You couldn’t blame Richard Vogel if he was strolling on air proper now.
The 28-year-old German rider received the person gold medal on the European Championships aboard his longtime associate United Contact S—broadly thought-about probably the most gifted present leaping horses of his period.
What’s extra? They did so on a record-setting penalty rating of 0.01.
However it may shock you to study that, whereas different riders could be basking within the glory of that victory for the subsequent few weeks, Vogel could very nicely be keeping off a case of the post-victory blues.
That’s proper. With regards to his aggressive mindset, a superb win, in accordance with Vogel, can usually be tougher for him to compartmentalize than a far tougher day on the workplace.
If at first you don’t succeed…
“It sounds very illogical, however usually, after a very dangerous spherical or failure, sure, you’re down and pissed off. [Maybe] you misplaced the category due to rail, [maybe you were] too deep and there’s a frustration for a few hours. However then, rapidly, there comes a motivation,” he explains.
His instance: the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games. Vogel is the primary to inform you he didn’t produce the outcomes he and his workforce have been hoping for at his Olympic debut. The German workforce led on day one, however ended up fifth total. He completed fifty fifth individually. That outcome and, extra importantly, his potential to course of the result has helped to guide him to subsequent successes reminiscent of this yr’s European Championship.
“Sure, I used to be pissed off [after Paris]. I used to be down and the whole lot, however that lasted a few days, and I really obtained type of a preventing intuition, or an vitality, that stated, Okay, I would like to make use of [this].
“Out of that frustration, I get an enormous motivation to enhance and to do one thing higher. Once I work as much as one thing, and I win a Grand Prix, or have a superb outcome, [actually in] the times after, I really feel a bit empty.
“Like, the mission is accomplished. However what do you get out of it? To win a category doesn’t make you a greater rider.
“To experience a jump-off and to not be fast sufficient, or flip too tight, be too deep, catch a rail, issues like this—they make you a greater rider, as a result of you’ll be able to analyze it, and you may enhance.”
That concept that a point of ‘failure’ presents a possibility to enhance is a cornerstone of Vogel’s progress mindset. Whereas he admits to being as prone as the remainder of us in terms of unfavorable considering after a disappointment within the ring, Vogel says he permits himself these emotions—for a time. Then, he places them to work.
“I feel you must attempt to recover from that time fast sufficient, after which actually analyze, Okay, the place have been the errors? What can I do higher? What do I’ve to enhance if I get in such a scenario another time in my life, or the subsequent time in my life? What do I’ve to do higher to get a distinct outcome?
“Most likely, nobody desires to fail, I feel this may be stated. I don’t prefer to lose, to fail, or to [make] a mistake. That’s clearly not one thing I take pleasure in, however I in a short time understand that it’s a part of the method to get higher. It’s nearly the way you take care of it.”
Stress is a present
The German rider takes a equally glass-half-full strategy in terms of how he copes with stress within the ring. Regardless of recurrently competing in worldwide championships—the place he jumps Reese-Witherspoon-sized fences at pace—Vogel says his potential to deal with stress isn’t any completely different than a rider competing within the .80 jumpers at a neighborhood horse present.
Positive, the stakes could also be greater, however Vogel argues his five-star medal spherical is simply as necessary to him as a transparent, secure spherical at a far decrease top could be to any junior or beginner rider. The one distinction? The way in which Vogel (and the remainder of us) both succeed or fail to channel emotions of stress to our aggressive benefit.
“You get to take care of stress, which [kind of] prepares you a bit for all times exterior of horses,” Vogel explains. “I feel that’s additionally a pleasant factor in regards to the sport.
“I can nearly focus higher after I after I [know] it’s necessary. And that’s why I might name [pressure] a present.
“I get nervous, sure, however in a really constructive approach.
“I feel some individuals get nervous in the way in which that they decelerate, or it handicaps [them]. They get into these conditions, and so they freeze just a little bit; they’re afraid to do one thing unsuitable after they really feel it’s essential, after which they hesitate just a little longer to [make] a choice.
“Whereas, in these moments, I at all times prefer to say I see extra what I can win than what I can lose,” Vogel continues.
“I generally tend to stay with my first concept, with my first impression, [or] response. And, usually sufficient, that’s additionally the proper selection. After which, the sooner you react, the higher you’ll be able to execute a plan—particularly on a course the place each second counts within the second.”
Personal your errors
Even champions, as we all know, have laborious days. However there’s no such factor as a free lunch in present leaping (or at horse exhibits, for that matter). For Vogel, aggressive setbacks can gasoline a fair greater degree of efficiency, nevertheless it takes honesty and introspection, and it has to begin with you.
So as to study out of your errors, he says, you first must personal them.
“You possibly can ignore [failure] or you’ll be able to put it on one thing else; in your environment—perhaps the tack wasn’t ok, this was unsuitable, that was unsuitable, [the footing] wasn’t ok. On the finish of the day, you’ll be able to take care of failure and with errors [better when] you’ll be able to settle for that it’s in your palms.
“Even when the tack was unsuitable, it’s in your palms. Possibly you must put extra thought into what tack you utilize, or what bit is correct for what horse, and so on.
“There’s clearly plenty of particulars that go into our sport. However, in the event you can settle for that you made a mistake, and also you at all times begin with your self—What can I do to not make the identical mistake once more? Then, I feel, you begin to get higher. That’s the place you begin to enhance and to study.”
The newly minted European Champions is the primary to confess that driving a stallion just like the now-13-year-old United Contact S has put him in a privileged place, and in addition, that that place is a short lived one. “The fact is, [it’s not] each interval in your profession that you’ve got a horse like United Contact. You have got some horses that may bounce to that degree, however not as simply, and [they are] not as gifted as United Contact.
“In order that’s, for positive, coming; some tougher duties for me as a rider than having United Contact going into these Grands Prix or huge exhibits,” he displays.
True to type, nevertheless, it’s an eventuality that drives quite than paralyzes Vogel—who appears to be like ahead to embracing the approaching challenges head-on. (Although, hopefully, he stresses, solely after many extra years of United Contact underneath his saddle.)
“I feel [the thing that separates] a loser from a champion [is] how rapidly they’ll get up after they get overwhelmed down,” he says. “And, on the finish of the day, you must at all times get up another time than you fall down.”
