Brought to you by The Plaidcast
There is only one winner in most horse show classes. That means even very successful riders spend a lot of time not winning. For Ava Stearns, learning how to handle that reality became an important part of her own riding career and, later, part of the perspective she brings to her work as a commentator.
“This is a sport where you’re going to lose more than you win,” Stearns said on episode 483 of The Plaidcast. “And if you don’t figure out how to lose and how to lose effectively, you’re not gonna get better.”
Mistakes Are Part of the Sport
Stearns has competed on some of the biggest stages in equitation, including winning the Maclay Finals and finishing near the top in other national championships. She is also quick to point out that she has made mistakes on those same stages. “I’ve made mistakes on every national stage you can do so,” she said.
That experience shapes the way she talks about riders during broadcasts. She knows how exposed a mistake can feel at a major championship, especially for a junior rider competing at that level for the first or second time. A missed distance or disappointing round can suddenly feel enormous because it happened in front of a crowd, judges, trainers, family, and everyone watching the livestream.
Stearns wants riders to remember that mistakes are normal. “It happens to the best riders in the world,” she said. One imperfect round is not unusual, and it is not proof that a rider does not belong at that level.
Losing Badly Keeps You Stuck
The mistake itself is not always the biggest problem. What matters is what happens next. Stearns remembers being younger, making a mistake, and feeling so discouraged that she struggled to move forward from it.
“You feel so discouraged, and I think there was a point where I realized that that wasn’t getting me anywhere forward,” she said. Eventually, she realized that frustration was not helping her improve. It was simply keeping her attached to something that had already happened.
That shift changed how she looked at disappointing rounds. Instead of seeing a mistake as proof that she was not good enough, she began treating it as information. The question became less about why the mistake happened to her and more about what she could learn from it before the next ride.
That mindset is also central to the tone Stearns brings to commentating. She does not want to ignore mistakes or pretend every round was perfect. She wants riders to understand what happened without feeling defeated by it.
“If you make a mistake, go home excited,” she said. “Go home to work on it and get better and come back a better competitor.” That creates a very different emotional response from leaving the ring embarrassed or defeated. A mistake becomes a direction. It tells you what to practice and gives you information about your horse, your riding, or your preparation.
The result may still be disappointing. Losing well does not mean pretending you wanted to lose. It means making sure the disappointment is not wasted.
One Result Shouldn’t Define the Day
Stearns also cautions against making winning the only measure of success. She says she never set a specific goal to win a particular class, even during a junior career filled with major championship results.
“I am a firm believer that winning one class isn’t going to change your life,” she said. “It’s about the rest of it that you do to get there.”
Instead, Stearns focused on becoming better than she had been before. Maybe she started too slowly in the first class. Then the goal in the next class was to start with more pace. Even if that second round did not win, she had still improved something that would matter beyond that particular day.
That kind of progress can disappear when riders focus only on the ribbon. A third-place round may contain exactly the improvement you were working toward, but if the only goal was first place, it is easy to overlook everything that went right.
Don’t Make the Same Mistake Twice
Stearns is not suggesting riders should become comfortable repeating the same errors indefinitely. Her approach is almost the opposite. “I always wanted to come out better than I was yesterday,” she said, “and I’m a firm believer in making a million mistakes, but trying your very hardest not to make the same mistake twice.”
That gives mistakes a purpose. Riders are allowed to get something wrong, but then they are responsible for learning from it. The next ride becomes another opportunity to test whether that lesson stuck.
Over time, that approach builds a rider rather than simply chasing an individual result. A ribbon tells you how one class went. Learning how to recognize, correct, and move beyond mistakes affects every class that follows.
The Pressure of Being Watched
Major championships can make one mistake feel especially significant. Stearns remembers being close enough in age to the junior riders she first commentated on that she could vividly recall the feeling of thinking everyone had just watched her make an error.
She wanted those riders to understand that the embarrassment they might be feeling was not necessary. Mistakes happen to everyone, and Stearns even argues that never making one may mean a rider is not pushing far enough beyond their comfort zone.
“If you’re not making a mistake, you’re not pushing yourself far enough,” she said. “You’re not pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.”
Progress requires trying difficult things. Sometimes that means the answer will not be perfect on the first attempt.
Horse showing can make one class feel very important, and championships can make one round feel even bigger. But Stearns believes riders need to keep those moments in perspective. A rail, a missed distance, or a mistake at a final does not erase the work that got you there. It also does not make you unusual.
Losing well means refusing to let disappointment be the only thing you carry home. Ask what worked, ask what did not, and decide what you want to improve before the next ride. Then let the result become information rather than identity.
There will always be another rider who wins the class, and there will always be another day when the round does not go to plan. The riders who keep improving are the ones who learn how to take those moments with them without letting those moments keep them stuck.
To hear the full conversation with Ava Stearns and Tonya Johnston, listen to episode 483 of The Plaidcast. Subscribe and follow The Plaidcast on your favorite podcast platform for more conversations about riding, mindset, and performance.
