alisonbuttery

How often do you actually look back and see how far you have come? It’s really easy to get lost in the noise and lose perspective on your journey towards confidence. Start keeping a log/diary/journal of your achievements, so that you can reflect on all the hard work, commitment and positive progress you have made over time. It could be over a week, month or years.   Your starting point is not important, it’s the process you follow, and the progress you make which matters.   Start creating your story, and use it to boost your confidence.  Come and join my Crack the Confidence [...]

How often do you celebrate your riding achievements? I mean, really celebrate and acknowledge what you have done? I know many riders that will, when congratulated, reply with “Thank you, but {insert horse’s name] was brilliant today” or “Thank you, but it was really messy” or “ I could have done X, Y, Z better” or “God, it felt awful”. Sound familiar?  How about acknowledging that YOU made X happen? Regardless of how big or small, you need to start taking responsibility for the things that go RIGHT as well as WRONG.  I want you to find a whole list of ways in [...]

“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.”  Tony Robbins  The hard part about building confidence is that it takes consistent, positive action to become a confident rider. Doing a mindset exercise once is good, but committing to doing at least once, every single day, will make the biggest difference. Stretching your comfort zone and riding in an uncomfortable situation is great, but committing to doing it over and over again until it becomes your new normal, will mean that you become that confident rider.   Yes, celebrate your achievement in stepping [...]

What do you say to your yard buddies? Do you support them, reassure them, boost them up? I’m sure you do!  There is an NLP theme which is ‘perception is projection’, and what this means is that you can’t make a judgement about somebody, if that characteristic isn’t also in you too. So if you’re super positive about someone else, then you are also saying it about yourself.   However, this also works the other way round; if you tell someone they’re selfish, then you are also identifying that characteristic in yourself. So I want you to be really mindful of both [...]

You can read all the books, watch all the YouTube videos, go to as many lecture/demos as you can, do all the online courses, talk for hours about what you’re going to do.  But unless you actually take action, and take that first step on your journey, nothing will change.  Start now, get perfect later!  Find out how you can start your journey to becoming a confident, positive rider below Learn More

I know you do everything you can to keep your horse happy, healthy and sane. I know that you do All. The. Things.   I know your horse has a carefully managed routine. He has the best feed you can afford. He has regular farrier and dentist appointments. He has his teeth check and vaccinations done annually. He sees the vet if you sense something is ‘not quite right’. He gets carefully curated turnout to allow him down-time. He has access to carefully poo-picked fields. He’s visited by an equine physiotherapist to make sure he’s not sore and stays pain-free. He [...]

One of my favourite confidence-building techniques is to ride ‘as if’ you are a fully competent, confident rider.  Pick a professional/elite rider that you admire, and step into their shoes.  What do they see, hear and feel when they ride? What thoughts do they have while riding? What emotions do they feel? What actions do they take?  Spend some time visualising and experiencing the full spectrum of vision, sound and feelings as if you ARE that rider.   Prepare yourself by asking ‘how would he/she deal with my horse when he/she does X?’ What would that look, sound and feel like [...]

Focus is one of my favourite things! It offers motivation, removes distractions and increases awareness in any given moment. Many riders who lack confidence have their focus trained on the wrong things, often external factors that simply can’t be controlled!  When you’re riding, consider the difference between these two states:  State A - While I’m riding, I’m focussing on:  The wind and how it’s making my horse tense and spooky, he’ll spin & I’ll fall off  That flapping plastic bag in the hedge, he’s bound to leap in the air  Those cows in the next field, who look like they’re going to run [...]