Be realistic.  Plan for a miracle! Preparation is an enormous contributor to a successful performance.  Planning in advance for how you want things to progress sets you in the right direction and frees your mind to concentrate solely on the performance itself.  Over the last few months I’ve outlined the 4 P’s of preparation… 1.    Practical – The ‘Lists’ – the Plan that will get you to the day completely prepared. 2.     Personal – Your specific competition goals and your individual tool kit to keep you focused on the day 3.    Performance – your training, your rehearsal prior to the event and your warm up  plan/routine for the day 4.    Praise – your personal reflection/celebration and key learning’s analysis that is applied to ongoing training and competitions. The fourth component to preparation is often the one we leave out as it happens after the event.  It is also the one we usually leave out in many other aspects of our lives – the celebrations.  Yet if considered as part of your preparation and then incorporated after the actual performance it will provide the link between one event and the next and also competitions and training.  It also contributes enormously to our enjoyment so has got to be worth spending time over! It’s interesting that so many of us are good at setting ourselves challenges in our sport etc, without ever really celebrating the successes along the way.  We set our sights on the next challenge or improvement without taking time to reflect on how far we’ve come and to just take time out for a pat on the back. Although it would seem this would be a relatively straight foreword thing to do, it does require preparation and if incorporated as part of your overall ‘game plan’ will assist you in your ongoing challenges and goals beyond just the ‘feel good’ factor that it provides. So as part of the planning process that happens for your upcoming season, next event, even next training session – build in your own “Praise’ component.  What were the three things that you did really well?  They may not even be the goals that you had for that particular show but make sure you identify some positives to focus on even if you feel it didn’t quite go to plan.  What were three areas that I could use for improvement for the next time I compete, what were my learning’s for this event?   Be generous here, don’t be hard on yourself and ensure no negative language or thoughts are used. Take time as well to review how far you’ve come – remember where you were 3 months ago, last season, what ever.  If you have a documentation of your goals – get them out, tick a few things off, it feels great.  Even if you don’t have this formalized, sit down with a pen and paper and write out all the “firsts” you have achieved in the last few months – “First time jumped clear in a jump off, first time competed in registered classes, first outing on a new horse etc etc.  Also list all the upcoming firsts you still have planned for the season or in your training.  Get a big fat red pen out and tick off the ones achieved to date and celebrate how far you’ve come. A few people have asked me how my goals are coming along as I headed into this year with a very ambitious desire to compete medium dressage this season.  Firstly I must stress that it didn’t all go quite to plan! My mare was coming along very nicely until she got a very nasty virus that saw her out of action for three months.  In the meantime I was fortunate enough to be offered a schooled dressage horse who has taken me on a wonderful journey of discovering the world of dressage.    I've even had few Open Medium winter starts on him, with varying degrees of success and stacks of learning's.  I’ve absolutely had to put my performance skills really to the test as I have been thrown way out of my comfort zone in the last few months.  People along the way have been incredibly supportive, but there have also been the occasional raising of eyebrows and ‘advice’ that if I compete before its perfect then judges will always remember me in the learning phase.  But if we go through life worrying how people will judge us or afraid to make mistakes, then we’ll never have a chance of fulfilling our own dreams. And yes, there are moments when I question myself but for the main part I remind myself that this is for me, not anyone else. I keep giving it 100% and I keep on loving it!  While I was writing this article I got out my list of ‘firsts’  that I wrote 6 months ago (there are 20 in total for the 06/07 season) and I’m proud to say – I  ticked off six of them – Yeehah! Past articles can be found on www.performancehorse.co.nz