Can a nervous rider ever become a gung ho one?

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ginger111

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I just wondered if that's possible and if any of you started out being really nervous and now will ride anything? I am the opposite I used to be very confident and gung ho as a teenager but now I'm alot older and a mum I am far more reserved and sensible. I am not a nervous rider but I am definately more aware of falling off!
 
I think you lose nerve as you get older.

I think I am a better rider as an adult (technically and more experienced) than when I was a child, so I think I can handle horses better and therefore more confident in that sense.

However, I am more conscious that as a child you tend to bounce, whereas as an adult you sort of lay in a heap.
 
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I think you lose nerve as you get older.

I think I am a better rider as an adult (technically and more experienced) than when I was a child, so I think I can handle horses better and therefore more confident in that sense.

However, I am more conscious that as a child you tend to bounce, whereas as an adult you sort of lay in a heap.

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Ditto to that CBAnglo! I think that you are much more aware of the risks involved and the responsibilities you have as an adult.
I've never had children, but have still found that I'm sometimes nervous!
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ditto again, used to ride most things, though that was mostly due to taking up any opportunity to ride. Not so much now though, like to stick with what I know.
 
Yep - you could have sat me on a giraffe and pointed me at a 5 bar gate as a kid and I'd've given it a go. Now I try and think of any excuse not to do a 50cm fence with my 17.2hh!

Prime example the other day - asked to ride one of the younger horses out for a hack. It hadn't been out in about 4 days so was a little fresh. Gamely for me I did get on it, proceeded up the hill with it jogging and snorting like a racehorse. Then the ponies in the adjacent field decided to go for a gallop about setting this thing off at speed up the hill. Got him back - finally only to be told that "och once he's been trotting for a bit in the woods he'll be knackered and fine" - eh yeah that might be the case but there is a whole lot of hard ground and road between here and the woods and I ain't coming off
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He went back in stable to be lunged later.
 
I was much braver when I was younger. I would drag my horse out of the field when it hadnt been ridden for 3 months and jump him over a 4ft3 oxer to impress my friends, I would never ever dream of doing that now. Not least because of the poor unfit horse.
I think I was a better rider then though because I didnt overthink what i was doing, I rode on instinct.
Now I have a tendancy to obssess about the tiny details too much and get myself in a muddle.
I do think a nervous rider can become gung ho though, sometimes nerves can make me gung ho!
 
I think maybe some gung ho riders are nervous underneath anyway - you know the ones, all mouth and no trousers so to speak?!

I didn't have a chance to gain my bottle jumping when I was a kid before I lost it - over horsed and over ambitious RI! I will pop small things these days but I doubt I will ever jump much bigger.
 
Depends on the horse you are on! Like yourself I am older and also a 'mum', and always have in the back off my mind if something happens, who will do the school run!
Out hunting I am always at the front and happy jumping most things, but only because I have total confidence in my horse - put me on a youngster/strange horse and I would be whimpering at the back!!
 
Hi, I think that possibly, yes they can. But I actually think this will only happen from riding something not too quiet, and being able to ride it. I think if you are nervous and stick to the quiet horses, you will only be a wreck when something goes wrong. There is nothing like sitting something a bit lairy to boost confidence!

I started riding at 4, and was never a nervous rider, but perhaps not exactly gung ho - I would gallop about and jump stupid things, but if something bucked or bolted etc. I would jump off! I went to work at a dealers yard (a certain, well discussed on this forum dealers yard at that!) when I was 13 and was put on anything and everything, and that really did my confidence the world of good. They were barswewards but bloody hell did I learn to ride! Touch wood I have kept that confidence and now am a freelance groom mostly on a breaking yard.
 
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I'm a proper mrs nervous knickers but I just grit my teeth and hope for the best...

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That's sort of what I do to.

I am always willing to give things a try but I am always very nervous and shaking underneath at the thought of things
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