Care to join me in confession?

S

Smallhorses

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 June 2011
Messages
277
Location
East Sussex
Visit site
Does anyone want to join me in a confession?

I confess: I'm a nervous rider with zero confidence and keep thinking my Pony is going to buck me off. My butt cheeks feel like they've been injected with fire eveytime I sit on the saddle which in turn causes my pony to buck me off in fear of being burnt by said butt cheeks. I believe I am turning into one of "those" liveries who people are going to want to avoid sooner or later. I fear I have become melodramatic about riding Pony and I need to get a grip! :eek:

And brrrrrrrreathe! :D
 
Oh dear. You sound like you're having a hard time!

I'm a nervous rider (due to being unable to ride for 35 years and returning to it in my 50s). My mare never bucks, but she shies a lot and when I hack out my heart's in my mouth in case she shies in front of a car, or I come off on the hard road...

I've decided the only answer's to keep at it. I aim to take myself and her just a little out of our comfort zone each time in the hope that one day we'll find our confidence!
 
I am going through the exact same thing as you are, new mare bucked me off with no warning, resulting in really damaging my ligaments in my back and i am now a nervous wreck even thinking about riding her :(can ride any other horse and deal with problems but not her for some reason, just cant seem to read her and she now doesnt trust me as i make her nervous aswell. Im am enlisting the help of a horse and rider physcologist to help me through this! I am normally a very confident rider and work with horses but this has really affected me for some reason???
 
I was scared of my pony for the first 7 moths of ownership! I viewed a quiet little lamb and he turned out to be a devil and it was easier to visit him in the field where he couldn't rear on top of me. I only hung onto him to prove other people wrong! Now he's my best friend even when he does hand stands I can laugh, give him a kick in the ribs and tell him he's a numpty! x
 
AprilBlossom said:
I confess - I don't know, and have never known which is the near and which is the off side :o

And I don't think I'll ever get it! Does that count?
Click to expand...

Near side is left, off side is right :)

I confess to having absolutely zero stickability. I will fall off ANYTHING. Even the safest lead rein pony in the world. Thankfully I'm not nervous or I'd have given up by now!
 
Like the others have said we have all been there!! Luckily I am not so bad now

BUT I have 3 confessions


I confess I am too scared to take Micah hunting, even a none jumping one:p

I confess I hurt his shoulder last week by putting him in a rug that was a bit tight :eek:

I confess I will be mega nervous the first time I take him to a party away from the yard
 
Im petrified at the thought of even trying xc on Jerry

I shake when I go into the ring for sj, even at BN :rolleyes:

I've been eliminated at sj too many times to count due to Jerry panicking and rearing :cool:
 
I have not fallen off for over 30 yrs, not boasting....... it makes it a million times worse!! I am now terrified to ride in fields with my kids, they take off whooping with laughter, I gallop along behind feeling sick with nerves... not that we cant stop, i know whatever I am riding will pull up when the kids ponies do.... but that whatever I am riding will stumble and we will both go crashing to the ground... not happened yet but anything can happen. Darling daughter decides that both me and her will go hunting, she has been hunting since a little girl, this was my first time. I am not proud of the fact but the only way to get through this was to get pretty much drunk at the meet! I had a whole gang of friends turn up to watch and see if I was really going to go through with it.... I did. But wouldnt want to have been breathalised. Good job we were on national trust land..... I couldnt be charged with drunk in charge of horse on aroad, we stayed in the woods!!! lol
Then younger darling daughter decides she was going to do Badminton sponsored ride with mummy, well first I had to stop at the stall selling both equibriefs (nice padded ones) and a well fitting sports bra, to DD's complete horror. Then went on to get my bale of shavings out of the trailer (to get on!) when I finally decided I was ready to go, off we went.... bypassing all those lovely hunt jumps and closing my eyes as we flew uncontrollably up the avenue sure he was going to stumble at any time. Well all I can say is what a ride, fantastic .... but the end couldnt come soon enough for me.
And this was from the person who as a teenager would get on anything!!!
 
I think this would make an interesting survey.
It seems to me that alot of women,myself included, go through a stage at a certain age and become a bit 'chicken'.
I have worked through mine...............but I confess I still avoid the open moorland........which is just a few yards up the road and enjoyed by many for GALLOPING:eek:
 
My confession... I'm paranoid that my horse has something wrong with her if she does the slightest odd thing, trips, stands weirdly or even just looks at me pathetically! Completely irrational, she's fine!
 
juliag said:
.... not that we cant stop, i know whatever I am riding will pull up when the kids ponies do.... but that whatever I am riding will stumble and we will both go crashing to the ground...
Click to expand...

Yup, and another one here..... glad it isn't just me!

And I recently fell off my new mare, (in the school!) first fall in about 15 years, and actually since then I've felt more confident on her!!!
 
I normally hover over posts because I am too frightened to post incase I look stupid as my general knowledge isn't as great as the majority of other posters in here, but have to say this thread has made me feel great!! There has been some confessions that I have always thought I was just too thick to know, but turns out I am not the only one to get muddled up with near-side and offside...and another thing, despite owning many a coloured horse, I STILL get Piebald and Skewbald wrong....
 
foxeefilly1 said:
I am going through the exact same thing as you are, new mare bucked me off with no warning, resulting in really damaging my ligaments in my back and i am now a nervous wreck even thinking about riding her :(can ride any other horse and deal with problems but not her for some reason, just cant seem to read her and she now doesnt trust me as i make her nervous aswell. Im am enlisting the help of a horse and rider physcologist to help me through this! I am normally a very confident rider and work with horses but this has really affected me for some reason???
Click to expand...

i went through this with my old pony! he went through a phase of being a total mentalist and i was scared to got faster than trot with him, yet i could sit on the most mental ponies on the yard and laugh and enjoy it! i think its worse when its your own pony cos youre stuck with them and you have to work on it. me and my pont eventually powered through and he turned in a allround superstar. keep at it and youll be fine!
 
I'll join you !
I had nasty fall off my new mare, she bronched me off in canter for no reason, first time in 25 years it frightened me and I have had 100's of falls. It's took 6 weeks of walking and trotting and I still haven't cantered yet even though I have watched my trainer canter her with no problem, if someone would have told me a year ago I would be too worried to canter my own horse I would have laughed at you, we will get there just take time.
 
OP, you sound like I was with my first pony - perfect pony at first, then I lost ALL confidence and hated riding at all. I gave up and sold her, eventually - best thing I ever did for us both! I bought a fab horse who was rock solid, which leads me on nicely to my two confessions...

One, I am scared that I will lose my confidence on something and not have my lovely old mare to hop back onto and potter round the woods on. We lost her to colic three weeks ago and I've been worried about the "what if" ever since.

Two, which goes in with number one a bit, I'm DESPERATE to ride and have my own again but the nearest I can get to that is my mum's pony. She's a TB-type fizzy whizz and although I have agreed to get on her next year (she'll have had two and a half years off by that point, and will be 16) and I am hoping (possibly in vain) that she will be quite happy for me to hack her out on her own loads and school every so often, and go to some dressage parties... I'm actually quite terrified of getting on her. She's only 14.1hh, it's not like it's far to fall, but still... :p

And still we do it!
 
Cortez said:
Why ON EARTH would you ride somethimng that you're so scared of?
Click to expand...

Because when it goes right, it's the most rewarding, gratifying, and oftentimes exhilarating experience. You've got to have a couple of lows to be able to reach the highs.

As for me, my confession is that I am utterly clueless when it comes to lunging properly, as have not done for over a year. Might not seem massive to some, but significant to me as it's something I feel like I really should be doing now that I have the space. Also only recently begun to feel that I actually deserve my girl - or more that there is no such thing.

And OP, summer last year I went through a phase where I was, at one point, too terrified in the school on a particular pony to even walk sedately around without crumpling into tears. It happens to all of us, the only thing I can say is to be patient, and have faith in yourself & pony. You'll get through it.
 
I had a massive irrational fear of getting on. No joke - I would put a child on him first and know 100% that he would be abseloutley fine but when it was my turn to get on I just paniced and couldnt do it. When on I was fine! Only been able to get on without any nerves for about a month :S. Owned the horse 2 years!! He used to put me on/over the fence whilst mounting on a regular basis until I grasped the simple concept of warming him up over his back before asking him to work "properly" and hacking on a long rein so he could enjoy himself, ahh having horses is all a learning curve!!
 
I don't know anything about feeding! I make a haynet now and then, but I don't think I've made a feed in my life. Don't worry, I don't own any horses :P I'll learn before that time comes!

I don't know much about tack, but I know what works with the horse I ride.
I don't know how to bandage and most embarrassingly...I can't tell by looking at a horse, how many hands it is.
I'm so busy with work right now, but I plan to learn these things when I get a break (I temp)

As far as riding goes...I'm freakishly terrified of rabbit holes and other things like that.
I'm petrified of rotational falls!
 
I confess that my cob sometimes completely sh1 tts me up when he does his spin thing.., and that when my mums on hols I was all my bits and stirrups in her dishwSher ( despite being 35 and having a dishwasher of my own...) oh and that I seem to spend a lit of time on the floor since getting my hairy having not fell off for 8 years b4 buying him ... And that I hate falling offs cos I'm old and it hurts
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top