Ride Big: The Ultimate Guide to Building Equestrian Confidence

An easy-to-implement framework proven to grow rider confidence, tested by the world's leading equestrian athletes.

Without confidence, achievement in competition is unattainable. When confidence is lacking in any sport, equestrian included, chances are your career will be short. Renowned performance coach John Haime has written the book to counter this challenge, providing the mental tools riders need to be better under pressure of all kinds and consistently succeed.

Equestrian sport is a partnership: there's an equine athlete, and there's a human athlete. Haime notes that often, there is an investment in world-class training for one partner (the horse), but not the other (the human). This compromises the potential effectiveness of the horse-and-rider team. It just makes sense for equestrians to develop their own skills--mental and physical--and bring more to the partnership.

Haime explains that there is what he believes is a crisis of confidence in modern equestrian sport. This has a variety of causes, including: a lack of fundamental mental/emotional structure and development, the presence and prominence of technology in the rider's life, and the constant comparisons inherent in social media and a technically "connected" existence. Addressing this crisis enables equestrians of all ages and abilities to: communicate better with their horses, both in day-to-day interactions and competition; absorb more in valuable learning situations, such as lessons and clinics; and perform their best when the stakes are high, as when heading into the jump-off or approaching the last fence on the cross-country course.

Haime invites readers to dive into three clear and informative areas of exploration:

• The Confidence Base: Firm up the fundamentals.


• The Confidence Builders: Systems and tips to help you build confidence.


• The Confidence Threats: An inside look at what to watch out for in riding and in competition.

Throughout, those who have reached the highest levels on horseback in a number of disciplines share their stories, including Michael Jung, Beezie Madden, McLain Ward, Laura Tomlinson, Harry Meade, Oliver Townend, Mattias Tromp, Casey Deary, Beth Underhill, Fred Mannix, Jarred Zenni, Beth Underhill, Jonathon Millar, and Kelly Soleau-Millar. These Olympians, champions, and medalists explain what they do in the saddle and how their techniques for performing under world-class pressure might help other riders develop a similar kind of confidence. Perhaps even more valuable are the struggles these top competitors share, giving readers the rare opportunity to see how even "the best of the best" are human, too.

The way riders develop confidence in their equestrian lives is transferable to everything they do: a confident rider can be a confident business person, confident worker, confident spouse, confident parent, and confident friend. In this way, Ride Big!(TM) instills a skill of worth and promise that extends far beyond the show ring.

John Haime is a former tournament professional golfer who left his life as a professional athlete to first produce workplace learning programs and eventually blend his areas of experience and knowledge into an innovative system of performance coaching. He has helped some of the world's top performers in sports, business, and entertainment build mental and emotional muscle so they can maximize their abilities, creating a winning formula of sport psychology, emotional intelligence, performance psychology, neuroscience, and executive coaching. His company, New Edge Performance, has generated breakthrough results for clients in major professional sports leagues, including the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS, and Haime has counseled athletes in a variety of other sports--golf, tennis, and equestrian. For the past seven years, he has worked with dozens of equestrian clients, from young hunter riders and adult beginners to the world's top show jumping, dressage, and eventing athletes. He has coached Nations Cup winners, Grand Prix winners, and national champions, and has worked individuals competing at top events like the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Florida, the American Gold Cup in New York, and the Badminton Horse Trials in England. Haime is the author of You Are a Contender! Build Emotional Muscle to Perform Better and Achieve More ... in Business, Sports and Life and is based in Canada (johnhaime.com).