Riding and training horses is a long game. You can work on it for a lifetime and still won’t know it all. This is one of the best things about the sport, but it also means that - just like a long marriage - we have to work at keeping our minds right and continue to find the joy.

This can be even more profound when you’re a top athlete in the sport and are often faced with major disappointment, heartbreak, loss, and tough decisions that come with advancing up the leaderboard, buying and selling horses, etc. 

Luciana Diniz has managed to keep the joy alive in her own riding by making her connection to her horses a pillar of her training. Only a few weeks out from the Tokyo Olympic games where she’ll represent Portugal, host Caroline Culbertson and Luciana talk all about why this mindset matters and how it gives her an added edge. 

They also discuss: 

• How we balance our priorities around advancing in our sport with our innate desire to connect with the horse - and why those two things can sometimes feel like they’re at odds
• Simple practices that make Luciana more bulletproof in her own riding 
• How ego can interfere and Luciana’s own personal work around this
• How to bring joy into our riding even when daily care and training is a grind, and when things go wrong
• Luciana’s advice to riders everywhere