Are you scared when you ride your horse!

I am nervous after dealing with some scary behaviour when my horse had a sore back. He bronced and reared, and it scared me a lot. I bought him as a novice hack and so it's not like i expected to have to deal with those sort of problems. He is now better and our trust is growing with every ride. The nerves I have are totally related to the incidents when he was in pain, and I 'know' there is nothing to be frightened of. I trust him about 79% now lol.
I trust my welsh mare a lot more, as there is no bad history there.
A lot of the fear results from a pony falling on my whilst galloping on the common. Never been so frightened in my life, so when I can address that fear and conquer it, I think everything will fall into place.
Both my welsh and my gelding are on camomile, the welsh to help her deal with moving to a new place (when I bought her she'd been in the same home for 8 of her 9 years) and with backing and being ridden. The gelding had it to help him with being re-backed (he shook at the knees when we first started)
I think there is a time and a plce for calmers. I think if people use them to calm the natural 'pace' of a horse's temperament, then perhaps they should consider the horse isnt right for them, however a horse that is anxious I think can benefit from calmers to help them deal with situations, until they have more confidence in themselves and their handeller.
 
Not now, but i did lose my confidence last year after a few falls when jumping. My confidnece is slowly coming back and i feel much comfortable riding now. It had nothing to do with my horse as he is laidback straightforward lazy horse who just does as much as you ask him too. He can spook etc, but straight afterwards he just goes back to being as calm as he was before.
 
Never. When I first started riding her 5 years ago I was scared of her as I knew what she was capable of.
Now I never get nervous when riding her.
If I was to use a calmer with her it would be more for her than me. Just to get her concentrating on me and not what's going on elsewhere.
 
I am not nervous riding my current mare, nor was I when riding my previous mare but my last two geldings gave me some frights. One of them could buck in a circle doing handstands all the way and there was no way that I could sit to it. The other used to stop dead from canter whilst I merrily sailed on until I hit the ground and he also bucked everyone off several times including the two trainers who were trying (and sadly failing) to re-school him. I became too scared to even get on him because I knew that I wouldn't stay on for long once he started bucking because he wouldn't stop until he got you off.

I feel very lucky now to have found a wonderful pony that I trust and who trusts me. She still has her little "moments" but nothing she's ever done has worried me at all, even her spooks are generally minor and her ears are soon pricked again.
 
Nope - and she bucks, jogs, rears, takes off, spins round, the full works!

I will be using calmers on her when/if we go hunting because she's a rearer and has flipped over before, when over-excited. That's the only time I was scared on her because I thought we were going to die.
 
It's a weird one for me, this. I do use a calmer on my boy because he is quite highly strung and spooky, but I'm not scared to ride him. Sometimes he unnerves me, as he can be unpredictable, but I think this is more to do with the mood I'm in. I know sometimes that no matter what horse I was on I would feel nervous, other times I'm game for anything! Maybe I should take the calmer!!!
grin.gif


I don't think I would keep a horse that I was really, truly scared of.
 
When I first had Chum as a novice rider of course I was nervous but he really looked after me bless him. I wouldn't say he is 100% bombproof (not keen on tractors but not silly) but he is near enough a perfect hack and I would ride him anywhere - I never think twice.

I am going to try a calmer on him when we next go hunting as he gets so excited in company and I'm more weary of the constant jogging etc after 3 hours than scared - he never does anything to scare me.
 
I get massive butterflies in my tummy before I ride, but that was after my RTA that left me on crutches for 3 weeks!
Was not ever nervous of riding Chad till then!
But now i get myself all worked up before riding, like now i am thinking about tomorrows riding.
But I know as soon as my bum is in the saddle my butterflies start to go and I am starting to enjoy it now, but that is all due to you guys on here offering me help and support when i needed it.
THANK YOU. x
And to be honest, Chad doesn't get the pills and potions, i do!!!
Rescue Remedy and Pax.
But i even think those are in the mind, and don't really have that much affect!
smile.gif
 
Top