Updated February 28, 2006

The mental exercise called Visualization is getting a lot of attention in many sports venues

Follow The Bouncing Hunt Cap: Visualization

The mental exercise called Visualization is getting a lot of attention in many sports venues. You know: picture yourself successfully hurling the basketball into the hoop . . . winning the five-mile run without breaking a sweat . . . putting the little white golf ball neatly into the hole. Okay, I'm with you so far. Then I tried to actually visualize my horse, Pudsy, piaffing his way to Olympic freestyle fame.

With I stopped laughing (medication was involved), I wondered: when is it visualizing and when is it hallucinating? Is hallucinating necessarily a bad thing, if it makes reality slide by more easily?

Successful equestrian visualization is probably based upon setting realistic goals. Perhaps the idea of Pudsy at the Olympics (in a capacity other than the doorstop to the lounge area) was a little too close to science fiction. So I imagined Pudsy at home with his trainer, doing a nice extended trot on a sunny afternoon. In my visualization: no one fell down; no one sprained anything while sneezing or scratching; and the USDF didn't offer to pay me to find Pudsy a new career in some other discipline.

I gave this visualization a reasonable length of time to take place . . . 12 years, give or take. During that time, Pudsy managed to master standing and, sometimes, walking. Then, still without the gorgeous extended trot of my dreams, I decided that some crucial element must still be missing.

Maybe the HORSE needs to be visualizing, too. Picture it, Pudsy! Come on, boy!

Hmmm. I reluctantly conclude that Pudsy's visualization skills center on feedtime and mares. I also suspect he's envisioning me pestering some other animal in some other barn. Perhaps a skunk in an abandoned silo in North Dakota.

Okay. Starting over. I mustn't let negative thoughts undermine my vast potential. So I visualize my leg as I sit in the saddle. It's getting longer. It's elegant and long and . . . there's something disturbing about this picture. My left leg is one meter longer than my right. Note to visual cortex of brain: don't concentrate on just ONE leg. Always do both.

Moving on. My leg position can only be described as elegance incarnate. And look! Pudsy has morphed into Brentina! See his power and grace. Feel the self-carriage, the poetry, the sheer splendor of every movement!

[Brief delay.] Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the blackout. The nice doctors explained to me the difference between constructive visualizatin and a psychotic break, and I'm better now.

I have ferreted out the flaws in modern visualization technique as it applies to horse shows: the other riders are imagining THEMSELVES winning! Why, that's just selfish. We're cancelling each other out. Shouldn't we all be envisioning ME winning? Let's show some teamwork, people!

Back to Square One. I visualize myself successfully visualizing. I picture my mind's eye in my mind's eye and . . . ouch. This may well require a pair of three-D glasses.

This time my visualization unfolds on a giant mental movie screen. The director has wisely chosen Charlize Theron to play me. Charlize has captured the real me, if only I were younger, thinner, taller, tanner, smarter, more athletic, and better looking. Who will play Pudsy? The casting director went with a Disney animated approach for Pudsy. I only hope Pudsy's not about to burst into song.

I've been researching guided dreaming. This is the art of falling asleep (Pudsy and I are good at that part), then directing our dreams into positive avenues. I liked the idea of a spirit guide. I assumed that Pudsy and I would have a tiger, gazelle, falcon or even a koala bear as our spirit animal. No such luck. Upon discovering that our spiritual crossing guard is a dung beetle, we decided to return to traditional styles of visualization.

By the way, I'd like a written guarantee that my daydreams will never become visible to the people around me. Why? Have you ever heard of the word 'inappropriate'? Well, forget it and try 'bizarre' and 'just plain mean'. I sometimes use my tremendous powers of visualization for Evil. I'm nost content to visualize The Pudsmeister performing perfectly in the show ring. Sometimes I imagine my arch-rival suffering the worst ride of her life. Her horse forgets everything he ever knew and does a spectacular impression of a rodeo horse with a hornet in its ear. Did I mention that his left front foot is stuck in a bucket? And that the rider performed the entire disaster wearing purple flannel Mickey Mouse pajamas?

Some mental disciplines require you to empty your mind completely. Blank. Nada. Tabula rasa. A test pattern, but without the test and the pattern. I'm unusually suited to such techniques, and I betting that Pudsy, between naps, will be good at it too.

Perhaps I had a lobotomy and it slipped my mind. But, to give credit where credit is due, visualization really works. Pudsy doesn't.

• Reprinted from Hunter & Sport Horse Magazine
• Sep/Oct 2005 Issue
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