Ep 35: Laura Graves Dressage Workshop

Hello.

Hello, everybody. Is your coming in? Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are thrilled to have you here for your 2026 dressage blueprint workshop. We're here live with Laura Graves, Brett Parbury, Joan Oliver, who I'll introduce you to in a minute. My name is Nat Fox and I'm the co founder here at Performance Writers and I will be steering this ship through the next hour with these brilliant coaches doing their thing. I have Brett Parry with me as well, the other co founder of Performance Writers. Hello, Brett. Hey, Nat.

How are we?

Great, great, great. I'm so excited. Now, everyone, as you're settling in and before we introduce our panelists, say hello in the chat for me. If we have access to the chat, hopefully it's a little bit different format to that we usually use. We'll see how we go. We've definitely got the Q and A, so we can use that if anyone can see the Q and A down the bottom of your screen. Now, Brett, while we're all getting settled, take. Let's take a quick look back at 2025, shall we? I can't believe we're at the end of this year already. What's your approach, Brett, to looking backwards before we talk with our other coaches about looking forwards to next year?

Oh, well, I think, you know, probably the best predictor of the future is the past. Right, so. So I think if we're looking forward to 2026, you know, get through that, that Christmas period into new Year and go, right, I want to have a big year and I want to go for this. Well, the best predictor of how that's going to turn out is the last year and even the last five years. So I think this is the reason why we want to. I want to do this and I want to get into people's minds and get going because really, to change things up to improve performance and to change things up, you've got to change the structure. And if there's one thing I've noticed in giving thousands and thousands of lessons over the years is the people that ride and train with the most focus and the most structure and create measurables for themselves generally work out the best and change the course of their future. So, yeah, that's what I notice anyway.

Love that. So I think everyone on the session, have a think to yourself. If you had to use a couple of words to describe your last 12 months or perhaps your last five years with your writing, what would that be? Let's keep that in mind during the session. Now, drawing up your 20, 26. Blueprint, of course, is going to take time and focus. And in this session, what we want to do is share with you four foundations that you can go ahead and use to create your own blueprint. So these are the key elements that will help you go beyond wishful thinking and actually design a year in dressage that you're proud of. And if you want to go even deeper to really flesh out your blueprint and work on it alongside our team at Performance Writers, we will be inviting you to join our gold program in 2026 later in the session where you can work with Laura, Brett and the whole team. For now, let's get started on building a plan that gets you all excited. So who are we talking to in this session? Can I please introduce you to our presenters now? Laura Graves, the only American to reach world number one in the dressage arena. She's won Olympic medals, World Equestrian Games medals, World cup medals, and is an absolute powerhouse in the world of dressage. But not only that, she is an extremely gifted communicator and she can share a lot with us about how she approaches her training and performing. Brett, who you just heard from, is another exceptional rider and communicator in our sport. Top 10 World Equestrian Games, multiple national titles. Coaches, some very heavy hitters, including Boyd Martin, who was very recently world number one in eventing. And Jonah Oliver, who is one of the world's leading and our very favorite performance psychologist. Jonah travels around the world working with absolute athletes and also professionals. He works with PGA Tour winners, Olympic gold medalists, V8 race drivers. Welcome, Laura and Jonah.

Hi. Thanks for having us.

Now, Laura, we all know that beautiful image that we saw there. Jonah, what was that picture we were looking at of you? That was not a dressage horse.

Yeah, you've done well to find that that was horsepower, not horse. That was working with Porsche, winning Le mans in the LMP, the top category when we won the 24 hour race over in France.

Is there any relationship between working with drivers and riders, dare I ask?

More than you'd think. Really? Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, you can't replace the nuance of working with an animal. Sure. But cars have amazing nuances when it comes to weather and temperature and track and tire degradation and pressure and downforce. And often the drivers will hop in and think, wow, this thing is a bit like an animal. It's a bit unpredictable at times. So, yeah, there's a lot of overlap.

Okay, well, there you go, Laura, if, if you get a bit sick of the horse world, you could always hop over to the other horsepower.

Yeah, I don't know. I like to follow rules and go the speed limit, so.

That'S good to know. Riders, these are the four points we're going to be talking about in this workshop. One, having a vision you might. That might freak you out already, just at point one, like.

Oh.

Two, making a plan. Three, focusing on what matters. And four, building the right team to support you, to make all this happen for you. Okay, so what we're going to do is talk through our points. We're then going to have some Q and A at the end. So you're very welcome to use the Q and A function to pop your question in. So let's start with having a vision, which, of course is the perfect starting point. It's what drives everything, pardon the pun, with the car racing. Your vision for the year ahead, Jonah, do you want to start us off and let us know why having a clear vision matters so much and what we can do to define this for ourselves?

Yeah, sure, Nat. Well, I mean, I think it sounds obvious, but it's something that most people avoid doing. It's, what's your future motivating state? What are you getting out of bed and wanting to get after? And this should go beyond just your writing. This should actually be about the life you want to live. I always say, what footprints do you want to leave on the beach of life? And there's no dress rehearsal. This is it. So maybe take the time to write down and even start to architect the life you want. And where does writing sit within that? And then things like goals and values and all these other things fall out of that. But I find it's such a useful thing to take the time to slow down and actually think, what do I want this next sort of 5 to 20 years to look like? You can change, you can iterate, it can evolve. But typically, I think sometimes we have some notion of the type of rider we want to be or the. The type of career we want to have, but we actually don't take the time to really lean into it and define it.

Laura, what about you? What's having a vision mean to you?

You know, I think a vision like Jonah was just speaking to is. Is the bigger picture. It's, you know, he talks about the goals. And actually, when I met Jonah the other day, it was a big aha for me that he separates the goal from the vision. And that was rather interesting because a goal is. Is something measurable in my mind, and a vision can be so many things, and it can Be a feeling, and it can be an experience. And so for me, when it comes to horses and life is changing all the time, right? So horses are a big part of my life. The sport is a huge part of my life. I also a daughter who's a huge part of my life, and. And seeing how these things, you know, the journey that I want, the footprints that I want to leave on the beach, you know, I feel like they get me really excited. And it's sometimes that thing that wakes you up at night, and I think it's. It's a little bit hard to lean into sometimes because we have these other parts of our life, the responsibilities and things like that. So to lean in to what your vis truly is, I think takes a lot of. You know, other people might consider it selfish, but really, it's like this. This gift you have, if you have a vision, to have that sort of awakeness inside yourself, I think is a special thing.

It should also feel a little bit. To your point, it should wake you up at times because it should be really exciting, motivating, but it also should feel aspirational. It should feel like a little bit of a stretch. It's like, that's going to take some work. That's going to take some focus and some commitment. That might take me doing some things that are uncomfortable, but ultimately that'll bring out the best version of me. So I always say, you know, you've done a good job of creating a vision when it feels really true, authentic and somewhat exciting, but also a little bit intimidating. Like, wow, that's going to require some. Some focus and. And some effort.

Yeah.

Laura, you actually had a vision for yourself at a young age. Do you want to talk to us about that?

I did. I mean, the cool thing, you know, I always think that kids don't care who's listening. They don't care who's watching them, and they just speak from their heart and they don't. They don't know the word impossible. And it's such a gift. And so I remember, I think I was in, oh, I don't know, the sixth grade, just graduating elementary school, and we get to have the little something in the yearbook about what you want to do with your life. And we made a little time capsule, and I built these Olympic rings out of clay, and my parents probably still have them. And my dream in that yearbook was I was going to ride for the US Olympic team. I had a quarter horse at the time, and I wanted to ride for the eventing team. But from the Time I wanted to be in horses, I wanted to be big into horses. And I just, I knew that's what it was. And it's something that even though the journey has shifted through time and of course it took me to these amazing places from quarter horses to being world number one in dressage, it's the same vision. And I still. So of course other things have happened and the vision kind of shifts that I want to take my daughter along on these journeys and be world number one again. But it's still, you know, this greater version of the vision.

I love that. Jonah, what do you say to people who are a little bit scared of setting a big vision? And like Laura said, when you're a kid, you don't think about who's listening or any of that judgment. Is that part of what holds us back, do you think?

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of factors. Right. I always say let's start with having that glass of chardonnay with the 80 year old version of yourself. I assume it's chardonnay, given we're dealing with horse riders and you know, that.

Depends if you win or if you lose.

There you go. There you go. But I say like, in all seriousness, like if you were to time travel and have a, have a glass of wine with the 80 year old version of yourself and they're looking back on the life, like, what do you want that conversation to sound like? And I say the first thing you want to do is you got to be willing to take regret off the table. We can't save you from disappointment. Life's full of disappointment. If you want to go chase cool, exciting, novel things, well, you know, you're going to feel disappointed at times, but disappointment is. Maybe I didn't perform well in that test or maybe I didn't get that business to succeed or maybe I didn't, whatever it is. But regret is failing to pursue the things you want or failing to ride the way you want when it matters. And if you can learn that, I can't save myself from finishing this test and maybe being a little bit disappointed by the score. But I'm not regretful because I went out there and I just rode to the best of my ability and really connected with my horse or, or whatever my life vision is so we can extend it beyond horse riding. I say I certainly want my glass of wine with my 80 year old version of me to be a fun, interesting, reflective. We might commiserate some big disappointments. We might reflect upon some anguish and some heartache and some Setbacks. But we're not going to be talking about regret, about, oh gee, Jonah, if only you had. So I think the important thing is to say, if I could time travel, how would I take regret off the table?

I love that. If I could time travel, how would I take regret off the table? Love it. Brett, maybe we need to crack open the Chardonnay and have some discussions.

Yeah, I was just thinking about that.

I thought we're actually getting pretty close to the 80 year old versions of ourselves anyway, so.

Yeah, no, it's great. I mean, every time Jonah speaks, I just get this. I just get immersed in his words and it's so true. Like what you're saying that, Janet. It just resonates with me and I'm thinking, what would I be Talking to my 80 year old self about? Yeah, maybe I need to get cracking.

Yeah, you want to tell a story that's like interesting, right? That makes someone listening, ask questions and you know, it's like you don't. If you don't even try, you have no chance of succeeding.

Yeah.

And that's a big, a big training theory of mind, you know, if someone's trying to fix something, but they're afraid of trying something new because maybe that trying something new makes it worse for a minute, but you just don't know what's going to fix it if you don't ever try anything new. So it's. Yeah, that's very interesting writers I'm seeing.

Your questions come in the Q and A. Thank you. I just saw yours, Sophia. Thank you very much. We are going to get to those. Let's have a look at. You know, if you can be so bold as to work through your fears and have that vision for yourself, this is the sort of thing that's possible. So one of our gold program writers, Libby, when she started with us in the program, she hadn't competed in dressage. She was doing another horse sport. She never competed in dressage. In her first year in the program, first year of dressage, she went from very first test to national Amateur Owner Rider Preliminary, which is training level champion and the winner of her state annual award for her level. And now a few years later, still in the program, Libby is competing pre St. George. So she was brave enough to sort of be honest with herself. What is my vision and what is possible for me? So I just love that story from Libby.

I think one of the coolest things about doing this online too, we all know about how brave people can be when they're behind a keyboard and I think there's a real, but there's a real safety in this program of like we're all strangers or most of us are strangers here together. And there's a little bit of safety in that. Like, tell us your vision because you know, you, you don't have to, you know, what do you have to lose? It's kind of a really safe space in that way.

Well, funny you say that, Laura, because Donna just asked a question. I'm gonna put it to you and Brett. Let's see who's feeling brave. Donna said what? Brett and Laura's visions. If that's not too personal to share. Good on you, Donna. Laura, do you want to brave that one?

Yeah, I mean, I just took a huge step for me today. I took a huge load of equipment down to Wellington. I am relocating my entire business. I am trying to qualify multiple horses for the World Equestrian Games. And yeah, we are all in. Yeah, I love it. That's my, that's my six month vision.

Brett, what about you? Would you like to share?

I'm a little different in the sense of my riding at the moment is taking a back seat because I, I've got a hip that I need to have sorted out. So for me, first of all, getting super healthy is one. But then while I'm on the sidelines from riding, I'm, I, I want to keep adventuring business development and trying to help like really with programs like this that we believe in and Nat and myself and joining up with Laura and Jonah and all the team, I just want to help people. I really want to help people to enjoy dressage. That's what we do it for. We do it to enjoy. Can be not enjoyable if it's, you know, it can be torturous. But if we do it the right way. And I just want to, from all the lessons I've learned over the years and the associations with great people, my thing is about at this moment, I just want to help as many people as I can.

Yeah. And as many horses.

Yeah.

And in turn, you're helping the horses. And that, that's always the motivation, you know, really how and that you'll laugh at this when we always say, when you ask me about a decision, I say, is it going to help the horses? That's the one thing we always make our decisions on.

Yeah, exactly.

Jump in there, Nat.

Yes. Please don't.

So for me, I want to live a life characterized by the never ending pursuit of mastery, curiosity and playfulness. They're my values. So I want to always Pursue mastery to learning, being interested in things, pursue things with curiosity and always bring a bit of playfulness to everything that I do from parenting to work. I want to democratize psychology, which is why I love doing this work with Laura and Brett and yourself. Because I'm very fortunate. I get to work at the very pointy end of world sport. I get flown around and work with these high profile people you see on television. And that's great. I absolutely love it. It was my dream since I was 12. But I also realize that I see people struggling who shouldn't. I see parents struggling who shouldn't. I see people riding their horse who struggle and they shouldn't. I see coaches struggling who shouldn't. And I think, well, the psychological science through online mediums can be shared. So I want to. I want to be able to bring some of my learnings of 25 years and share it at a broader audience. And I want to raise kids to be an agitator for a better world.

So there's the difference, I think Jonah showing us up between a vision and the things that fall out of a vision.

Oh, he's. He's got to set this to set it up for us somehow, doesn't he? Something I really love in what you said then, Jonah, was how quickly you can tell us about your values. So because I've listened to you talk before and I've done your course that you have with us, I know how important it is to identify our values and writers. Whoever you want to work with us, you'll get to do the same thing, work with Jonah to figure out your values. And for you, it's like the first thing you said. Well, what I want to do is live basically in alignment with my values. Bang, bang, bang. I think how many of us could do that? And we know we've done that work to actually understand what our values are. So I loved that.

Yeah, I mean, everyone's got values. Just take the time to actually define and then architect your life around it. Right.

We've all got them, we just haven't really thought about yet. Okay, love that. All right, let's talk about Foundation 2. So we've talked about the importance of having a vision. You have to have your vision. Now let's talk about second foundation. That is a must have in helping us create our blueprint for next year. And that's making a plan. So perfect. Follow on from having a vision. The next step is make it real. Writers, have a think to yourself. And we don't have chat in this session. But it's a really nice opportunity for you to just not think about typing and reading and just think in your own mind. Jot down. If you've got pen and paper, that's really handy. Think to yourself. What's the hardest part for you about making a plan? Is it knowing what to focus on, or is it something else, like, how does this sit with you? If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the Q and A. Brett, you are known for talking to writers about structure. I laugh because anybody who knows you will know that it's probably the word you say most often. Structure, structure, structure. What does having a plan and riding with this sort of structure and intention mean to you?

Well, what it means, nat, is like. I mean, dressage is the most structured sport, equestrian sport there is. Like, it's. It's so structured, and I just used to watch and coach people trying to train for it in such an unstructured way. But I guess when you talk about structure, what you get from structure is firstly, consistency. Horses love consistency. That's all they want from us, right, is consistency. And without some form of structure that relates directly to dressage, you will never get consistency. You'll always be reaching for the next resistance or the next dream or, you know, or. Or feeling that comes along. So consistency through structure. With consistency, you then develop and, and developing skills, developing muscles, developing balance, developing all those criteria that we need for dressage, right? So development will come from consistency, consistency comes from structure. And then lastly, you get measurement. And with measurement, you can then find key areas to improve skills, to. To train harder, to put your focus into. And, And I think the moment you implement structure, you suddenly, you know, things start to make sense. So, Laura, do you. Is that how you go about things? Are you very structured as a, As a trainer?

Not at all, no.

Put her on mute. Yeah.

No, in. In theory, yes. I also am a big advocate, though, for. I mean, horses do, right? They. They like the routine. They know when they're fed, they know when they get turned out. They know when they. To be tacked up. They know a training session starts with 10 minutes of walk. Of course, they love these things. I think sometimes when I'm teaching, especially, I think because the sport is so naturally structured, I sometimes see people forgetting to enjoy the horse. And so for me, making sure that they're not so structured, that they're rigid, because this is a moving, breathing animal and there is an element of art to it, this relationship. And so while I think in the layout of your training, you can have structure. I think it's important that people are so afraid of making a mistake or to look like they're bouncing that they want to sit so quietly that they're not really moving with the horse. So these little nuances that you can incorporate into the structure that keep it very artistic. Yeah.

Jonah, you say that ambiguity is the enemy. What does this mean in practical terms for writers and, and how do we know if our plan is specific enough and it's going to work?

Yeah, sure. Firstly, I like the interaction with Brett and Laura there. So I imagine if I came in to watch Laura train, there'd be complete structure and there'd be a plan and there'd be a map out. But then I love the idea of if I'm a mountain climber and I'm so structured. Don't forget to enjoy the view. Don't forget to enjoy the passion and the connection to the beauty of mountain climbing. Right. I think so many athletes I work with I see devoid of actually the love and passion and connection to what they're doing. So it's so cool to hear that interaction create structure. Structure then allows a bit more freedom to actually be connected to what you're doing is what I heard. But yeah, ambiguity is the enemy. I certainly don't want my architect and my builder to rock up on the job site and be like, oh, okay, right, what are we going to do today? Like, I would hope there's actually a fair bit of a prior planning and going into mapping out, you know, the stages and they're not putting a roof on without walls. So, you know, we want to make sure there's, you know, that classic long, mid, short term goal and you want to make sure you've got some form of indication that you're, you're tracking in the right way. I typically see people being reasonable at having a longer term plan and goal. Like, I want to ride at this level, I want to go to the Olympics or Priest and Joy, whatever it is. Most people are pretty good at setting that and even midterm. Look, between now and then, I probably need to get to this level of what have you. Great. Then I say short term, on the next month, I'm going to rework and focus at the. Okay, what are you doing today? Yeah, and I said there's five words of goal setting today, today, today and the last two. Oh, that's right. Today and today. Like it means nothing. You can have all these long term visions, midterm goals, weekly plans, step ladders, and all these different things. It means nothing unless you wake up in the morning, put your boots on and get out of bed and know exactly what you're working on in this moment. So it falls short when we don't get granular and make it very targeted in the moment. And I think, you know, goal setting often stops when we get there because then we can be a bit ambiguous with ourselves. We're working on that at the moment. What the heck does that mean at the moment? Like, what did you do today? So, yeah, long term, mid, short, and then make sure you've got very daily. I think what it. Where I see training go awry, particularly in the horse industry. There's two sports in the world that probably do it the worst, golf and horse ride. Dressage particularly is what I call the illusion of competence. There's a psychological term called the Dunning Kruger effect for the nerds on the. On the call. But really what that is is we train movements or skills or things or technique in isolation and we might do it again and again in isolation until we get it to a higher level of competence and then we'll move on to the next thing and do that, but we might make some errors, then do it again and again till we get it to a level of proficiency and we repeat that through the day. And then you go home at dinner and somebody says, how's training going? You say, pretty good. Yeah. Like, really did some good work today, Matt. Really progressed through all those movements and what have you. And I'm sitting on the sideline going, I didn't see any of those done first time successfully. I certainly didn't see them sequenced up. I certainly didn't see you tested out in a. In, you know, in a body of work. But you're sitting there feeling quite good about yourself. And then you go into the arena in a test and you don't perform as well as your brain thinks you should have. And then you get really critical and then you. You panic that it's not going well and you get all caught. And I'm like, sorry, you weren't that good. Yeah, you actually hadn't trained in the right way to build the core competencies. So therefore, to Brett's point of having a very structured plan of sequencing the skill acquisition with you and the horse and making sure you're evaluating it in an honest way. And then you build and, you know, just add the layers of that competency. Because our brain's pretty good at creating a positive bias. It can tell us some stories and then we get a little Bit disappointed when we don't meet that level. But I think sport never, it never apologizes for what you've got in your brain. It just gives you the scorecard. Right. So you've got to be pretty honest with yourself.

Yeah. It's really interesting listening to you speak because when we were Preparing for the 2016 Olympics, we knew as a country that we were going in pretty strong. And we worked with a score analysis analyst and he analyzed our scores and we were focusing on the weak spots, which seems really practical. Right. This is always my low mark. If I could just get that, that mark higher. It's a coefficient, it's times two. And we were hyper fix stated on this low mark. And when he came in, he said, you know, you've done most of the things in the Test for an 8 or above, you're just not doing them at the same time. And I thought, huh? He said, the thing that you're trying to improve is generally somewhere between a 6, 5 and a 7, 5. It's never been a 4 and it's never been a 10. But you have these other places where you have scored a 10. So why are you not scoring a 10 every single time if the capability is there? And it changed our entire training program because we knew we kind of had this weak spot and that might be physically, temperament wise, the weak spot for that horse. But by stringing together the transitions and being like, okay, I had a little mistake getting from here too. There it wasn't the actual thing, but I need to do it one time. I need to get from that walk to the passage in one place, first try. And if I don't do it well, how am I going to ride on? You don't have three or four times because after that comes the payoff. You know, you have to be prepared to just keep going and figure out how to make that happen with consistency. And so I think there's a real balance and in the training of breaking it down, making sure you put in that deep focus on the mistake and trying to improve it so that you don't have to do it two or three or four times and riding through the mistake, putting the whole thing together, if you have ambitions of being competitive, because that's a huge part of it.

Spot on. It's exactly what I said. But you said it far more articulate with horse terms. It's the sequencing. I just see your sport as an outsider. I'm like, it's not these movements in isolation, it's the, it's building them together. It's the sequencing and the transition. And one of the biggest things I do in global sport is error recovery. Every athlete will make an error, whatever that is. It's the speed with which you get back and focus on what's in front of you. How long do you get distracted by your worry, your self criticalness, your whatever of that era, or how quick is the refresh rate?

It's so funny. I have a very good friend who's ridden for teams for multiple countries, and she hired a groom somewhere throughout her career. And the groom had come from jumpers, the sport of jumping. And he had gone now with her to a couple competitions, and they get a few in and they're getting comfortable with each other. And he says to her, so, which, which test are you riding today? And she said, the Grand Prix. And he goes, well, which one? And she said, well, it's always the same one. And he said very innocently, wow, I really thought you'd be better by now. It's like we have the same pattern. And he meant it like, well, how come that same mistake keeps happening in that same spot if you know it's coming? It was like totally innocent. Like, what? It made no sense.

Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's have a look at someone from our program just to show you what is again possible for you. And especially in the context of taking the time to learn about this sport out of the saddle. I think a lot of us get stuck in this typical way that we all learn with the 45 minute lesson. But then it's really hard in that format to get a good handle on what Laura, Brett and Jonah are talking about here. Thinking about some bigger issues and structure and all that sort of thing. Um, so this is Lorraine. She said, the program has helped me to become a more thinking and focused writer. I love the intellectual content and the down to earth delivery. The team are absolute professionals. The Goldies, that's what we call our Gold program members. The Goldies are a supportive and knowledgeable group, first class. Now, Lorraine was the recent winner of the FEI Small Tour Championship in her state. Again, has worked up from the lower levels, and she's done it by being a really great student of the sport, of her own self, of her horse, the whole thing. So it is possible, right? Let's talk about focusing on what matters. So of course, with all the plans in the world, we can still get distracted or overwhelmed, especially when it comes to performance on competition day.

Right.

So, writers, what is this? How is this for you? When do you find it Hardest to focus on what actually matters at the time. Is it training at home? Are you distracted by other conflicting priorities, competing priorities? Is it at shows? Does your own inner voice get in the way? Or is it in another scenario? Jonah, let's start with you. You work all the time with top athletes under intense pressure and dealing with their own minds, as we all do. What's your best advice for riders who struggle with distractions, whatever they may be?

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, firstly, it's. It's learning to ride with pressure, not under pressure. It's not a bus or a horse that we get crushed by. We need to learn that it is something that is just the price of entry. Right. If you want to be great and do hard things, then you probably care about it. And you know what humans do? We worry about things we care about. So the number one thing when it comes to being able to transition or transfer from the training environment to the competition is normalizing that. Having some anticipatory anxiety, having some worry, having some fear, feeling a bit uncertain, is literally deep neurobiology that you won't ever overcome, and you don't need to overcome it. The greatest advice I can give anybody on this call, and it's, you know, Brett and I did a bunch of work in the. In the online modules, really exploring this in much more detail. That's why I really like the program is about debunking the mythology that. How about stop worrying that you get worried. Like, the greatest thing that hijacks anybody's attention isn't nerves. Most people on this call will think they ride great when they're calm and sometimes struggle when they're nervous. And they go, aha, Jonah. See, I need to get rid of my nerves. And I say. And that in there is the very heart of the problem. If we learn to just change the relationship to our anxiety and just see it as the price of entry, it's just some background noise. And I don't need to turn and control, fight it, reduce it, suppress it, whatever it is, then I'm actually free to focus on what I need to do. So the number one thing that impacts performance isn't our anxiety. It's our attempt to control our anxiety. And when we totally drop the rope and learn that it's just normal, it feels a bit unpleasant, but I can embrace it. Then my prefrontal frontal cortex, the focus areas of my brain, can bring ourselves back to what we're trying to do, and we can get on with the task. I use a lot of playful analogy and it's like, if there's a house on fire and my kids are in it, I'm probably going to have some anxiety about the situation. But I tell you what, I'm focusing on that door and I'm focusing on getting in there and I'm focusing on, you know, saving them, and I'm focusing on what's required because if there's something of importance, I can focus on it. But if my relationship to anxiety is it's more important to not feel anxious than it is to ride, well, well, then I'll spend my whole day trying to control my anxiety and use superstitions and get angry at my partner and the groom and go out and buy a new saddle and do all these other things. It's like, how about just buy an online course, learn to change the relationship with anxiety and get out there and.

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, we have to be that for our horses as well, because they certainly. They're a wild animal. So you take them into these environments and regardless of how well controlled the rider has, you know, relationship with their anxiety, that horse, whether it's three or 13, right, you sit on that, that horse has a reaction to the environment. And so it's up to us now to guide them how to handle it, too. And sometimes I make the joke that when the rider becomes nervous, the worst thing you can do, or the horse becomes nervous and you start saying, oh, well, they're there and you start riding a little, you try to calm him down and do all these things that you would never do at home. And then the horse goes, well, what's wrong with you? You know, why are you touching me like that? Why are you so different? And the best thing we can do is just, again, stay. I guess Brett would maybe call it structure, but stay, stay the course. You know, try to use your skills in the same way and guide your horse around the same way until you both have become comfortable with your nerves.

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot of debunking some of that. You know, I'll go off script here, Nat. Like, I can't catch this remote. I can't catch this remote. Oh, I'm really bad at catching remotes. I'm. I'm terrible at catching remotes. Thoughts and feelings actually don't control our behavior. We can ride consistently. We can, we can ride with composure and focus and commitment. We can. Whilst having some thoughts and some fears in our brain. We. We've got to debunk that. You know, our thoughts and feelings have to be completely clear, calm, confident, have unwavering self belief. Half the people I work with around the world who have great success are just as worried as, just as perfectionistic, are just as quick to anger because they have such high standards and they care deeply about their careers. Therefore they worry about the performance. But what they're very good at is just going, that's okay. That's a familiar story. What do I need to do today? So to your point, Laura, so well said. When I see people interacting with their horse, and I'm not trying to patronize people here, but okay, don't worry, their vocal tone goes up, their motor patterns get rigid and quick and jerky, and then they wonder why the horse is going, what the heck's going on? Where are the snakes? There must be some snakes because like, and I'm like, oh, my horse read my mind. No, no, you just communicated that there's threats everywhere through your body movement, your vocal tone, your movement patterns, the way and then you hop on like, come on, be better than that. Learn to sit with a little bit of some, you know, cognitive content. But understand my job is to be behaviorally really consistent with my interaction with my horse.

Loving the questions coming in. I am seeing them. And yes, we are here absolutely live. For the person who asked that, we are live right now. Caitlin, Kylie, Cheryl, I'm seeing all your questions. Jonah, what you're saying is going to be a little bit difficult for some of us to wrap our heads around because to be honest, it is in some ways the opposite to what we're told all the time. Because we're constantly told we need to get control of our thoughts and feelings in order to do what we want to do. And we're constantly taught you need to be more confident. Your confidence is holding you back. Da, da, da. Jonah, can you speak briefly to the difference between confidence and competence?

Yeah, sure. We crave confidence. Our neurobiology craves confidence. And I'll agree that when I am confident, it feels easier to go out and do something. However, what we miss is there's no gold medals at the Olympics for the most confident athlete. Congratulations, Laura. We read your mind. The test was really crap, by the way. But hey, you had some positive self belief. Here's a medal. Like we life is about competence. You know, I want a competent surgeon, a competent architect, a competent pilot, a competent dentist. Now he or she might be confident. Oh, that's that, that might, I might get caught up in that. But actually what I want is, did they go to university? Are they Skilled and they're good at what they do. So when we believe that confidence is the prerequisite, then we're going to do everything we can to try to create that. And here's the issue. That might work fine in training. That might work great. When our friends and our colleagues and our coach and everybody says, oh, I'm looking great, really lovely, and then we walk into the arena in the moment that it matters, and all of a sudden, poof, oh, no, I've lost my confidence. And all of a sudden we go searching for it intrinsically or what have you, and we have lost our focus. So rather, it's about, hang on, what does riding competently look like? That's an action. That's a behavior. We can see that. What does that mean? Actually riding and asking and, you know, asking a bit more? And I'm not a horse trainer by any means, but, like, where's the collection of suppleness and this? And actually doing something not just sitting there, like, frozen, like, that's competence. And so I always say that the greatest myth in the world is the world's best athletes have unwavering confidence. I say, no, they're highly competent and they can perform when the confidence inevitably does vary. If I am an athlete that has a degree of competence, but I seem to only put it together when I'm confident. I need both. You know, then you're just going to be an inconsistent athlete. You're going to be the person that actually doesn't know what's going to show up today, because you're going, I can only really ride well when I feel good. I say, well, okay, so you're probably a pretty good trainer and you probably ride okay at times, but I reckon there's a history of inconsistency. And certainly as you progress through your career and the pressure mounts and goes up and the spotlight gets brighter, maybe that addiction to confidence starts to become your frailty. So we want to learn that my job in sport is to be measured and defined by my competency. And, hey, how can I become really consistent? How can I ride great no matter what? It's letting go of my attachment to needing to feel confident.

Fantastic. We could all listen to Jonah speak for hours. And he could speak for hours. Let me tell you about focusing on what matters. That is his thing. Love it, Jonah. Okay, let's have a look at Melissa just as we move into our fourth topic. So we've talked about having a vision, having a plan, being able to focus on what matters, and finally around building A team. Now, the team aspect for Melissa, a writer in our Gold program, was extremely important. Is extremely important. She began this program in second level elementary and is now writing Prison George, working towards Inter 1. She said the support within the group and the trainers has been especially valuable. The road to success is often bumpy, but this program provides ways to assist writers to navigate their way through no matter what the level. Now, I love that because it speaks to the fact that the camaraderie and the idea of being in a team in this program is not just something that's nice to have, it's actually essential. And Brett, I know you often tell us in the programs about how dressage can be such a lonely story sport, especially on show day when you can maybe you can go through a whole competition, only speak to a couple of people.

Brett?

Yeah, no, it is, I mean, it's naturally a lonely sport. You, you, you have your time, you arrive to the grounds, you compete, if you're lucky, you speak to the gear steward and the coffee person and you're out of there. Right. And, and, and now with online scoring, it's made it even more lonely because once upon a time we'd stand around the scoreboard and read the scores and have a chat and then we'd leave, right? But now with online scoring, it even makes it more lonely. So, you know, and everybody wants to feel part of a group, you know, part of, you know, we're all trying to achieve the same thing. We're having highs and lows, but we're all trying to achieve the same thing. So what has been a really interesting spin off to performance riders is this community of like minded, intelligent thinking people who are following a similar structure, you know, and just going back one step to where we were before. You know, competence grows from systematic training and clear definitions. Clear definitions in, you know, and dressage does this job of making things really gray and mysterious and murky and hard to understand. And especially when we're using European terms, you know, in some of the stuff we do. So, you know, putting our language, creating our own personal system that relates to sport dressage is exactly how you. And then being focused enough to deliver it every day is exactly how you build competence. And then, and then, of course, when you have a bunch of people all together on the same wave, it creates this really positive community. And that's what has been such a pleasant spin off from what we're creating here, is this great community.

Yeah. Laura, you have had actual personal experience with the fact that having a strong team like I said, isn't just nice to have it, can make it or break it. Laura, what's your experience with. With being in a team?

Yeah. I mean, there's a saying, something about a. A rise of something where lifts the.

Rising tide, lifts all boats.

Yeah. And it's. It's just. It's so true. You know, we had kind of this magic era in US dressage and everyone, we were so close. We traveled together as a squad. We at times shared housing. I mean, actually living together, eating together, grocery shopping together, feeding our horses together. And we would ride often on purpose. We would set the day out. We could all go out, get ready at the exact same time. Right. At the exact same time, be finished with our day. But instead we wanted to stagger our sessions so everyone could watch everybody else. And it was extremely genuine. And when we would arrive at these other competitions, you know, to this day we're all very close and we would arrive at these other competitions and teams from other countries would go around and we'd all be walking, you know, arm in arm like this and going through the barns and. And they would say, it's. You guys are actually real friends. It's not just like that in the pictures. And we look at each other like we are very best friends. Like, this is such a fun time for us. And it really was contagious. We started seeing this friendly atmosphere because you would see someone who had a very talented horse or who was riding super well and you'd want to go ride their test and they weren't from your country and they weren't on your team, but you wanted to go and you would clap for them and of course you also want to beat them. But it's really fun sport to see someone else doing an amazing job with the horse that they have to show. And it was an interesting change for me. It was a huge part of our success, no doubt, just that care for each other and being able to have this constant conversation with each other. And I was so disappointed to start showing some younger horses on a low at lower levels. And I so missed that community. It is very isolating. And in fact, the. Obviously the. We only go to show. I only go to show to win. I don't go to lose. But the competitiveness took on an ugly tone for a lot of these other competitors. And it just was. It felt so uncomfortable for me because I had been in an environment where horses will be horses and we're all going around doing our little best and a horse is going to spook. There and it's going to cost you a point or, you know, something's going to happen. The horse gets nervous and its walk is terrible, or it's, you know, in the wrong frame or all these horrific things that can happen in a dressage test. And the feeling wasn't from the people watching that, oh, that was too bad. The feeling was good. I'm glad they made that mistake. And that was really disappointing. And so my hope has always been that if people at a national level could feel what that very top tier of riders and teams are getting from each other and this positive relationship, everyone would be more successful. And it's still. I did. I never wanted to. I mean, I always want to beat Isabel, don't get me wrong. But I. I never wanted to beat her because she had a terrible ride. You really want to beat them when you're both your very best.

Yeah.

And it just is such a. A positive growth experience to be riding with people in that same mindset that I really hope it eventually trickles down.

And now, Laura, you're. You're going to be part of a team of, like, 300 riders in the Gold program, all working together. That is a good team.

It's so exciting, and it's so inspirational. And I think what's really lacking in what my observation was in those moments was this safe space.

Yeah.

Of being able to say, like, yes. I really wanted that to happen. Of course not. You know, and it's this sense of humor of, like, accidents happen. You know, horses are horses or your horse. That happened. Pull the shoe, whatever. Who can find the. I mean, just this nature of wanting everybody to do their best, and it's genuine, even if you want to do a little bit better.

Yeah. I love that.

I just. Listening to Laura there, and it's. It's so good, you know, not wanting to beat the competitor because they're worse. It's because you're better. And. And I was just wondering if we could borrow Jonah's values there with mastery, curiosity, and playfulness. Because that's exactly what you're describing, is the curiosity in the group, the. The fact that we're working systematically towards mastery and the playfulness that goes within that safe space in that community. That, for me, is exactly what has been created from performance riders. And I must say, I didn't see it coming. And it's been really wonderful and fun to watch.

Yeah. I think you just stole your values, Jonah, not mine.

That can be anybody's, I think, especially because there's such an element of you know, actual human judges judging our sport. So it's extremely subjective. It's not timed, you know, with jumping. They have their faults. There's a real ability to measure a lot of other sports, or how many times did you have to whack that golf ball to get it into the hole. It doesn't matter if you, you know, tore up a little bit of grass or, you know, what point, what place on your club did you hit the ball, how did you look when you hit the ball? You. All these things. And so I think having a community that's so supportive is important because you're being judged by a panel, and sometimes it's only one, depending on your level. There's one person, and you're just hoping everyone has a taste, everyone has a style, and you're just kind of hoping that you're it. And it gets a little bit better at the higher levels because you have maybe three or five judges on your panel. And so maybe someone was a little stingy, but it cancels out the person who is a little generous. And you get this kind of middle score, which is usually pretty fair. But it can be really hard to go in front of one person and to do what was really maybe a very great test and to have your heart set on a score that if you don't have a community, you know, to encourage you to go out and do it again, you can become your own worst enemy. Yeah.

I think to that, Laura, so well said, is if we think the story that shows up in our brain is our own and we're a bit different and a bit weird, and maybe we only have this. It's like connecting through a community to normalize how hard it is. The ups and downs, the emotions we feel, the thoughts we have, the worries we have, the challenges we face, and also celebrating some success together. Right. Like, it's nice to have a community where you can actually celebrate some success.

Yeah. I really always say, unless you are in this sport, I really think it's very difficult to explain to someone because it's not a golf club, it's not a football, it's not a car. I know we say that, but this is a living, breathing animal with fur and feelings and a heart, and it's just so different.

So different. Yeah. And I think a lot of us here live would agree with that and say, like, we didn't even speak to our wives or husbands or partners or whatever about it because it's such a specific thing. Yeah. So we have writers talked about having a vision, making a Plan, focusing on what matters and being part of a team. These are all absolute must haves in building out your plan for 2026 and achieving some dreams that you have with your writing. Now, some of you will be perfectly okay to keep going as you've been going. Like Brett said, look at your past year, look your past five years. If you're happy with that trajectory, that's awesome. And you're on top of everything we've spoken about. But for those of you who do want to make a positive change for your own riding skills and results and for the benefit of your horse, like Brett said, we'd love to invite you to work with Laura, Brett, Jonah and the rest of our team here in our programs. So I'll show you what we're talking about. Yeah, I think you can see that, can't you? Yeah. So this is a Dressage Mastery pack that we put together to help support you in 2026. But starting today, we have very carefully curated this for you to hit some important points. So firstly, as you can see here, We've included full 2026 membership to our Gold program. That's the program that those writers you saw through the session, they're part of our Gold program. So you'd be training with Laura, Brett, other coaches, Jonah, the whole team. We have personalized pathways in this program. So whatever level you're at or your scen, we've got a pathway to suit you. We've got amazing things in this program like live huddles where we break down into level specific live sessions. We look at your videos and we talk about topics that are relevant for you. And by the way, writers. Yes. We're going to come back to Q and A, so go ahead and pop your questions in the, in the Q and A section and we'll come back to that. We have incredible guest speakers, which is actually where we first met Laura as a guest speaker in our Gold program. And we just never let her go from there. A part of the Dressage Mastery Pack is a training course. So it's your choice of two courses, Dressage Essentials or Dressage Breakthrough, depending on your level. This is where we've got six structured course modules so you can really get your head around a clear system. How can I train? When can I train? Develop a plan. We will work with you to figure out which program is best suited to you. And that's got a lot of in depth training resources delivered across video and written as well. So we've included lifetime access to that course as part of this pack, we've also included lifetime access to Jonah's course that we call Resilient Writers. Now this one, Writers, you've probably got a hint of this already from this session. This corset, Jonah, it'll change the way you ride, but it'll actually change the way you approach pretty much everything in your life. It is definitely worth the price of admission alone and then 10 times over. And certainly if you were to, if you were to want Jonah supporting you on the sidelines the arena, you'd definitely be adding a few zeros, I think, to that price. So highly recommend that one. So there's a lot more as well included. But overall, the pack we've put together for you includes the training course, lifetime access 2026 membership to the Gold Program, with direct access to Laura, Brett and the other trainers. We're going to give you early access to the Gold program so you can hop in right now and get started so you can do that. You know, if you're bored on Christmas Day, you could do that just quietly. That's what I do. Go and study the dressage Resilient Riders program with Jonah. You get lifetime immediate access to that. We've thrown in some bonuses around some lateral work training, some flying changes training and what we're going to do as well for this first weekend, this is especially for those of you who hear live and want to jump straight to it. I have secured our coaches to personally review your 2026 blueprint. So we'll send you a template to use to plan out your year and one of our coaches will review that for you, give you feedback and work with you so that you've got your year laid out as clear as possible and you know what you're heading for. So this bundle we've put together a super offer for you. You can get started right now for 117 US or 179 for the Aussies. That's paid monthly. And what I'll do is I'll send you all the information on email and we can chat back and forth and figure out if it's the right thing for you. Always happy to answer any questions about that. Laura, we're so excited for you to be joining us in that gold program 2026.

I' so excited to be a part of it. This was like just the right thing at the right time. I was so glad to be contacted to do this because I'm really excited about getting back to being in a big group as well. And I have a really big year planned. And I'm, I'm excited to help other people get on that focus and not feel alone anymore. I've been isolated as well, and it just, it doesn't do anybody any good. And the feeling is a little bit not knowing what's going to happen, but to also have a group of people around you holding you accountable, you know, it does. It does keep you motivated, and it does, it does keep you really pursuing that as opposed to changing maybe what your vision is.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Diane, do we look at actual videos of the writers for comment in the program? We sure do. So in those Hudd that I mentioned, we break down into different levels, and that's pretty much what we do. In those huddles, we look through people's videos. So you're welcome to submit a video. It's scary at first, for sure, it is. But once you do it, once you get so much out of it and people cheer you on and it's just the best thing. So, yeah, we definitely do that. Diane, thank you for that. Okay, I'm going to work from the bottom up here. Laura, not to Laura Graves. Laura F. Okay, let's see who wants to answer this one. Okay. Laura says, when trying to implement a plan for a particular training session, what's the best way to handle bumps in the road? So say I'm planning to work on softness and transitions today, but when you get going, impulsion is lacking or they're stiff bending. Do you recommend working on what you came to work on or changing your plan in the moment? Brett, I'm going to give this to you. It's a perfect question for you.

Yeah, exactly. So for Laura, I would say there are a number of key pillars of what you want, you know, before you start making it, you know, complicated. So, you know, the fact that the horse, you know, whether it's working paces, the fact that the horse is going by itself without you helping, every. Every step, you know, the horse is traveling in front, what they call in front of your leg. And I won't go into the details, because this is what breakthrough is all about. But the fact that the horse is in. Is going by itself, in balance without you helping, Then the fact that the horse is on the bit over the back, round, connected, relaxed round, and then the fact that the horse is straight, you know, these are key things. And then from there, I would go to my next step. Now, of course, if you can't get to the next step, you stay where you are because you can't do anything without foundations. And this is what I mean about having a systematic approach that this, this whole sport is built on these systematic foundations that then layer together to then get into the more complicated things. So. And things like. And this is where I think dressage does not do a good job. Like words like softness and lightness. That's. It's hard. That varies for every person, and it also varies. In their hands. And we all know that horses are completely a whole animal. Like, they're, they're the whole. There's a whole animal underneath you. So you have to focus on riding all the other parts of the horse. And what you'll do is when you put your focuses into other areas, you'll realize that the softness and the lightness and all those things you were looking for happen anyway.

Right.

Rather than just chasing this one thing, when you look at it from a whole approach, you end up improving it as you go. So, yeah, that would be my, my answer that generally with every time we get posed with a question, our starting point is foundations, and then we work our way towards the issue.

I think it comes down to that competence word again, huh? Yeah. Of like, you need to be able to create that. That first part with not just luck, but with a guarantee every time you come out, you can do that. So you can work on the thing having that, you know, expectation that you can do the. The thing before in order to get to the thing that you're planning.

Laura Maria says if you have a daily goal for your. Your ride or something you want to work on, how do you decide in that ride when you've practiced something enough for the day?

That depends on the horse. You know, a thousand percent. You're. I say, what's the best for this horse could be not even in the realm of being acceptable for another horse. So it's again, finding that level of competence and then trying to push that limit. And it depends on, again, the competence within the exercise. So if I'm practicing something new and the horse starts to have like a light bulb moment or has a general positive reaction to the new thing, if I feel the horse learn something that day, that's always very important, that my training is, you know, making a contribution to my account, and then I haven't made more mistakes than I've done something successful. But yeah, the horse truly feeling like the horse learned something in that thing. Right. I'm not just riding the shoulder in to be on three tracks. There's. I want to know why I'm doing it, where it's taking me, and that the horse Learned something in it. There was a, a teacher student relationship going on there.

Love that. Jonah, for Sophia, what should Sophia look for when figuring out. Oh, the questions just jumped around. When figuring out the right environment, the right training environment to be in, what are some indicators that we're in the right training environment?

Yeah. Regardless of the sport, you want to look for what we call ecologically valid meaning, you know, it should be as close to competition as possible. Right. I, I mean, I remember 20 odd years ago when I first started working in, in dressage and I literally showed up and I'll be very upfront with everyone here. I was like, oh wow, are you doing some right, some tricks on the horse and you're doing some things. And people's faces were aghast. I'm like, sorry, that's the wrong term. And I'm like, just an observation. My tennis players getting ready for Wimbledon are using the same tennis racket and the same tennis balls and the same tennis shoes that they're going to wear at Wimbledon and use at Wimbledon. My golfers certainly use the same clubs with the same ball. My racing car drivers use the same car. And I see you guys rock up and you're wearing jeans and a baseball cap and what have you. And the horse is looking pretty comfortable. And then you get to the actual day of your competition and you're putting makeup on the horse and you're brushing it and you're plaiting its hair and you're wearing this weird outfit. Looks like something from Cluedo. And like, like. And then you're expecting your horse to be normal. I'm like, whoa, this is really strange. Like you're asking an animal that's so nuanced to be the same as training, but you're training in a completely different way, in a completely different, even preparation of the horse, let alone the clothes you're wearing, let alone the, the, all the stuff that goes around it. And so, you know, yes, I'm not expecting you to go out and wear the exact, you know, outfits and jodpas and grooming to the point of rosettas or whatever you guys call them, all that. I get it, there's a lot of effort, but geez, I reckon it should be a little bit closer. I think it should probably look a bit more like what you're getting ready to do because all we're trying to do is replicate training in a high pressured environment. We'll at least give the horse a chance for it to feel a bit more similar. So for me, I always challenge People in the horse industry to say, you know, what's the gap between competition and training and even to the skill, like, you know, that they're moving through movements and sequencing them up and all of that. So, yeah, I think. I think my experience would say that's a huge area for upside, would be to try to minimize as much as possible what we practice to, what we're thinking we're going to show up and do when it matters.

Yeah. And I think having both of those sides, you know, that was a big part of our success as a team in those years. Robert Dover was adamant about the test writing, and we all hated those days because it was like, but it's raining today. And he would say, I don't care, you know, and we would have a judge come in. We all had ride times. We had to wear our show clothes, which are not the most comfortable, but it was. It was an essential part. It was never your best. It was never anyone's best test. I don't think a lot of horses and riders, I think, really rise to the occasion on the actual day, but it was a very regular part of us having to plan our time and to put the braids in the horse's hair and that they want to scratch them out and they're, you know, shaking their head and doing all these things. It was. Yeah. Until it became less uncomfortable.

Yeah. I. I do laugh when I. You know, your horse is literally going, oh, here comes crazy lady. She's got the top hat on. She's got that outfit on. Oh, it's one of those days. It's like, oh, wow, great. You've conditioned your athlete to really your horse, to really know that it's competition day and we've got a different version showing up. So, yeah, give yourself a chance. Right.

I must say, after we made that course with you, Jonah, we then implemented this into our goal program that we encourage writers. When they're submitting a video for review in the program, or especially submitting a video for a judge to look at that they do a dress rehearsal, and the writers really took that on. They plaid up, they get their clothes on everything. And it is just been the most valuable thing for them to do. Because you're quite right. We usually only ever do those things on a show day.

Well, and it's so funny because a test is how many minutes, Right. I think the very longest test is still less than seven.

Yeah.

And I think when we plan a training session, most of us now plan 45 minutes for a horse.

You know, I Never thought about it like that. That's so true. Well, speaking of test writing, Nonie said we'll just do a couple more questions, writers, before we have to wrap it up. Now, you said, Laura, were you writing tests weekly or as part of each session? Lori, answer that, and then I'll throw to Brett as well for that.

Okay. Again, it depends on the horse. It depends on what they're preparing for, if they're in between levels or. I'm really trying hard to become competent with a movement that's miss being able to ride the whole test. It might look a little different, but I do try. Like, let's say I have a horse who's green. Her changes are not ready for the pre St. George, but the rest of it is. I'm going to try to start stringing that together. The whole trot tour, I can do. I can do the pirouettes. We can do, you know, the zigzag. And then the changes are schooling. Okay. And then if I have a horse ready for the Grand Prix, I'm going to school. I might split it up to do kind of a trot day or a canter day. It's a lot on them physically and also depending on their age. So if they're very well schooled, they don't need to drill that in sequence five days a week. That's just too much. You're asking for some physical trouble to go on. So you might do two days on, one day of easier, you know, just moving forward, transition work and then two more tough days and finding a schedule that works for your horses. Level of training, but also level of fitness. Yeah, it depends on the horse, but always thinking on what is. What is a line.

Yeah. Brett, there's actually a couple of training videos that the writers will get as part of these programs, and that's around how to ride lines. I think the video, we've even called it, like lines and setups. A lot of focus on setups for. For test movements. And that's something that we can be incorporating into so much of our training. So it's a key thing that you teach Brett as well.

That's right. When I hear Laura talk about that the regular test writing was a part of the team environment in. And I was. I was there at the same time I was in Europe. I saw this firsthand, this really collegiate approach. And I think one thing Laura didn't mention, they actually managed to put three teams, like call it Teams 3, A, B and C all in the one place, all at the one time. And people vying for positions, but manage this beautiful team environment at the same time. It's incredible. I watched it. I was one of the people following them around, going, well, how are they doing this anyway? But what I was about to say is, with that test, riding focus, you might have a day where your focus is completely setups. Okay, I'm going to ride the lines, but I really want to nail two or like, these couple of setups that I know I need for, you know, I finish this movement, I'm. I'll do the next movement. I want to focus on this specific part of the writing. A desert test is such a. We call it forming a game plan. You know, form the game plan. And, And. And you only get. You only can form the game plan when you're gathering intelligence about how the game plan should look. And that involves that doing it regularly.

Yeah. And I think people worry about, you know, again, like, Jonah was talking about managing your nerves, not trying to get rid of your nerves, but learning to perform with them. And it's the same with the horses that people get really caught up in thinking, well, my horse anticipates. If I keep riding this test, this line, then my horse knows it's coming. And I think, yeah, you know, they. I had a trainer tell me one time, the horses, you know, have to be smart enough for you to teach them. Like, this is a gift, right? That they actually are retaining this information. But no matter how many times I've seen a rider, well, he knows the pirouette's coming, so I just will practice it in a totally different place. Right. I just won't do it on that line. I'll do it somewhere else. But lo and behold, you go into that arena, that horse still remembers when you turn that diagonal, the pirouette is there. You're not going to get that memory out of his head. You have to learn to ride him in that way and to say, yes, buddy, it is here, but you still need to stay on my aids and to work that line until the anticipation is here. But the horse is still patient enough in their body to wait for you to give direction. You're not going to get rid of. Of the anticipation.

I love that. That's such good advice. And it, you know, it speaks to something that we sort of spoke. Speak about in the programs sometimes, that it's about, you know, it's not about different exercises of this and that. It's about your aids and the horse responding to your aids. And I love that, that we're not avoiding the issue. We're not pretending. If we avoid it or ignore it, it'll go away. We're riding with it. Just like with the nerves. We're riding with them. The saddling up with the nerves. We really have to wrap it up. Thank you, writers, for sticking around so long. I knew that we couldn't keep to an hour on this. I just knew it with these three. But, writers, I hope that you've really benefited from listening to these three amazing coaches. We've just scratched the surface, obviously, and I would absolutely love to welcome you into our programs and work with all our coaches. It's an incredible experience. It's.

It's.

There's nothing else like it. It really is the support network, wraparound, mentoring, training, support network that you need. And if you like this sort of format, really digging into some topics, you will absolutely love it. So, Laura, Jonah, Brett, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Nat, is this available after? Is this going to be recorded?

Yes, yes. It's being. Hopefully it is being recorded. It is definitely being recorded. I could see the recording light flashing there, there. So, writers, you can certainly revisit. I know people have been asking me about that. You can revisit it. If you know other people who would benefit from the workshop, by all means send it their way. Our team are on email, on chat, on messenger. Get in touch. We can help you with the workshop or with the programs. We'd love to do that.

Could it be a good gift also? Like, could you buy it for someone else?

Yes, great point. We actually already have had a few. I feel like I'm going to let away for some secrets or something. I. We've actually already had a few beautiful parents contact me and say, can I buy this for my daughter as like a graduation present, things like that. I know, it's so lovely. And there is actually an option when you go on to purchase the Mastery Pack, there's a little button there that says purchase as a gift, something like that. So you can actually choose that and put in when you want the gift to be sent and everything. So it's. Yeah, it's all set up.

Oh, that's really nice. Yeah. Because sometimes we all have people in our lives who are like, hard to shop for, especially horse people. And you're like, I don't know, like what they need for their horse. But yeah.

So instead of those people buying you, like a saddle cloth that you don't want. Yeah, this is perfect. Yeah, you'll love it. Can't wait. To get stuck into next year. And for writers thinking about joining us, do it now because you actually get access now and there's heaps of amazing stuff on there. So I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you again, Laura, Jonah, Brett, thank you, writers.

Bye.