‘Ring rustiness is a reality for us all'

Laura Tomlinson on preparing mentally for the restart of competitions

- Laura Tomlinson

WITH the amount of coverage the topics of Brexit and coronavirus have had recently, and their impact on competing, I want to focus my column on getting back to competition from a more practical standpoint. Those readers who have had children will understand a little more about coming back from a competition break, though of course, in very different circumstances to those in which we now find ourselves.

This time, for most people we are not talking about a physical comeback, but more of a mental comeback for both riders and horses. It is easy to underestimate how our horses might feel when they are first brought back out again after a long break from competing.

I know from my own experiences after having children how easy it is to assume that once fit and in training, you are good to go but, actually, it’s hard to make up for lack of competition practice. “Ring rustiness” is a reality for any competitor at any level. So how best to mitigate this lack of recent arena experience that we are all suffering from?