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Winner of the PNHS Adult Medal Final
When I first met Sam, she was laser focused on rocking her mission to be Kate Egan's wingman for fashion styling and horse handling at the Sidelines Magazine photo shoot.
She introduced herself as Sam, "Kate Egan's best friend."
Kate was a junior rider at this time, and she had just won the WEC Premier Equitation Cup, so Kate actually showed up to the photo shoot with us in her new SUV that she had won at that prestigious event!
So when I pitched Sidelines to do an article on my peak performance mental skills client, Kate Egan, they were excited to feature her!
A few years later in 2025, I received a call from a freshman rider on the Dartmouth College team who asked if I would coach their team.
Mind you, not as the official team coach for Dartmouth, but separate; the girls themselves wanted to contract with me for mental skills coaching. I checked in with their team coach, got the OK, and I literally only had two weeks to get them in shape.
After a week of group coaching (I only coach by phone and audio only), I set up 1:1 coaching for each team member.
It was doing that 1:1 call when Sam began our session with ...
"By the way, we have already met in person."
I figured she would mention a quick intro done ringside at some competition, but she said, "I met you in Wellington at the photo shoot for Sidelines. I am Kate Egan's best friend."
Me: "Wait, you're THAT Sam?"
Well, long story short, I coached those girls to make history for Dartmouth College; they won their first NCEA Championship!
And then guess what just happened a few days ago?
That same Sam stayed on her Equestrian Rockstar brand and made history for herself at the Pennsylvania Horse Show!
Sam, whose real last name is Takacs (NOT "Kate Egan's Best Friend" ... although they are still best friends), won the Adult Medal Final!
She said to me in the text afterwards, "I did your rituals before I went into the ring, as I always do."
But the real magic was not so much all the rituals she learned, but Sam becoming and owning the NEW "I Am" software update.
That new identity NOT attached to her best friend, but now, stepping into and identifying with her own rockstar power.
But can we actually be stars in the making, in our own right, and yet diminish that while attaching our identities to others we deem maybe bigger stars at that particular moment ... because they won a class higher up?
Yes! But watch out! As we build others up, like our competitors, that can make us feel smaller!
This wasn't the case with Sam because she was already a star having been trained by her mother, Maria. She was just connecting the dots for me every time she attached her identity to Kate.
We are driven by our identities. In fact, we don't get our goals, we get who we are.
It all starts and ends with the bridle path (neuropathway) that we decide to be operating from.
What determines designing that pathway and staying there?
Creating and anchoring it with the "I AM" statements!
Who are you?
My clients know who they are today, and it is NOT the struggling or low performance rider they used to be.
They know that words and incantations that will get them there and keep them there.
But identity, saying incantations, and a long list of mental skills is not enough.
You have to learn how to pull it all together and work it. Rinse and repeat over and over.
You must go out there, and APPLY all your mental skills, and ride like one!
Knowledge without action is just potential.
Nancy Dye
Breakthrough, Peak Performance Mental Skills Coach
Emotional Strength & Resiliency Trainer
Strategic Interventionist
561-866-0402
NancyDyeSiCoach@gmail.com
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