7 ways top riders deal with nerves

Even the world’s elite riders aren’t immune to competition nerves. Martha Terry discovers how they channel their jitters into a winning performance

- Martha Terry

NERVES happen to the best of us. When Emily Philp was contesting her first Burghley, in 2019, she passed Pippa Funnell’s lorry en route to the cross-country. Bear in mind Pippa has a dozen Olympic, world and European medals, six fivestar trophies and 30 five-star starts under her belt. Pippa leaned out of her lorry window to wish Emily good luck and check she was OK.

“I said, ‘No, I feel dreadful,’” Emily says. “And Pippa laughed, and said, ‘Trust me, it gets worse, not better.’”

Pippa went on to win, proving that nerves are no barrier to success. But how familiar her angst is to so many riders, whether we’re at British novice or Badminton.

On online equestrian forums, discussions about how to cope with competition nerves abound. Instant solutions such as gin, Rescue Remedy and Human Kalm Cookies (a human version of the equine ones) are suggested, alongside hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming and performance psychology.

After last year’s stop-start competition season, we might be yearning to feel those butterflies again. But when the new season resumes and the sickening nerves do kick in, it’s helpful to remember that top riders, too, have to battle with their own fear of failure – and have learned to channel these negative thoughts into winning results.

1 MAINTAIN PERSPECTIVE

MARY KING’S perpetual smile, win or lose, masks the nerves she still feels even after a lifetime at the top of the sport. She overcomes her jitters by keeping a sense of perspective.