Picture yourself heading into every ride feeling prepared and confident, and finishing every ride feeling accomplished.
With the help of mental skills, this can become your reality.
Our thoughts influence how we feel, how we behave, and how we ride. Together, we will work to enhance your riding by elevating your mental game, transforming you into the best rider you can be!
Mental Performance Training services include personalized, one-on-one sessions that work towards achieving your unique riding goals by building new mental habits through mental skills training.
We directly target the areas that are holding you back from consistently riding at your best, transforming your mental blocks into mental strengths that will show up for you when you need them the most.
With mental skills mastery, you will effectively handle nerves, quickly bounce back from mistakes, compete with confidence and consistency, and mentally thrive both in and out of the saddle. Let mental skills assist you in becoming the rider and horseman you’ve always dreamed of being.
Are you ready to take the first step towards unlocking your full performance potential?
How it works:
-
Begin the process by scheduling your Free Consultation Session or filling out the Discovery Form to meet one-on-one with Julia.
We will discuss what you are currently mentally experiencing in your riding, where you want to be, and what it will take to get there.
Your personal consultation will take place over your choice of Zoom or phone call.
This session will last 20 minutes.
Riders under the age of 18 must get parental approval for this session to take place.
-
The very first session includes:
In-depth dive into the performance issue(s) in an effort to understand the root of your mental experiences to implement the best mental skills for you!
Educational portion about the horse and human brains to gain an understanding of what exactly is happening in your brain, why it is affecting your rides, and what we can do to change it for the better!
Your Mental Performance Training Plan maps out what mental skills we are going to implement and their approximate order to work off of in following sessions!
This session will last up to 1.5 hours and will occur over your choice of Zoom, phone call, or in-person.
Following sessions directly implement the mental skills from your Mental Performance Training Plan.
We will work towards your desired mental performance goals for riding and work through any current issues you may be experiencing skill by skill.
Regular sessions will last up to 1 hour and will occur over your choice of Zoom, phone call, or in-person.
-
Once the foundational mental skills are set, we then put your mental skills altogether in personalized daily outline steps for you to follow, whether you are riding at home or competing at a horse show.
The daily outline includes preparation, reset, and recovery steps that will take place before and after your rides to keep you on track and connected to the process each day.
The goal is to follow specific steps that set you up for performance, allow you to remain connected through the ups and downs that performance brings, and to physically/mentally recover and effectively assess what happened after performance.
SESSION TYPES
Mental Performance Training Sessions: Experiences
Starter
Starter experience
5 Sessions
-
First Session
- Deep dive into the performance issue(s), education behind human and horse brain functions, and an overview of your personalized Mental Performance Training Plan
- 1.5 hours over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
4 regular sessions
- Direct implementation of mental skills in each session and working towards your mental goals!
- 1 hour each over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
Session materials
- Session recap emails sent after each session
- Personalized Google Doc with definitions, notes, and guides to all mental skills implemented
- Action items given during each session
Progress report
- An updated version of your Mental Performance Training Plan at the halfway point of the package
- Structured debrief of your progress thus far and steps towards full achievement of your mental goals for riding
-
Five, weekly sessions only scratches the surface of mental skills we would cover.
The starter experience is great for athletes who would like an introduction to mental skills training or need brief intervention for a minor performance-based issue.
Midway
Midway experience
10 Sessions
-
First Session
- Deep dive into the performance issue(s), education behind human and horse brain functions, and an overview of your personalized Mental Performance Training Plan
- 1.5 hours over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
14 regular sessions
- Direct implementation of mental skills in each session and working towards your mental goals!
- 1 hour each over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
Session materials
- Session recap emails sent after each session
- Personalized Google Doc with definitions, notes, and guides to all mental skills implemented
- Action items given during each session
Progress report
- An updated version of your Mental Performance Training Plan at the halfway point of the package
- Structured debrief of your progress thus far and steps towards full achievement of your mental goals for riding
Email/text support
- Unlimited contact with Julia
Plus:
In-person and video observation
- Additional evaluation and mental performance coaching
- In-person visits to local lessons and horse shows given once a month
- Videos of rides accepted on a weekly basis
-
Fifteen sessions total allows for full mental skills development and coverage of the mental skills listed on your personalized Mental Performance Training Plan.
The full experience is great for dedicated athletes who would like all-encompassing mental skills training for both performance-based issues and life skills.
Full
Full experience
15 Sessions
-
First Session
- Deep dive into the performance issue(s), education behind human and horse brain functions, and an overview of your personalized Mental Performance Training Plan
- 1.5 hours over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
9 regular sessions
- Direct implementation of mental skills in each session and working towards your mental goals!
- 1 hour each over your choice of in-person, Zoom, or phone call
Session materials
- Session recap emails sent after each session
- Personalized Google Doc with definitions, notes, and guides to all mental skills implemented
- Action items given during each session
Progress report
- An updated version of your Mental Performance Training Plan at the halfway point of the package
- Structured debrief of your progress thus far and steps towards full achievement of your mental goals for riding
Plus:
Email/text support
- Unlimited contact with Julia
-
Ten sessions total allows for mental skills development and begins to dive into the mental skills listed on your personalized Mental Performance Training Plan.
The midway experience is great for athletes who would like targeted mental skills training for a specific, performance-based issue.
Single sessions, group sessions, brief check-in sessions, workshops, in-person observations and live sessions during performance are available upon request.
We work to build mental skills just like physical skills, putting in the time, effort, practice, and consistency for desired long-term change. No quick fixes exist in both the physical and mental games; it is a process that requires intentionality, patience, and perseverance.
Key Client Success Stories
For the purposes of client confidentiality, names have been changed for anonymity.
-
Amy is a competitive hunter/jumper rider who recently graduated from high school. She came to me during her junior year of high school with an unmanageable amount of nerves both at home and at shows, a high level of perfectionism, and a fear of missing the distances to the jumps due to past, negative experiences with her previous trainer and current horse. As a result, Amy would pull her horse off the approach to the jumps in an attempt to circle back to a better distance and not be able to complete courses at horse shows.
We started by not only diving into the root of her fears and anxieties, but we also determined how exactly the anxiety manifested in both her mind and body. We then did slow, intentional work to undo her perfectionistic mindset and welcome mistakes, implement strategies to create a relevant focus and calm body, and transformed her negative thoughts with helpful self-talk. Amy welcomes each mental tool and strategy and very much leaned into the skills that resonated with her the most, such as her physical release that she could use on course and her pre-course routine that was adapted for both lessons and horse shows.
Over time, repetition, and with a lot of resilience, Amy transformed into a confident rider who could successfully manage her nerves, effectively talk herself through situations, and easily let go of and learn from mistakes. She was able to successfully transfer these skills from one horse to another, increasing her adaptability and mental strength through all the new experiences and unknowns.
Amy has come such a long way, and we still meet periodically on an as-needed basis to both strengthen and build her repertoire of mental skills as she continues to show and transition into the next phase of her life.
-
Ricky is a middle-aged competitive and avid team roper who has big goals of winning the finals in Vegas. Ryan came to me with a lack of confidence in his roping skills and overall technique, an immense focus on the outcome of roping competitions, and an inability to let go of mistakes, especially at competitions. He went into competitions blindly, having no real strategy or plan to work off, and became frustrated with very inconsistent results.
We started with diving into his roping technique from the moment he entered the box to the moment he would exit the arena. We then developed a solid plan that he could work from no matter the horse he was riding, cows he was chasing, heeler he was assigned, competition he was at, or environment he was in. No matter what, the core principles of roping stayed the same. Ryan learned to focus on the factors that are in his control, remain in the present moment, and regulate as needed.
We took his plan and not only applied it during physical practice, but also reinforced it through guided imagery in the form of recorded scripts that we created together. We figured out the mental skills that work best for him and adapted a daily outline for him to follow, featuring both pre-ride and pre-run routines that mentally set him up for success, whether he was competing or practicing on his own.
Ryan still works with me to this day, and he gets better and better with every session and mental skill progression.
-
Sarah is a competitive hunter/jumper rider and working student in her 20s who attends horse shows on a regular basis. Sarah was very relaxed at home but would tense up and become anxious at horse shows, whether she was riding a client’s horse or her own, long-term horse. Although Sarah is a very experienced rider, she struggled with her confidence at horse shows and would often question her abilities and determine her worth based on the ribbons she would receive at horse shows. Although she knew that she had all the skills in place, the “what ifs” took over in her brain.
We met weekly for about 5 months and dove into many strategies that assisted with her nerves, focus, and self-talk. We grew her confidence by providing evidence of past success, sound solutions to her worries, and ultimately redefined her personal definition of what a successful ride entails. We were able to release tension in her body that builds up right before her round, come up with a mantra to empower her as needed, and introduce specific strategies that would help refocus her both in the present moment and on the current task at hand.
She developed the ability to transform her negative thoughts into helpful thoughts, support her optimal energy level for riding, and be proud of both herself and her horse no matter what ribbon she received. She now can pick out the parts of the course that she rode well, rather than solely fixating on the parts that she didn’t ride at her best. Sarah has been able to find the joy in competing at horse shows, viewing herself as her biggest competitor and working hard to level up her riding skills with each ride.
As she intentionally places her mind and hones in both her mental and physical techniques, she continues to thrive both in and out of the show ring.