We make sure our horses eat the highest quality nutrition and get exercised every day, and it’s just as important to do the same things for your own body.
Our horses are a mirror of us. Barrel racing is an athletic sport, and we need to make sure we’re in the best condition we can be to bring the most out of our horses. This doesn’t mean you have to train every day in the gym like an Olympic athlete, but there are some changes to your daily lifestyle that will help you feel better, be healthier, and in turn, perform well.
It Starts with Nutrition
First and foremost, you need to be getting sound nutrition into your body through food. Eating the right kind of food helps fight inflammation in the body and keeps your muscles, ligaments and joints as healthy as possible. For me, eating a lot of fresh, raw foods and trying to keep my diet as alkaline as possible is huge for feeling good and being healthy. You’ve also got to make sure you’re getting vitamins, minerals, amino acids and everything that’s necessary for your body to function.
I try to stay away from processed foods and fast food as much as possible. Anything you buy in the store that’s been processed has been taken a step away from the way your body was intended to take it in.
That’s where eating lots of fresh foods, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins like fish plays a role. For example, sometimes I’m eating a salad three times a day. Even if you can get up in the morning and take a couple minutes and squeeze a glass of fresh orange juice, there’s so many nutrients in that. Better nutrition can be as basic as learning to cut out soft drinks and sugary snacks, replacing unhealthy snacks with fruits like bananas or maybe some nuts if you’re not allergic. I haven’t really eaten sugar for 20 years, I don’t drink sodas and I don’t eat much bread. Now eating fruit, that’s like God’s sugar to me!
I’ve been a guinea pig for myself of what works for me and what types of food make me feel the best. Across the board, you’re going to find somebody who disagrees with every diet or eating plan, but it’s important that you find what works with your body and what makes you feel the best.
Small Steps to Fitness
You have to be fit to be reactive and strong. The stabilizer muscles are what give you balance, and No. 1 you have to have balance when you’re riding. There’s no way to get that unless you put a lot of time in riding, putting the hours in to become good at something. We can think about playing golf and how to swing a gold club all we want, but if you’re only doing it once or twice a week, you won’t get really good at golf.
However, the better we can take care of ourselves and condition our muscles outside of riding will help you achieve that balance, stability and strength in the saddle. Staying fit helps create elasticity in ligaments, tendons and muscles. You don’t want to be hard and rigid on a horse — you’ve got to have flexibility and give, like a shock absorber.
I do yoga or Pilates, and I run stairs at my house. Beginning to work on fitness can be a small step. If I’ve been sitting at my desk working for a while, I’ll get up and move. I’ll go run 20 sets of stairs or I’ll go ride my bike, and then sit back down at my desk. Make sure you’re at least getting out walking, even if you don’t want to do yoga or go to a class or hit the gym.
With yoga, you’re honing in on stability, strength and breath, and one of the most important things is learning to breathe. I talk to people at my clinics, and as they get nervous, anxious or frustrated, people start shallow breathing. I ask them, ‘Are you breathing shallow or breathing deeply?’ And some don’t know if they’re even breathing at all. Be conscious of taking deeper breaths when you become nervous, because it’s like a God breath. Ultimately that’s where we came from, and you’re always reminded of those virtuous things that make you feel better about yourself, and the breath is a constant reminder of life.
Yoga trains you how to breathe through difficult postures and be in total control of your body’s movement, and how important is that when you’re barrel racing to be in complete control of what you’re doing? There’s a lot of people who don’t have any idea what their body doing, where their hands are going, what their feet are doing or just not paying attention to their body at all. If you have a yoga teacher who can correct a few things, you can immediately tell the more strength you have and feel more of your muscles working. This awareness, whether you realize it or not, will translate to your riding.
It’s also important to be grounded and able to control your emotions. If you feel better, you’re less apt to be short, quick and reactive. We’re riding horses that when you start running fast, most of them get on edge, so if we have riders who are on edge, it’s not always helpful.
Love Yourself
We take such good care of our horses by making sure they have the right supplements and giving them the best feed and hay, but I think there’s a certain damaging mindset og, ‘The horses eat better around here than we eat.’ It doesn’t have to be that way — take care of your horses and take care of yourself.
If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your family. An unhealthy lifestyle has physical and emotional consequences, both long- and short-term. Don’t be so hard on yourself, because God loves and forgives you, so we can learn to love and forgive ourselves, too. It doesn’t matter what you eat if you have fear, worry and anger wreaking havoc on your mental health. Start from this day forward and be free of those thoughts that make you feel bad, mad or not good about yourself.
I’m not judging people in any way, shape or form. I love people, and I want what’s best for them. I’ve learned a lot about people from teaching over the years, and if you can just let things go, take care of yourself and love yourself, you’re going to be great.
