GP Dressage Rider Natasha Althoff: ‘Fear Is My Green Light’
The Australian rider and unstoppable businesswoman talks mindset, motherhood and the Olympic dream
Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
As I sit down for my Zoom call with Australian Grand Prix dressage rider Natasha Althoff, I know I have too many questions, but I just cannot bring myself to cut them down. Not only is my interviewee a fantastic rider and businesswoman, she’s also a social media success and a champion of women’s superpowers – I need to know all her secrets.
“We have to learn to be a leader to our horse,” she tells me as we talk about riding fear, adding that if a horse is tense or hot at a competition, it’s not our job to buy into his anxiety.
In fact, although she acknowledges that riding “is very emotional for some reason”, she compares being in the saddle to running a company: you can’t afford to get upset when you’re the one in charge.
“I don’t get to have an emotion right now,” she says. “I get to be scared in my horse float at the end of the day once I’ve stopped being a leader. So right now, I’ve taken on the responsibility to look after my horse, to lead him to greatness, and my job is to reassure him, tell him everything is going to be ok, calm my body and show up for him.”
Althoff takes her position as a leader very seriously, which might explain how she’s come to achieve so much in riding and in business. As well as being the first person to take a Friesian horse all the way to Grand Prix in dressage in Australasia, she is also the founder of the online coaching company Your Riding Success, which aims help to equestrians around the world become better riders and has over 145,000 subscribers on YouTube.
As part of the business, Althoff, who is also an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner, deals specifically with overcoming riding fear. She explains that there are three steps to achieving fearless riding: understanding what fear is, learning how to remove it and developing self-confidence.
I’m fascinated to know if Althoff herself has ever had to deal with a very scary situation.
“Yeh so, I always tell people… I get where you’re at. My stallion bucked me off and I broke a bone in my back and I couldn’t get on him for a month, so I had this whole month to think about it, and to put my foot in that stirrup and swing my leg over, knowing he would probably do it again, knowing that I had no right to swing my leg over his back unless I [was] confident, because it’s not his job to keep me safe, it’s not his job to make me not scared, it’s my job,” she says.
“So that’s .. what started me on the whole fear journey anyway, because I really understood it from a personal point of view.”
Natasha competing her newest FEI warmblood mare. Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
Overcoming fear
I quiz her then, what does she, a Grand Prix dressage rider, actually do and think in those really tough riding moments we’re all familiar with?
She tells me she has sayings such as “fear is my green light to go” and “fear is my stepping-stone to success” and that feeling fear can be good – it signals to her that she’s doing something out of her comfort zone. Plus it’s reassuring to know that even if things don’t go to plan, most of the time we can deal with the consequences and come out stronger.
“Most people that have fear in their riding … they’ve decided back in childhood that it’s not OK to be out of control,” Althoff explains when I ask where she thinks fear comes from. She adds that riders will often try to claw back control by riding inside or avoiding getting on in the wind, even though, deep down, they know they can’t control the horse.
“They have to learn that you have to accept the consequences. Which they do in their car every day.”
Most riders could benefit from having a more positive outlook, she says, flipping the “What-If Game” from: “What if I hurt myself?” to: “What if I have the best ride ever?”
Natasha wants to help women overcome their fears. Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
‘I’m going to help women live their best lives’
As an equestrian yoga teacher, I also want to inspire riders to have a healthier riding mindset. Althoff thinks yoga could be helpful in this way and tells me an important thing to remember in top-level dressage is to be present.
“To train a dressage horse, if you’re in the future or in the past you’re screwed,” she says.
“I know for me, my mindset, I’m constantly future-based … You need to prepare for the movement ahead, you need to know that a corner’s coming or a half-pass is coming, but I constantly was rushing to that half-pass, and not going: But what’s happening right now so my half-pass can be better in three strides?”
Also affecting riders, she says, is a lack of self-belief, with many holding people on to criticism they’ve received in the past. Women especially, she thinks, often don’t believe in themselves.
“I might have people who in their careers are just insane, but they don’t bring it to their riding,” she explains.
“We need to break that pattern and show them their true selves and their true potential because they’re brilliant and they can do anything they want.”
With this in mind, Althoff now wants to help women in general (not just riders), and has developed two new coaching programmes: Unstoppable Woman and Unstoppable Business Woman. Her goal, originally “I’m going to help you become the rider you dream to be”, is now: “I’m going to help women live their best lives”.
Above: Natasha riding at 3.5 months pregnant. Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
‘Being a mother is hard’
But for women who are pregnant or mothers, there could be something else affecting their riding brain. At least for some, it seems the fear of an injury may be heightened after becoming a mother because of the potential impact of that injury on their children’s lives (not just their own).
Althoff – who has two children – says being a mum is different for everybody, and that her marriage to “the most amazing human on the planet” gives her confidence that her children would always be OK. But she understands how it can be daunting as a new mum, and has created this video for anyone who is worried about riding again after having children.
She also tells me that she didn’t want to lose herself to motherhood.
“I made a conscious decision I wasn’t going to allow it to change [me],” she says, adding that she rode during her two pregnancies up until around 36 or 38 weeks, got back on four days after her first natural birth and was competing again six weeks later.
“[Riding] felt different from about 20 weeks because you’ve got something in front of you and it’s heavy so you’re leaning back, it’s not very pretty.
“So yeh I think I competed four to five months pregnant and then I couldn’t get the jackets up. And yeh when I say riding you know, I’m not jumping on young horses, I have my beautiful Friesian stallion, Grand Prix stallion, and I wouldn’t do a lot of trot. I’d piaffe, passage, canter, walk.
“And I was just very lucky … I was just having fun and I wanted to keep that connection to myself. Being a mother is hard.”
Natasha says it’s good for riders to be fit and supple. Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
Olympics and ice cream
When it comes to riding fitness, Althoff is a little easier on herself. Although she goes to the gym and has a trainer, she says she’s never done yoga, admits she doesn’t think about her body “probably as much as any athlete should”, and tells me that as a prelim rider she had visions of going to the Olympics and eating ice cream.
But she does recognise the importance of staying fit and supple, and says this became more apparent to her as she moved up the levels.
“As you advance in your riding … you realise how important your control is, your ability to hold your body, your ability to be soft and go with the horse [but not be] sitting on a couch.”
At Grand Prix level “the expectation you have on this animal to use its body is so extreme, so that expectation that you can control your body to that level of extreme, becomes higher and higher.”
A certain amount of flexibility also seems beneficial for everyday riders, she concedes – it allows us to mount from the ground, ride bigger horses and it may stop us from blocking the horse’s movement.
“Any horse you’re riding, you’re just searching for the tension and resistance, and unlocking it,” she says.
“You need to make your horse a supple machine. So … I think it is very important there is no resistance to the scope of whatever your horse is requiring your flexibility and suppleness to be.”
Natasha has always wanted to go to the Olympics. Photo courtesy of Natasha Althoff
Win or lose, Sunday is Mexican night
Today, Althoff is riding just two horses once a week and says her riding is as good as it’s ever been, which she thinks is due to muscle memory.
I wonder if the Olympics – something she has always wanted – is still on the cards.
“I haven’t given up on the Olympic dream, but the Olympic dream is: I will do it my way,” she tells me, explaining that the pressure and expectations she experienced previously just didn’t feel right.
At the end of the day, she just wants to enjoy her riding and her life, and whether she scores 45 percent or 75 percent in a weekend dressage test, Sunday night is still Mexican night in her household.
“I can’t lose here. Because I have people that love me, and I have Mexican, and I have chocolate. That’s all I actually need in my life.”
Natasha Althoff — At A Glance
Natasha Althoff is a Grand Prix dressage rider and NLP Master Practitioner. She was the first person to take a Friesian all the way to Grand Prix in dressage in Australasia. Althoff founded Your Riding Success in 2009 to help riders all around the world with their riding. It includes programmes on overcoming fear, goal setting and dressage and has over 145,000 YouTube subscribers plus 96,000 followers on Facebook. She now runs YRS with her business partner Alicia Dickinson, also a Grand Prix dressage rider. Althoff is passionate about helping riders and women succeed in every area of their life and recently launched two new programmes: Unstoppable Woman and Unstoppable Businesswoman. Althoff coaches people to find courage and power within themselves to make positive changes in their life and business. Her podcast Your Everything Success!! includes inspirational stories and ideas on how to progress in riding and in life.
