Steve Peters

there would have been a period where it was like

dominating so from 8 to 11 it was just constant actually coincided with us moving and all sorts of things But that acceptance of it and also the psychologist, I forget his name, it might have been Steve Peters, I think he came in and spoke to the World Cup group at one stage and he was talking about, someone I was just talking about any of that negative noise, that how your brain works and talks to itself, it's almost like naming it as a separate entity, it's not you, it's not a part of you, it's just something that's happening and you can accept it and talk to it, almost talk to it as a separate entity and I tried that for a while.

And that was quite interesting, but I suppose it lent into that acceptance that it's happening, so it's okay, rather than, okay, fuck, I've got to do everything I can not to move away from

it.

But...

But yeah, I just think you were brought up in a space, especially in the rugby environment as well, you know, you just didn't share your weaknesses.

Jake and I were recently chatting with Sir Chris Hoy and we were talking about his cancer diagnosis where he described the hardest period is that middle of the night when that inner voice, those intrusive thoughts become... become louder and there's nobody there to intercept them and Chris spoke to us didn't he about he has to he thinks about his children and leaving them behind and the consequences and he says he's worked with Steve Peters who reminds him just root yourself back where you are you're in a bed the kids are sleeping next door And he said that's been incredibly helpful in allowing him to feel this overwhelm of grief and sadness before we can move on.

Have you had similar experiences?

between 20 and 22, between 20 and 23, between 21 and 24, where everybody's is a little bit different.

But if you go in knowing it and expecting it, as Steve Peters said, you're ready to handle it when you get to that bit.

So have your technique ready, whether it's, Singing a song, visualizing yourself running on your favorite short six-mile run where you know that you're going to get to the finish line from that point, or whether it's counting out a rhythm, anything that works for you and has worked and practiced, you've practiced within training, bring that into play.

Take on extra fuel, even if you're carrying it yourself and think, right, okay, psychologically, if you think I'm hitting 20 miles and then at 20.5, I'm starting to feel like it's going to hit me.

So I do believe that, you know, there's so many different things, even with the horse rider relationship and how the horse perceives that in a way.

And, you know, from looking at our neurological studies that Dr. Steven Peters put out there, I mean, the amygdala in the fear response.

I mean, it's tough to give any one specific characteristics or even a group, but there is a study that came out in 2025 and it's Bacon et al.

It's how prior racing performance affects influences competition level in off-the-track thoroughbred horses post-racing eventing careers.

And I've worked with a lot of psychologists over the years with the team that explained this to me.

Maybe like Steve Peters.

Yes, Steve

Peters, brilliant.

And he didn't want to accept that we were done.

So he went and got the psychologist of the moment, Steve Peters,

to

come and sit with me and tell me that I needed to go back into it.

We talk a lot about subtleness.

We talk a lot about horsemanship and making horses functional, but what is often not known because horse, you know, most with the exception of Dr. Steven Peters, most horsemen are not neuroscientists and perhaps Chantal Pratt at the university of Washington, both have been on this show.

There is this process called neuroplasticity.

And when any mammal, moves in these novel ways that are also semi-pattern based with lots of crossing of the midline their personalities change just as human personalities change when they do the same thing when humans do a lot of dance yoga martial arts and they get into this sort of ability to marry discipline and self-control with joy and spontaneous expression and for those two things not to be at odds with each other but to become into harmony with each other well the same thing happens for horses