Everybody Messes Up, Even The Pros

We all eff up every now and again. Even those at the top of the sport.

Heels Down asked five professionals to share a time when they royally messed up and what they learned from that crappy experience. And boy, did they deliver. 

These stories of epic failure will make you laugh and they’ll make you cry. But most of all, they’ll remind you that we’re all human (yeah, even Georgina Bloomberg), and at the end of the day we’re all just trying to do right by our horses and have some fun. 

Why Selena O’Hanlon Calls Dressage “Stress-age”

“I was at the Plantation CIC 3-star event with a horse called A Fine Romance. He’s retired now. I learned the wrong dressage test. I’m famous for riding the wrong dressage test. I didn’t realize until I was going down centerline and turned the wrong way and the judge blew the whistle. She gave me permission to briefly go out of the ring. I got Colombo’s owner to read the right test to me, even though she’d never read a dressage test. It was a complete disaster. In the end, they just blew the whistle and I had to leave. 

I always forget my dressage test. I started eventing at 9 and forgot my dressage test three times. I got eliminated from eventing for a whole year. It became a mental block – if one little thing went wrong – the horse came out of a frame, or it spooked or picked up the wrong lead, immediately my brain would go blank. Even though I knew the test by heart. 

I used to cry in front of the ring and it was awful. 

I went down centerline at the Olympics in Hong Kong, and as I was counting my rhythm I was saying ‘don’t forget the test, don’t forget the test‘ to myself. I’ve just accepted it’s something I’m going to do and try not to get worked up about it. I already call dressage ‘stress-age’. 

If I can get it out of the way early enough in the season, it doesn’t affect me so much. But I 100 percent accept it’s just part of who I am.

Selena O’Hanlon, Canadian five-star eventer

Andrew Welles Doesn’t Stress Over 4 Faults

“Sometimes a small thing, like knocking down a rail in a class, can feel like a failure in that moment. Four faults can seem like a much larger problem than it really is. I try not to look at those moments as failures. Sure, I may have failed to reach a goal I wanted to conquer that day, but I try to see what I can take away from that experience. 

You’ve got to remember that we’re jumping animals over poles in shallow cups. That puts it in perspective for me. 

It’s the knowledge and the wisdom I come away with after I knock down a rail or fail to get my horse in front of my leg that’s important. I can go home and train to improve. 

It’s also important to remember there are factors outside of your control. I may set goals to qualify for this horse show or land a spot on this team. It’s hard for me to say it’s a failure if I don’t reach those goals because I can’t always control the outcome. 

Small mess ups can feel like failure, but it’s what you do in those moments afterward that really matter.” 

– Andrew Welles, American grand prix show jumper

Mary Bahniuk Lauritsen: Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

“About five or six years ago, I had an amazing opportunity to work with a new sponsor/client. It was a big deal for me and my career at the time, and I dedicated my entire business around this one opportunity. It was really amazing, and I had so many nice horses to ride. 

But I put all my eggs in one basket, and had to learn the hard way that clients will always come and go. When that client left, it was a pretty big blow. I went from having nine horses in training to two. I had passed on a number of other opportunities and made a lot of sacrifices along the way. I took a huge hit financially overnight. 

I really had to start from scratch after that to rebuild my business. Yes, I’d had a good short-term run with this person. And I had made a name for myself along the way. But I learned my lesson. I don’t work for one person. I work for myself. 

Now my business is thriving. It’s three times the size it was back then.”

Mary Bahniuk Lauritsen, American grand prix dressage rider

Doug Payne: Less Improvise, More Intention

“In 2010, I got to represent the U.S. in my first Nation’s Cup at the Boekelo CCI*** in Holland. I was riding a horse at the time called Running Order. It was his first time at that level. 

Our dressage test was underwhelming and we had two stops on cross-country. Then we had two down in show jumping. The team ended up doing fine, but I was the drop score, for sure. 

That was the first time I rode around with the big names I had been reading about and watching for years. While my performance wasn’t a complete disaster, my results were a big motivator to work harder and get better. 

I’ve always been an extremely competitive guy, but I’m pretty laid back in my personality. So my mindset was always to never get too stressed when I had to patch problems together at the last minute. What I learned from this show was that this method wasn’t going to work anymore if I wanted to continue to be competitive. 

The guy who was winning paid extraordinary attention to detail any time he was riding or just around the horses. That’s what hit home for me. I was being too lax. 

So I went home and worked harder. I stopped relying on my ability to improvise at the last minute. I expected more out of everything I rode, from the four year old to my five-star horse.”

– Doug Payne, American Olympic eventer

Georgina Bloomberg On Getting Over Embarrassment

“I fail a lot. My most embarrassing moment was when I was doing the pony hunters. I had a green pony that did not get lead changes. There was absolutely nothing you could do. You just had to land it over the jump. I was at the Garden State Horse Show when I was about 14 or 15. The pony ring was a roped off section of a large ring. The rest of that large ring the junior hunter ring. 

I was going around the diagonal line, and tried desperately to get him to do a lead change. But he tucked his head down and bucked. Before I knew it, he jumped over the rope and into the other ring. I pulled up, got myself together and looked around to realize what had happened.  There was a look of pure panic on my face. I didn’t know what to do. 

Unfortunately at the point, the junior hunters were all jogging. At this age, they were all my idols. I looked up to these junior hunter riders. I was never more embarrassed. The in-gate was of course on the opposite end of where I had  jumped in. They had to hold up the jog while all the teenage hunters stood there gazing at me. I had to go all the way past each one of them, and to the in-gate, where every top New York trainer was staring at me with their mouth open. 

At that moment, I thought I’d never recover. Now I can’t stop laughing. What I learned was, one day I’ll look back on these ‘most embarrassing moments’ and just laugh.”

– Georgina Bloomberg, American grand prix show jumper