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Every rider knows the feeling. A distance doesn’t come up the way you expected. You smack a rail. Your horse trips. The round continues, but your focus is long gone.
Instead of staying with the ride in front of you, your attention drifts backward. Riders replay what just happened, analyze why it went wrong, or start worrying about how that one moment will affect the rest of the round.
In her conversation on episode 462 of The Plaidcast, mental skills coach Tonya Johnston explains that this backward pull is one of the most common ways riders lose effectiveness. The mistake itself isn’t usually the problem. What matters is what the rider does with their attention afterward.
Good rounds are built by staying with the next decision—not by remembering the last one.
Mistakes Pull Riders Out of the Present
When something goes wrong, riders naturally want to understand it. But Tonya is clear that timing matters. Reflection has value, but not in the middle of a round.
Riding only happens in the present moment. Once a rider’s attention shifts to what already happened, effectiveness drops immediately. “The second you’re thinking about the last jump, you’re not actually riding anymore,” Tonya shares. Riders may still be physically in the ring, but mentally they’ve stepped out of the ride, no longer fully connected to what the horse is doing right now.
This is where neutral thinking becomes critical. Rather than asking Why did that happen?, Tonya encourages riders to redirect attention immediately back to action. The goal isn’t to erase the mistake, but to keep it from taking over the next decision.
Why Riders Get Stuck on Errors
Many riders believe they need to fix a mistake immediately in order to keep it from happening again. But Tonya points out that problem-solving in the middle of a round often creates more disruption than clarity. As she explains, “that’s not the moment to figure it out—you don’t need to solve it right then, you just need to stay functional and keep riding.”
When riders stay focused on the error, they lose feel. Timing gets rushed or delayed. Communication with the horse becomes less clear. Instead of responding, the rider starts reacting. Mistakes don’t automatically ruin rounds. What causes trouble is when riders stop being functional because their attention is stuck in the past.
The Power of the Next Decision
Throughout the episode, Tonya returns to one practical, forward-focused question: What do I do now?
That question doesn’t ignore what just happened. It simply recognizes that the past can’t be changed, but the next decision can. When riders ask What do I do now?, attention comes back to pace, line, balance, and connection. The horse comes back into focus. The rider re-enters the present moment. Riders don’t need to feel confident or calm to recover, but they need to stay oriented to action.
Pressure makes this mental habit harder. The higher the stakes, the more riders want to fix what went wrong immediately. They replay the error, worry about the score, or try to force the next jump to “make up for it.”
Tonya cautions against that instinct. In pressure moments, she reminds riders that they don’t need to fix everything at once. “You don’t need to solve the whole problem right now,” she explains. “You just need to stay functional and make the next useful decision.”
Staying functional means continuing to make useful decisions, even when emotions are present. Riders can feel disappointed, frustrated, or tense—and still ride effectively—if their attention stays on what they’re doing.
Letting Go of Mid-Round Evaluation
Another reason riders get stuck on mistakes is because they start judging the round before it’s over. One error turns into a verdict: That ruined it.
Tonya encourages riders to separate riding from evaluation. Scoring, judging, and analyzing belong after the round—not during it. During the ride, the only job is to keep making decisions. Each moment stands on its own. When riders stop mentally grading themselves mid-round, they give themselves the chance to finish strong.
This approach isn’t just for competition. It applies to everyday schooling as well. Riders often dwell on what didn’t go well instead of noticing what the horse needs next.
When riders stay focused on correcting the last mistake, they miss opportunities to improve the current moment. Neutral thinking keeps riders mentally forward, treating each moment as new information rather than a continuation of a problem.
Tonya frames this as a skill riders can practice. Each time attention drifts backward and the rider brings it forward again, they strengthen that mental habit.
Recovery Is a Skill That Can Be Trained
Some riders appear naturally good at bouncing back from mistakes, but Tonya emphasizes that recovery isn’t a personality trait—it’s a skill that can be practiced. As she explains, “this isn’t about being tough or confident; it’s something you can train, just like you train anything else in riding.”
The more riders practice redirecting their attention to the next decision, the faster that reset happens. Over time, mistakes take up less mental space. Riders stay connected more consistently. Strong riding, in this framework, isn’t about maintaining engagementm even when things aren’t perfect.
Tonya’s perspective reframes what good rounds actually look like. They aren’t built by avoiding mistakes. They’re built by continuing to ride through them.
Mistakes will happen. What matters is whether riders stay with them—or move on.
Good rounds don’t start by fixing the past. They start by committing to the next moment.
Want more insight from Tonya Johnston? Listen to her full conversation on The Plaidcast and subscribe to The Plaidcast for practical tools to support your mental game in the saddle.
