Working Through Distractions and Stress

01 Feb Working Through Distractions and Stress

By Brailyn Seymour
Spring 2022 SEDA Scholarship Recipient

I chose the Daniel Stewart Clinic and Symposium for my SEDA scholarship. This was my first clinic experience and I had an amazing time. I chose this clinic because I have always struggled with being nervous before shows and he helps you learn to alleviate those feelings.

He taught me how to work under pressure and make the right decisions during my ride without getting distracted or stressed. He made the experience fun and memorable while still learning important and valuable lessons. During our group lesson we teamed up in two teams and we had to complete a whole course with numbers he provided for us. The numbers were on the jump and me and my teammate had to plan our own course jumping different jumps in order to finish within a certain time frame. We did have consequences which were sit-ups and squats if we got a certain amount of faults during our ride but we did have a chance to make up for it so that we didn’t have to do our consequences. We also had a chance to take the Sit-ups and squats away from the other team. In the end, most people ended up with a number of squats or sit-ups, but it was a team effort and we all did really well in the end.

After each division got a turn to ride and untack we all came back to the arena to do a fun boot camp to learn exercises that can correlate with Riding. We had to jump over poles with both feet landing at the same time and squat down to the pole after, we also had to do jump rope but hold our two points the whole time. Another fun exercise was burpees but with a water bucket. What made everybody work harder was if the whole group didn’t finish the exercises in 2 minutes we would still have to do our sit-ups and squats. Luckily everyone finished in a few seconds less than 2 minutes.

Finally, we all gathered around to talk about our sport. He talked about how we need to prove that being an equestrian does take hard work and strength but all people see when they pass by is just people riding. So if they see us working hard and putting in the hard work they will realize that it takes the same amount of strength every other sport takes. It will show others that we are athletes. He explained the definition of an athlete and explained what we could do to fit in the exercises that we need. The last thing he talked about was changing habits that hinder us from becoming the best equestrian we can be. We each shared one thing we would do better at. For example, mine was not sitting for long periods of time. Some of the other girls picked foods they wouldn’t eat or they chose to park farther away from a store causing them to walk farther.

The clinic made me a more confident rider and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you SEDA for this opportunity.