A comment from Poppy Blandford professional mental coach: "today we worked on educating the riders further on their mental skills. Starting with general skills such a goal setting, people skills and attitude. I encourage them to start thinking about their self awareness, how they want to be perceived in the sport, who they want to become and what’s important to them. Having a strong sense of individuality and character is so important in the sport. Learning about themselves will continue their whole lives but now is a good time to start. Everyone was enthusiastic to start a personal reflective diary documenting their progress with horses, their riding and lifestyle. We also talked about preparation skills in particular the power of ‘self talk’ and how to recognize and deal with negative thinking. We finally finished with a discussion on emotional control and how you can prepare to deal with those emotions. This session I found the riders really engaging and enthusiastic especially for individual sessions in the afternoon. Every time I visit I see huge growth in confidence and ability in the riders and now they are open and willing to talk through challenges!".