“If you aren’t winning, you’re learning” – I read this quote from Yasmin Ingham’s Instagram post at the weekend and it really resonated with me.
To put some context around it Yasmin is our current Eventing World Champion and has just completed Kentucky 5* in America. After finishing second there last year and following this up with winning the World Championships on her first senior debut, she came into Kentucky this year as one of the hot favourites.
To add to the pressure she went into cross country day in the lead on an outstanding dressage mark of 22.1. Her horse Banzai Du Loir has an exceptional cross country record and I, like many others expected to see her go clear.
So when I read that she had had an early 20 penalties out on course, I was super disappointed for her. I often read social media posts from professional riders who have had a bad day at the office and in the past, I’ve been frustrated to read that it was the horse that made a mistake. What I loved about Yasmin’s post was her admission that ‘a mistake on her part early in the course cost them 20 penalties, and she was gutted to have let him down’.
But she went a step further with the quote “If you aren’t winning, you’re learning” and this got me thinking!
It’s a brilliant quote for several different reasons. It’s a great reminder that when things don’t go to plan, there are always lessons to be learnt. It highlights the importance of having a growth mindset where we are always looking for ways to improve and get better. It shows that we can take responsibility for our part in what went wrong, learn some lessons and do things differently next time.
But it also got me thinking about how easy it can be to miss the opportunity to learn even when things go well and we bring home a red rosette. I’m not for one minute suggesting that if you have a great day out and a successful competition that you shouldn’t enjoy the moment!
We all know that it takes a huge amount of time, money, hard graft and often a lot of luck to come home with a first rosette, and you should 100% celebrate. But there will always be things to improve on so don’t miss a valuable learning opportunity.
I discovered this recently after Splash and I made our eventing comeback after three years away from eventing. On paper our result looks epic and it really is… he did a 21 dressage and double clear inside the time to win his section. I was absolutely over the moon with him and spent all day grinning like a Cheshire cat and duly celebrated with glass (or two) of fizz that evening.
It would have been so easy for me to leave it there, happy, proud and full of confidence. But a conversation with my coach James Oakden helped me re-focus and go back to analyse our performance.
First of all I went wrong in our test! Yes that’s right… somehow I can manage to remember and ride two elementary or medium tests but I couldn’t remember my BE90 test! So that’s something I need to focus on for next time.
James also raised the idea of wearing a stopwatch, which is something I’ve never considered before. Years ago we weren’t allowed to wear stopwatches until you were competing at Novice level and I’ve always been a big believer in learning to ride with feel when it comes to the correct speed. However, the feedback from James was that I was too quick from fences 1-7, fences 8-10 slowed me down too much and then I was too quick in the last part of the course. So on paper I looked like I had timed it to perfection being two seconds under the optimum time, but in reality and with feedback from my coach and some further reflection, this is not actually case. We have more homework to do before our next event and I love that!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on winning and learning and how you evaluate both the good and not so good days out with your ponies. If you need a supportive group to help you celebrate your wins and get a balanced viewpoint when things don’t quite go to plan then head over to EquiTeam to see how our amazing community is supporting each other.
Happy riding!
Liz S x
