Like many of you, I compete in the sport of barrel racing because I love it, but competition also carries a heavy burden sometimes. There is no high like a horse high and there is no low like a horse low.
Barrel racing itself is easy. Going down the alley in competition is a whole other game - a mental game! And so much can go wrong between leaving the alley heading to first barrel and crossing the timer heading home.
After a good, clean, fast and fun run we tend to do a short celebration, give our horse treats and then carry on about our way, laughing and joking with our friends. The “bad runs”, however, are a different story. They can stay will us long after the run. We get inside our own heads so easily!
I’m one of those people who can be extremely hard on myself, and tend to linger on the negative runs. I will beat myself up over them. There have been many quiet drives home.
So how do we break this destructive cycle? I have come up with something I call “The 10 Minute Rule”! You can’t ask someone to not be disappointed or upset after a bad run. That’s human nature. But it needs to have its limit!
Here’s the rule: you have 10 minutes! TEN minutes to pout, cry, throw your sucker in the dirt and feel sorry for yourself. Ten minutes. After that it’s time to brush it off, put a smile on your face and LEAVE IT IN THE ARENA!
I’m not saying that you can’t critique your run. But there is a difference between feeling sorry for yourself and coming up with a game plan to correct mistakes in the future. One is detrimental to your mental game, and the other is growth. It’s important to learn to brush off the negative, because at the end of the day, we are supposed to be doing this because we love it!
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