Simon Grieve has been very honest about his confidence struggles in recent years and this morning at Mars Badminton Horse Trials was no different, with the 44-year-old confessing his preparation included being hypnotised.
The British rider hasn’t contested the Gloucestershire five-star since 2019, but arrives with a confident 18th placing at last year’s Defender Burghley under his belt.
“It’s such a privilege to be able to come here and compete. I know there are a lot of people that would love to be here riding, and so I’m feeling very lucky. And to be honest, two years ago I never thought I’d be coming back here, so it’s really lovely to be back.”
Simon explained that his absence was due to a lack of horsepower, as well as struggling with nerves. At Burghley last year, he explained how the ‘chimp’ paradox has helped him.
“I thought I’d come to the end of my little line of competing at a higher level, because I I was getting too nervous to do it. It just goes to show that mindset is such an important thing,” he said.
“I was even hypnotised the other day — I said [to the hypnotist after] I think I’ve had a speech and she said, ‘Yeah, you did for about 50 minutes, but it’s okay I was talking to your subconscious’. We were in the lorry and when I came out the girls were like, ‘we could hear you clucking like a chicken — what’s going on?!”
‘It’s big and scary’
Simon piloted Autograf to a dressage score of 36.4 this morning.
“Bearing in mind he’s green at this level and I find dressage difficult, but he moves beautifully and he’s a fabulous little horse — a really great mover. So I need to catch up with him,” said Simon.
“The atmosphere was great. There was a bit of clapping, a bit cheering, which is really nice. It’s always a cauldron of nerves in there, but I thought he got on with it really well.”
He described the Eric Winter-designed cross-country course as being “big, bold and scary — but I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t”.
“I think the lake is serious. I just can’t ever get away from the Vicarage Vee and the water at the top as well is technical.
“It’s all the way around, and it’s one big fence after another and another — it makes it such a challenge.”
Main image by Tim Wilkinson
