From Pressure to Presence: What I Learned Competing at the IGP Worlds

 Mindset learnings from the IGP World Championships and Gracie’s recent Championship Obedience win

This has been a big year for Gracie and me — the kind of year I never thought would happen. After nearly losing her last year to a mysterious immune illness, this year has felt nothing short of miraculous. She’s bounced back to full health, full of joy, and it’s turned into our most successful competition season ever.

We started the year by heading to Germany to train, to reconnect with friends, and to immerse ourselves in learning. We trialled IGP3, and Gracie achieved the top scores in the event — 91, 96, and 94. It was huge. A massive confidence boost for both of us.

So when we entered the FCI World Championship selection trial under one of the toughest, most respected judges in the world, I was… nervous, to put it mildly. Truthfully, I worried he’d laugh at us. That he’d take one look at my small Aussie girl and think, she’s not good enough.

But little Gracie had other plans. She gave everything she had and walked away with the Highest Points in Obedience Trophy, qualifying for the World Championships — the first Australian Shepherd in history ever to do so.

This had always been a far-fetched, audacious dream — something I’d secretly imagined but never believed could actually happen. After all, no Aussie had ever competed there, and Gracie is a small, female one at that. It couldn’t be her… could it?

The Weight of Expectation

Becoming the first Aussie to qualify for the World Championships brought immense pride — but also a lot of pressure. I wanted to do our breed proud. I wanted to prove that Aussies could belong on that field.

So, we worked. Hard.

One of the best antidotes to pressure is preparation, and we trained relentlessly. When I learned that the tracking would be on ploughed land — a surface we’d never worked on before — I travelled all over the country to find anything similar. We trained in every condition imaginable, at every time of day. We put in the miles, the hours, and the sweat.

I love having a goal to work toward, and the process of training and preparing was joyful. But as the competition drew closer and I began planning the logistics — travelling alone to Spain, managing the dogs, the heat, and the unknowns — the feelings of excitement mixed with nerves and, yes, pressure.

I wanted so much for Gracie to show the world how extraordinary Aussies can be.

And then, in our final bitework session before leaving… it all went wrong. A complete disaster. I left for Spain anxious, doubting myself, and the pressure dialled up to maximum.

And as every competitor knows, pressure is the enemy of performance.

Turning Pressure into Alchemy

So, I had to perform a kind of alchemy — transforming those heavy, anxious feelings of pressure into something useful. Into motivation. Into focus. Into presence.

For me, “upping my mental game” doesn’t mean putting on a hard face, shutting down emotion, or trying to bully myself into confidence. That language doesn’t help me. I don’t need to intimidate myself to perform.

What I needed — what always helps me — was to reconnect to joy.

To remember that this whole experience was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. That this very moment — the build-up, the travel, the uncertainty, the thrill — was the point of it all.

The real gift of mindset work is learning to be present.
To realise that this exact moment, right here, will never happen again.
That every single stage of this journey — the ups, the downs, the “will she, won’t she,” the excitement and disappointment — was living.

It was all part of it. And that’s where the magic lives.

Presence Over Pressure

In our Mindset Mastery Membership, I shared it all — every high, every low, every honest wobble — from the long solo drive to Spain, to the intense nerves before stepping onto the field.

I still remember standing on the edge of the ring, watching the blazing Spanish sun beat down on the field. There was no shade. Gracie would be doing her long down in full heat, then immediately expected to perform her obedience routine at full power.

I was worried — not about the competition, but about her wellbeing. And yet, that day she showed me what resilience looks like.

She didn’t perform with her usual power — the heat was brutal — but she worked her heart out. She finished with 85 points in obedience at a world championship. And the reason she completed that round wasn’t force or fear — it was trust.

She chose to keep going.

That choice means more to me than any score ever could.

Bouncing Back

The next day, I shared with the membership how I turned things around emotionally — how I stepped back onto the field with nothing but the present moment in mind.

Because it’s so easy to carry a “disappointment hangover.” One bad run can create a downward spiral — or, if we’re mindful, it can become fuel for growth.

I refused to carry it.

We reset. We breathed. We focused on connection. And we went out for the protection round like a true team.

And it worked.

Gracie’s long attack drew cheers and applause from the crowd. Her courage, control, and heart shone through. The judge awarded her a qualifying score — proof that mindset can change everything.

And her track? That was my highlight.

All that early preparation — going to Spain two weeks before, training daily on local soil, tracking in heat and dust — it paid off. Her track was near flawless. On difficult, hard ground where many dogs struggled, she earned 89 points — one of the highest scores in the world.

When she finished, she looked up at me as if to say, “Is that all? Let’s go again.”

We’d done it. We’d qualified. We’d earned the highest total score on Team GB.

All from a little Aussie with the biggest heart. 💛

The Power of Letting Go

And just when I thought the lessons were over, life gave me another surprise.

Only three days after returning home, I decided to take Gracie to her final Championship Obedience competition of the year — just for fun. She hadn’t competed in obedience for months, and I only planned to do a warm-up round.

But the moment we stepped into the ring, she lit up. Joyful. Confident. Radiant.

I thought, “Alright then — let’s do this.”

We flowed together effortlessly. She worked beautifully, joyfully, as if she were dancing. And the judge agreed — awarding her the Championship win and our ticket to the Crufts Obedience Championships 2026.

All just one week after competing in a completely different world sport.

Gracie, once again, blew me away.

My Learnings

This season — and this little dog — have taught me more about mindset than anything else in my life:

✨ The power of surrender.
✨ The importance of letting go of expectation.
✨ The peace that comes with trust — in ourselves, our dogs, and the process.
✨ The magic that lives in pure presence.

Because pressure and presence cannot coexist.
The more we try to “force” greatness, the further it slips away.

But when we surrender — when we trust, soften, and let go — that’s when flow appears.

And these lessons didn’t stop with me.

In the same weekend, two of our Mindset Mastery members — Sarah and Beverly — had incredible breakthroughs in agility. Both had been struggling with pressure. Both decided to let go.

Sarah released expectations and won her Grade 6 agility class.
Beverly, who’d battled nerves for years, finally competed joyfully with her dog for the first time — and placed in the rosettes.

That’s the power of presence.

It’s contagious.
It changes how we move, how we lead, how we connect.

So if you’re feeling pressure — from performance, perfectionism, or just life itself — remember this:
You don’t need to push harder.
You need to soften.
To trust.
To surrender.
And to show up fully, in this beautiful, never-to-be-repeated moment.

Because that’s where your power lives. 🌿

I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about Gracie and me, and if you'd like to find out more, do download my E-Book and maybe I'll see you in 2026 when the Doors Open to the next training!

With gratitude

Kat x