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| Photo by Sara Fogan Charlotte Dujardin works with Hilda Gurney during the 2014 Dressage Symposium at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. |
Have you
ever wondered where a champion athlete goes after she wins an Olympic medal? If
she is still competing, she goes right back to her coach to continue training.
She may also brainstorm with teammates or participate in (or teach) a clinic to improve
her technique or learn new skills in order to continue to excel in her sport.
This
weekend, I audited a dressage symposium at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in
Southern California. Charlotte Dujardin, the 2012 British Olympic gold medalist
in dressage and reigning world champion in the sport, was the featured
clinician. She and her former trainer, International Grand Prix champion Judy
Harvey, were here to share their expertise with six accomplished equestrians
and their equally impressive horses to work through specific training issues. They
were there to observe, praise/critique, correct and motivate each rider to continue
improving in her sport. Ms. Dujardin treated everyone with respect, humor and a
little tough love—including Hilda Gurney, a former Olympic bronze medalist in
dressage and popular trainer in Southern California, and her mount, Wintersnow.
It wasn’t
really a surprise that Ms. Gurney was there, but the incredible opportunity to
watch these two champions cooperating to achieve a common goal did give me
goose bumps. After all, in another context, they would have been competing
against each other for the same title. But in this context they were teacher
and student, and even champions will go back to school in order to remain in
the game and stay at the top of their class.
“It’s
wonderful to watch two Olympians work together,” Ms. Harvey commented at the end
of their session. She added that Ms. Dujardin benefited from her student’s
experience as a competitor in dressage, while Ms. Gurney would have been
inspired and motivated by her teacher’s enthusiasm and technical skills.
“I
still learn and watch [and visualize] other riders to get better at what I do,” Ms. Dujardin explained during a
Q&A session during the clinic. She recounted a time when she had trouble doing a half-pass at the trot. Then, right before a major
competition, she found a catalyst to overcome this block: while observing a
former Olympic gold and silver medalist, Isabelle Werth, practice this movement,
she finally “got” how to do it. Dujardin explained how mentally replicating
every detail of Werth’s practice ride during an imaginary ride on her own horse,
Valegro, enabled her to finally ride the half-pass in her own competition later
that day.
“Sometimes, watching someone else and
visualizing what they do helps me to understand what I need to do to understand
what I am doing wrong and correct technique if I feel stuck,” she said.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®
and to set up an appointment, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
