Jennifer Rawle, a senior at Kansas State and member of the equestrian team said she eases pre-show jitters with simple routines.
“I always lay my clothes out the night before, put them on in the same order every time. I go through my course before I walk in the arena, and I have to have someone make me laugh, so that I get out of my head.”
Whether it be repeating tasks in a specific order or wearing a certain pair of socks, some equestrian athletes can’t compete without doing so.
While Rawle’s simple routines helps her, other riders have more in depth rituals.
Maggie McManus, 18, of Topsfield who has shown her horse Dano in competitions around New England has developed a number of superstitions. “My socks can't match, ever. My socks matched in the warm up at regionals last year and I stopped twice. I have lucky belts, but if I do badly with one then I have to switch belts until I find another lucky one and then that stays on until I do badly with that one,” she said.
Another member of the Kansas State Equestrian Team, freshman rider Shana Barnett has a similar ritual. “I always dress for success, I wear blue socks for a blue ribbon.”
Barnett’s rituals extend to when she is on her horse. “Whenever I have a good warm up that means I am going to show bad, and you never say someone is having a good round until they are done or you will jinx them. Also I never write my jump off on my hand because then I won’t make it that far,” she said.
Laura Kadane, a member of Evenstride Farm who owns a handsome bay hunter named Upper Ten, traveled around the northeast and has competed in the Massachusetts and New England Championships along with the nationally known Capital Challenge Horse Show.
She tries not to allow herself to fall in rituals. “I have tried hard NOT to get too invested in ‘lucky socks’, etc so I can embrace the mindset that it is hard work, not luck, that allows me to win, and that a bad day is just a bad day,” she said.
“I’ll admit have gotten rid of a show coat after I fell off in it three shows in a row.”
Professional trainer Andrea Mank said people have rituals to ease anxiety and nerves before going into the ring.
Do these pre-event rituals really work? Researcher Richard Wiseman did a survey on 200 people. It turns out “49 percent of lucky people regularly cross their fingers compared to just 30 percent of unlucky people.”
Wiseman also said, “Even scientists are not immune from superstition - for example, 15% of people with a science background said that they feared the number 13.”
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