Recently my daughter, Zara, competed in the Otago Southland Show Jumping Championships on her pony, Sands. It was her first really big event. She was coming out of smaller events where she’d always get placings.

We arrived to see three big jump rings set up, and hundreds of cars, horse floats, people and horses. It was pretty overwhelming.

On her best round she was going really well until she got to a jump with a filler. Normal jumps are just bars, but fillers add something under the bar to make it more intimidating. This one had psychedelic colours and as she rode in Sands refused the jump. She was so upset because the refusal meant the end of her round.

The next day we were back home training fillers because we hadn’t trained any before the event, so it was no wonder it was a challenge. Her coach set up the jump and put in the filler and Zara expressed she was worried about it.

“What’s the difference?”, her coach asked.

“The filler,” Zara replied.

“But it’s the same jump, he’s not jumping any higher,” her coach replied.

It’s the same jump.

The only difference was in her head.

And when rising her pony feels what she’s thinking through the subtle impact it has on her physiology.

How often do we create something in our heads that makes something harder?

How often do we add a ‘filler’, when really it’s a jump we could do in our sleep?