Tip of the Day: Compensate for adrenalin

Adrenalin is an amazing thing. It completely mucks up ones internal clock. If you’ve ever been in a car crash where everything went into extreme slow-motion for a few seconds, you’ll know exactly what I mean. It goes both ways, it can also make you think you are going much slower than you are.
Also, it has been proven that concentrating very hard on something does something similar… the brain can either keep good time or concentrate hard, not both.
In the dressage and SJ arenas in particular, this effect can be dramatic, so sometimes it is worthwhile to consciously wait, do a mental half-halt, breathe, and carry on. For me this is really valuable (if I remember to do it, another pitfall!) about 2/3 of the way through a SJ round, as otherwise it can start getting faster and faster, which often proves disastrous.