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120 SIDELINES FEBRUARY 2011 FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE S P O R T S P S Y C H O L O G Y

Visualization: It Works for Me

By Ann S. Reilly, Ph.D.

After teaching riders and other athletes how to develop visualization skills for over 25 years now, and using it myself in performance situations, I am convinced that it is the most effective warm up method for competitive performance. As a junior I spent countless hours visualizing riding and jumping when I was bored in school, riding in the car with my parents, or had idle time. But what I didn’t do was practice it before riding each course at the shows. I got nervous, and fought for calmness. If only I knew then what I know now... visualization prior to each class would have calmed my nerves and given me the feeling that I had ridden the course before I actually rode it.

A Forced Choice

I love showing. This year I began showing in dressage, a forced choice. On June 1, 2008 a horse (not mine) severely kicked my lower leg, requiring 11 surgical procedures to date (four more pending), and leaving me with a 70 percent permanent disability to my right leg. Due

to the resulting chronic pain, permanent muscle loss from Compartment Syndrome in my calf, and some paralysis in my foot and lower leg, the injury took away the “love” of my life, which was jumping.

Dressage is much more diffcult than I ever imagined. Sitting on the couch recovering from a November 2008 surgery, I emailed Jules Nyssen, and asked him if he could get me a grand prix level dressage horse I could ride in the 2012 Olympics… well, no. But Jules sold me a great horse Prix St. George level horse named Vlegel, (aka Dennis.) Before buying Dennis I took Leila, my jumper, down to start learning dressage with Jules, who is a master dressage rider, trainer and teacher. Even though I had been sidelined with the injury for over a year, I was shocked to learn just how diffcult dressage really is to ride correctly. I felt like a complete idiot.

Visualize… and Succeed

In June 2010, when I began showing dressage, I constantly visualized and watched videos of top dressage riders to enhance visualizing my position changes. After memorizing the tests, I spent hours visualizing and physically practicing the required changes to my position. I also learned to ride a new horse with one and a half legs (they call the injury an above knee amputation, even though I still have the leg). What I failed to do until the Colonel Bengt Ljungquist Memorial Championships (CBLM ) class at the Virginia Dressage Association Fall Competition, Lexington Horse Center, (the last one for us for the year) was to go to the ring I was to perform in and sit there visualizing the test. Because it is so painful for me to walk and I have to “save my leg for riding,” I would sit in my car and visualize the test. This worked OK, but was not the secret to attaining

peak performance with visualization.

For the fnals class, I sat in the stands, alone for about an hour, as I have done with clients for years, visualizing my test with my eyes open and closed. The result was my highest score by far of the year. I was 100 percent in the zone, I rode each step, held my “new position” for the frst time, sat the lengthened trot for the frst time (Dennis’ is huge and hard to sit) and was anxiety free. The performance felt effortless.

Proof in the Points

The difference I noticed from watching the tape from my warm up class the day before to the CBLM ride was astonishing. As was the ten point higher score from the judge who judged us the previous day.

Unfortunately, we were included in a group of about 15 riders in the class who received unexplainable, inconsistently low scores from the second judge. I will save how to deal with that for another column! The judge who judged us the day before put us in 3rd place in the fnals class. More importantly, the proper use of visualization for the class brought how I knew I could perform in the fnals in my head, into the show ring. After an incredibly frustrating year of learning dressage with a disability and show dressage on a fantastic horse (another column, the psychology of riding a “star” horse when you are a novice), it was thrilling to perform our best in the fnals. I did know it was possible if I prepared myself the way I had prepared in the past for hunters and jumpers, and always prepared clients.

Visualization is the most effective performance skill a rider or athlete can learn and use. Performance will improve by leaps and bounds when riders consistently practice visualization.

Author’s note: I am available to teach visualization individually or to groups, in practice or competitive locations.