Paula Curtis (00:39)
So welcome friends. Today I'm really excited because I am interviewing Barbara Schulte and she's a personal performance coach. So she's going to in the fair really help you dive into the mind piece and getting it right on the inside with your confidence, with knowing why you ride and then taking your riding and your mindset to the next level. So welcome, welcome Barbara. I appreciate you being here today.
I'm so happy to be here. I think you are doing this most marvelous job for all of us and for the horses. So thank you for all you're doing. Yes, you're welcome. And I shared this with Barbara, but I'm just going to share it with everybody watching. So anytime I get an email from Barbara, it just lifts me up. It makes my day. It makes me excited and motivated.
she doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk and it's like every interaction I have with her is one which just motivates and inspires and that's so nice because I've been working really hard on the fair and I am tired some days so some days I need that extra little pick me up so thank you for that I appreciate it. You're so welcome. Thank you for that too. So yeah so if you could just share a little bit about your journey or your story and
kind of where you started and how things have evolved. Okay. I grew up in southern Illinois on a, they call them farms in the Midwest with four to 500 horses. And it was our job. I, as kids, there were five of us and my dad and my parents' business was to and sell horses. So from the time, I mean, I can't ever remember not riding a horse and we had a string of horses that
we had to improve and then take to a show and then market. And so we rode Western and my dad loved cutting horses. I showed raining, I showed pleasure, I showed these activities, all of those things. My dad loved cutting. So fast forward many years and I got a master's degree in speech pathology and audio.
Sorry, I showed cutting horses all through college and a little bit in graduate school. I got this degree in speech pathology and audiology. I met my husband and I was a little more distant from that because I thought I was going to be a speech pathologist this one. then he like, look at me, he goes like, do you know how to do this? And I said, yes, I do. So it was because of my husband that I got back.
into cutting horses and so was he was he riding at the time as well or or he had done you know just real casual riding but he never you know had any formal training or showed any kind of horses but he loved horses he was he was fascinated by them got it so then i'm not really sure why you know how it happens in our lives that we're we are attracted to things or things happen but
always loved motivational things, know, potential and what made us all tick and all that. And my sister shared a resource, Dr. Jim Lehrer, and it was at that time called LG Sports Center in Orlando, Florida, where they train professional and Olympic athletes how to perform under pressure. So I went there, this was in, I would say,
in the early 90s or something like that. so I won't get too much in the weeds here, but as fate would have it, they were looking to certify personal performance coaches for different athletic endeavors. And so I became certified as a personal performance coach for equestrians in all disciplines. that training really changed my life. I mean, I get
kind of emotional even just thinking about it because Dr. Lair is just the real deal as far as understanding the human spirit. And he did all this research about how when on demand, which with our courses, know, whether we're just in not just in practice, but whenever we're with our course, we want to bring our best emotional state and mindset possible.
because our horses are so connected to that, right? And so to when we connect to our best and have this calmness and focus and clarity and kind of leave in that moment, anything that's bothering us again in that moment with a horse, then we have our best opportunity to really connect with a horse. And for showing horses, of course, it would be like,
Olympic and professional athletes competing under pressure. So it is fabulous training. And since that time, I have never stopped studying it and studying that, expanding that, studying other people. I just mentioned briefly about learning. I'm a voracious learner. just like me and I don't know, I need more time to learn more.
I just always love learning about everything. so the performer skills that I learned initially, again, are about this ability, whether it's being nervous or fearful or coming back from an accident or any of those kinds of things, it's that ability to understand the process and use very specific tools.
Because sometimes people think of mental skills as being kind of like airy-fairy. And part of it certainly is inspiration that you can do it, no doubt. But there are very specific tools that enable you to access a state of emotion that gets your body in just in the right, know, muscle tension, heart rate, brain wave activity.
that allows your talent skill to come out with whatever you do. And so with the horse, it allows us to even be connected to a horse's emotions, allows us not to clamp a horse riding, all of those kinds of things. Yeah, that's so interesting that there's a formula almost, or this process is almost this formula that is setting you up for success. It's something that you have to follow to really, it like guarantee results. If I could scream it.
off of the highest buildings. And I'm just saying that, you know, like I just feel it. I would share with people that it exists because it's so powerful and it's so easy to do and it's a skill set. You know, sometimes we think that really confident people, really successful people has something that we don't have and that we're not going to get it.
But the reality is that in terms of mental skills and performer skills, it's a very pretty, really easy, straightforward set of skills to learn. The key is that you just have to understand and then you practice them and apply them. And of course, ideally get feedback about it. But it's so powerful because it's of the heart.
and it's a performance. And I can say that the concepts of it really helped me when our son passed away from cancer. And sometimes it's kind of like, do I want to say that or do I not want to say that? Because I know that that's hard for people to hear. But I say it because we all in our lives have these moments and these trials.
these performer skills, what I learned, like save my life, literally in my understanding more about what I needed to do to recover, to heal from that and to move forward. So they are performance on demand, but they're not just that, they're life skills too. I'm very sorry to hear about your son. Thank you.
but that's interesting that you're able to even through something as difficult as that apply. Did you have these skills beforehand? Yes. Okay. Yes, I have written courses and done that sort of thing. Okay. And one of the skills, for example, is that when we, it's all really about your state of emotion.
and that you can train that. It's not just how you wake up in the morning. And you want to get to a place where you have the ability to get very calm and really focused, to be able to stay in the moment to do what you want to do. one of the things, one of the concepts is that my body and emotion are inseparable. Like if you do one thing with one, it has an effect on the other.
Well, in the personal performance, you're training emotions. That's what actors and actresses do every day when they're in films and that sort of thing. Well, so you use your body and you use your mind to get into a certain mindset, emotional set. Well, when you have an emotional, well, when you have a physical trauma, we can all relate to.
the fact that you have to rest, like say if you break your leg or something, like you can't just run around the next day. But you see it as it's physical. Emotionally, you can't see it. So I learned in my training that for my optimum health and recovery, I really had to rest because emotion, physical, you
mind body emotion is the same. You just can't see emotion on the outside. So that really led me to being able to have a whole way to make sure that you know that I rested and listened to what I was feeling and all that stuff. To learn from somebody like you that's been through it and really understands it like to their core that's pretty helpful. I mean there's so much more there that...
Horses see the horses feel bad and I from a time I was a little girl on I Might my parents didn't keep horses. They would buy and sell and trade horses Oh, I was to improve the horses and help them market them So it wasn't like I had a horse for 15 years. I never really had my own horse for very long and so I Loved horses, of course and cherish them
that I never had. It's so interesting to me. Again, it's all really touching to me or to think about it is that it wasn't until after Zane's passing that all I wanted to do was go out and have my horses and that I began this whole journey of understanding beyond the arena. I, my profession after graduate school was a
professional cutting horse trainer. I spent 30 some years doing that, loved it, still cut, still loved all of that. ⁓ That's my personal discipline. That's what I'm trying to say. That's my personal discipline of fiction is cutting and cattle. so, but I just realized and continue to mine the impact
of the value of the force and heart and healing. you know, so that was one of the gifts of my experience with our son. So a lot of my work now has expanded to, you know, I talk a lot about confidence, you know, with our horses and it, there's a big personal performance piece to it.
But then there's also what I call confidence within, which is that, you know, like why, you know, why does each rider ride? Because when we get sometimes in our little worlds, it becomes so important that we're, you know, show the way other people show or have the right horse or the right tack or in a boarding bar and what do other riders think or that sort of thing. Or, you know, like,
we're expected sometimes that we think we should do something that we don't really want to do or we don't understand that our joy and our experience with the horses is that day. I mean, we want to learn that we're striving and all of that, but it's not a judgment of if you're good enough or a good enough person or something. And so that whole area, I call that confidence with them, which is just,
coming to your heart of what you love and being true to that, your values, your vision for your writing, what brings you joy, and how do you go about pursuing that and having the courage to pursue it. And then the other part is confidence with other people because that's always was a thing, it was a topic that kept coming up with my group.
on my website is this is the number one thing, you what are people going to think of me? And so now the training I do called core confidence includes all three of those pieces. That really takes people through not only a process, but addresses all of those elements that I think either get glazed over or some of them just, you just assume a person's just that way when maybe they've worked really hard at it and
But what it really brings you to is that hurt connection with the horse and the true meaning behind why you're doing it. how worthy each person's reason is. mean, and how that doesn't have to be blessed by anyone else. And what a rich reservoir of
true joy and love exists there for people to enjoy and not have their joy be based on if they made a mistake or if they didn't quite measure up or whatever. Yeah, and I think that's a hard one, writing for other people what they're going to think and what the judge is going to think or writing for the next competition instead of writing for
today and you and your horse in that moment that you're in. And I love how accepting you are of the fact that this is so personal. It's so individual and it's so much between you and your horse and where you're at and the rest of it doesn't matter because if you can find that, then the path is just going to kind of lay itself out in front of you and it's going to be a joyous one.
It has true meaning to you. Exactly. I think seeking really the best technical skill instruction that you can see. mean, that is obviously so important. Again, according to what resonates with you and seeking an instructor who's encouraging in, I think,
all instructors and tend to be encouraging, but some people, some instructors feel more encouraging to some people than other ones. constantly learning the technical side about courses and all of the great people that you have in the spare is like a perfect like gem of a resource for that to just.
keep learning and have learning for its own sake and for the sake of the horse. And then to have that heart piece of your own joy and to allow others to have their joy. then with that, use that, grow that personal performance piece where you can like
come and be with your horse, whether you're practicing or you're getting ready to go in the world show and show and be your best so that you can ride at your best and overcome nerves and all that sort of thing. So it's really very exciting to me. It really is very exciting. Yes. that is exciting. it's exciting how much influence, to know how much influence we actually
when we have the right tools, we actually can create what we're looking for. We're stuck where, yeah. And it's all about practices. I'm so glad you said that. OK, so it's not like you get something. It's not airy-fairy. It's using tools to understand.
how to do something. It's just like learning a technical skill, right? Mind, body, emotion are all the same. The processes are the same. But then you have to practice. It's just like you're writing. Or like in the confidence within piece, having a daily reflection, or like a journaling, or a meditation, or something that reminds us of
what we love and what our values are and how are we practicing those values. having that, doesn't have to be a big deal, it can be whatever you want. And then having the practice of having a writing plan and knowing what the script you're going to say to yourself and the personal performance tools. And then just getting really clear about relationships and feedback. And so then you have this
foundation of who you are as a writer.
and some peas and you practice again, keep connecting with it. You don't just go, that's a good idea. And you shove it away like some new year's resolutions or something. then you practice your personal performance skills all the while. you're so great. Gratitude is such a great practice. you did for the horse, gratitude for our lives. Like how lucky are we? ⁓
to be with horses and horse people. Yeah. totally. And I agree completely. And I think it's so interesting because I think it's easy for people to see like horses that can be very much creatures of patterns and habits. And we know that through training and being consistent and applying techniques in a way that is consistent, we can
practice and have a practice of creating new patterns and habits. But the same what you're saying is the same thing for you and I. We have that ability to change and remake who we are through what you're offering these practices and and if we don't, Paula, if we don't, go back to default ways of thinking and being and unfortunately some of those
are not ideal, let's just put it that way. You know, like talking to ourselves about what we don't want instead of what we want, something as simple as that. Well, that's a lifetime of thinking about all the things that we don't want, what might go wrong. So yes, it's a practice. Yeah. I think everybody is going to have some really good key takeaways.
from our chat here today and I know they will have some amazing takeaways from your presentation. So I encourage everyone take notes because I think that allows us to not only go, yeah, that was really good, but then we are going through a process again of taking that in and now we have something we can reflect back on and look to and say, yeah, I'm gonna try that. And sometimes I think it's just about trying one thing and making a practice of it.
And that can kind of help show you the way. And you're giving people quite a few things that they can try. So thank you for that. I think that's great. I appreciate it. And I'm sure everybody that watches your presentation is going to appreciate it greatly. Anything you'd like to leave the audience with? Wow. I would say right off the top of my head to really give some serious thought
to the reason why you're with your horse. It doesn't matter if it's on the ground, it doesn't matter if you're riding, it doesn't matter. And what that joy is, because you already have that. It's not something that you have to get better at to experience that why. Also, what you value, what's important to you, because, you know, even with, let's just take this as an example, your online
fair, there's a lot of information. And so as people watch that, or I'm looking so forward to watching it, and I'm gonna, I'm looking forward to taking away gems that connect with me and my values and maybe flying away. I might go back and revisit that, but like what's important because different things are important to different people. And then I would say, the last thing I would say,
is to just so trust your journey. Because we all have so many disappointments. Our horses get sore, an inconvenient time for a ride or show, or we have an unfortunate accident, those are tough. And things happen. And there's always, always,
a gift in the misfortune. And I personally, one of my values is that for every misfortune and every inconvenience, every heartache, that there's an equal to a greater gift that's in that, but we have to be open to it. And I think that that begins with trusting our journey. So just that simple like trust and willingness to be open.
and learn and see what comes our way makes it exciting.
That does make it exciting. think that's a great way to leave it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. I'm just so honored to be among all these fabulous people. thank you. Really great people. Well, you're welcome. And we appreciate having you having you a part of it.
