. And, you know, they come out and they’re disappointed. But I’m like, you shouldn’t be disappointed. You should be thrilled that you actually did have some adversity and kept fighting for it and made it work. I was like, that’s what we’ve been talking about. And that’s what I’m trying to get, you know, from you is keep fighting, you know, get everything you can out of it. And if, you know, if your horse feels a little strong in this corner, don’t get so fixated on that, that that horse got strong there. You keep looking ahead and deal with it best you can and do your best job. 
• Tonya Johnston: Right, right. And I think that really is important. What the important piece of that, to be able for the riders to stay in it and fight like that is for you, for the trainer to be able to celebrate those particular small wins, even if the overall score was affected, to still be able to say, Oh my gosh, can’t believe that happened. You handle that like a champion handles a problem. Do you know what I mean? And to recognize their fight in that and they’re working at kids, they stayed in it and they worked at it. And to be able to celebrate that, I think, is a huge for them to trust you that you’ll see that and that you will celebrate with them, I think allows them to be able to do that. 
• Val Renihan: Yes. I’ll tell them I had one this summer whose horse just got went in and got a little bit up and a little bit strong and she dealt with it. And I was like, that’s what we’ve been talking about. You know, we can build on that. You went in, you felt that and you covered it up best you could and you kept going. And you still ended up getting a nice ribbon. I said, you know, a month ago, you would have just thrown in the towel and, you know, had it had a bad round, but you didn’t you fought through it. And you still had a good round and, you know, maybe it wasn’t perfect, but that’s what you have to do. You’ve got to, if you fall in the ocean, you got to swim. Don’t just let yourself sink.
• Tonya Johnston: Yep. And celebrating the progress is huge. Yeah, absolutely. That’s great. Is there any, you know, as you are standing at the gate with someone and sending them in, is there anything that you say the most often? Or, you know, what would your riders tell me that, that you, how you encourage them as they’re going in? Is there anything that you have that’s sort of your go-to?
• Val Renihan: I mean, usually it’s telling them one, when they walk in, take a huge deep breath. And I said as much for you and, and for your horse, you know, that you take a breath. A lot of times I’ll have them walk and give them a little pat. And that’s for both of them. It’s not just for the horse to give them a pat. It’s as much for the rider to just take a moment there and settle down for a second. And then, you know, I just tell them, keep visualizing exactly how you want to meet the jump. I said when you’re coming through the turn, you got to be friends with that jump and you’ve got to visualize exactly how you want to get there.
• Tonya Johnston: Great. Awesome. Thank you. That’s awesome. That makes me want to like get on and go to the ring. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time. It was great speaking with you and good luck to you and all of your riders for the rest of this year.
• Val Renihan: Thank you.
• Tonya Johnston: Tip of the month. Examine your defining qualities. What positive qualities define you as a rider? Are you patient, strong, focused, determined? How have your experiences shaped how you see yourself? We are looking purposefully for your positive qualities because of our inherent negativity bias. I want you thinking about this. If you think about, okay, what defines me as a rider? What would I call out? You have to be aware that as humans, we’ve been wired to see negatives quickly so that we can protect ourselves. While this was useful a long, long time ago to stay safe from tigers and bears, and you hear something in the bushes and you assume it’s a tiger, it’s less useful now, but it still persists, this negativity bias. Right?  So you see, we fall into negativity, but we must act into positivity. Therefore, for this exercise, you want to purposefully look back at some of your most memorable, positive moments as a rider to help you gather your strengths. Right? These qualities can help you as you face fresh challenges, such as the upcoming fall championship shows, medal finals, wherever you may find yourself in the next few months.
• So let’s start with a story to illustrate this idea. I’m going to use a personal story from a long, long time ago. I wrote this long form version of this story, but we’re going to go with the short form and it’s still going to take me a minute to set the stage. So I started lessons as a little kid. I was about five years old, you know, up, down lessons at a large barn in Connecticut. It had like a show section of the barn and then also the kids like myself, who were the once a week. I’ve lived for my once a week lesson. It was just absolutely the highlight of every week. And for this particular memory, I remember snapshots of what happened and what it looked like and what happened as far as what I felt, just little brief snapshots of it. And the rest was colored in by my mom, of course. Sometimes our memories are really shaped by who was there and how it’s repeated sort of in your personal history.  Anyway, so there we were, Friday afternoon, weekly lesson, you know, six or so kids like nose to tail around our, you know, long suffering, the assistant trainer who was there teaching us, you know, how to, how to post on the correct diagonal and what have you. And she got called into the barn to deal with some sort of emergency. And we were supposed to keep walking, you know, in order, again, nose to tail at one end of the ring. And suffice to say that my pony got a little bit feisty and opinionated and decided if she had had left that that maybe he could also be done with this lesson and tried to go to the gate. And there I was, you know, some kicking and some pulling and muttering and a lot of moving around in the tack. I was trying to persuade him to stay in the stay in the in the circle. And so and I really was not giving up. I was determined. I was like, I’m absolutely not. And so because of all of this, my saddle sort of started to list to one side and to the right side. And it as I was still trying to keep him on the circle, suddenly boom, there I was upside down. My saddle had slid completely underneath his belly. And I was clinging like a little monkey and would not, you know, just off the side. And I was not going to let go, right? Now, all of these little new pony moms are like, let go, let go. Mind you, I was probably 12 inches off the ground anyway. So it wasn’t like a big life or death kind of moment. But I was just absolutely determined I would not let go until my trainer came back. So finally, she came running back and told me to let go. And so I did. And as you do, right. So you always wait for your trainer, and you take the mom’s advice with a grain of salt, right? 
• So anyway, it’s a very long, short story to tell you that what I pulled from that, one of my personal defining qualities that I still own to this day is grit. I don’t let go. I don’t give up and I don’t quit. And I’m just calmly like this is what’s happening and I’m going to keep working until I figure this out. So that’s with me to this day and I use it when I face challenges in my riding and in my life. And I take pride in my strength and I let it guide me as I work towards all of my goals. So that became because that story was kind of retold and even the memory of it really stuck with me because I found almost it was almost sort of peculiar like why didn’t I just let go and I was like wow I just really knew my job was to stay on my pony. You know I was that was what I was there to do. So reminding myself of my grit has helped me in all sorts of situations you know for example I mean you could take of course so many but like warming up and I remember being shocked the first time I went to Capital Challenge at the rain and warming up in an absolute deluge and I’d never been more wet on a horse which was quite it was quite striking feeling all of your layers of clothing you know absolutely soaked and you know all of it all the rest of it on a horse I didn’t know walking up to the back gate and you know that’s a great example of a of a time you know I just you know you can do this like dig deep like be gritty like bring it out and and because that’s the way I see myself it’s a strength that I can then call on in any situation where I really need that bit of extra right and so this exercise what I’d like you to do. And bring these positive qualities with you to every challenge you face. Good luck and have fun.
• You can find the links to today’s guests and the show notes at thepladhorse.com/listen. Follow The Plaidcast on all of the social medias. Just search for The Plaid Horse. You can follow me on Facebook at Tonya Johnston, Mental Skills Coach, and on Instagram at Inside Your Ride. Please rate and review our shows on iTunes. Five star reviews help people discover our show. And if you enjoy our conversation, please share it with your friends. If you have a question about your mental skills for riding, please message me on Facebook. Inside Your Ride is available on Amazon in paperback and ebook. You can find out more about my mental skills coaching on my website at www.tonyajohnston.com. Remember, focus is a skill. Use it to make every ride great.