Do you ever feel like a rubbish rider?

katie_southwest

katie_southwest

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When I was younger, I was a great rider. The other day I was doing some jumping, and I said to my friend Im going to do some flatwork with no stirrups just to see what I was like.
Well, Iv never felt like such a rubbish rider! Even in walk I could almost feel myself tensing and well, trotting, I was bouncing about like a beginner again!
Doesnt help that I had a fall when I was 13 from cantering without stirrups and injured myself, didnt ride for a few years after that.
Time for some lessons I think!!!
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KS We learn all the time. Just because you were a bit bouncy could be the horse some are very bouncy and hard to sit to so don't be so hard on yourself. I must admit though when I learnt to ride we rode bareback alot as well but with H & S these days they don't allow it in riding schools.
 
Yeah she is quite bouncy but I just felt so silly! Just assumed my balance was better than that
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Yes H + S restricts a lot these days, goodness if I had fallen off these days from cantering about with no stirrups no doubt the riding school would be sued!!
 
I feel like a crud rider most of the time and ALWAYS more so at home! I dont know why, I try to do flatwork at home and I just end up irritated with how crap I am! Jumping Im far happier though because theres far more to concentrate on than how your riding and nobody gets points for style anyway :P
 
This week infact. Not jumped Stan since last December (fell off whilst jumping & badly injured myself), he's been jumped by a semi-pro since to keep him ticking over. I thought that I'd better get on board, even went to old riding school back in Devon to get some extra jumping practise.

Came into first jump, wrong stride (kept going for some stupid reason) he jumped as big as the wings, I went flying, came back down on him, lost both stirrups, then said to the rider "Eh, that's what happened last time!!"
 
I always feel like I'm a bad rider and some comments i've had recently didn't help!
However, I can take comfort in the fact that my horse is seriously hard to ride and he has tantrums frequently and no one else will get on him. It doesn't make me a good rider but i am confident which is the biggest contradiction going!
 
Take heart. I had been riding off and on for forty years when I decided that although I could happily pop fences out hacking I had never learned to jump.

I had 30 lessons as a very expensive and well known equestrian centre in order to learn to jump properly!! By the end I had come off more horses more times during 30 lessons than during the previous 40 years in the saddle .. and was terrified of jumping ANYTHING!!

I became paranoid about riding in a school and returned to hacking. Out in the country I will ride anything, carriage drive, take on young horses, traffic and ride and lead.

Last year I found a new instructor who totally restored my confidence and now I school in our menage again. Being safe is important and a teacher who understand your anxieties is key.

Last year I found a new instructor who has totally restored my confidence..
 
You have nothing on me, I'm the worst rider ever and the only horizontal one in the business!
Older I get the worse I am!
I'll stick to my motorbike, I have more control over that!
Oz
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I always feel like a really awful rider. What makes it worse is I co-own a horse and I know my co-owner hates me schooling her as she doesn't think I am a good enough dressage rider. What irrittaes me is that she always accuses me of HER faults!!!!!!

I really need to have lessons from someone that can boost my confidence but I have no transport
 
Ha read my show report further down!
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I get days where I actually think I'm not a bad rider, but defiantly get days where I feel useless.
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I'm not one to quit though, so I'll be riding forever until I get it right
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I know I can do it, just sometimes I get my 'negative' head on and it blocks me and dents my confidence. A lady at the show today gave me some great advice, regarding confidence. It;s nice to know that there are some nice horsey people out there!
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Quite a lot of the time. Flatwork I feel like I'm fairly decent at but jumping can be very on or off. I love my jumping, but some days it goes brilliantly, meet every fence right, feel like I could jump anything and other days I seem to get every approach wrong, constantly cock up the striding and feel fully incompetent to jump even a crosspole.

TBH though as bad as I feel about my own riding sometimes, I worry more about what people watching me think - if they're secretly thinking I'm totally rubbish and just not saying!
 
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TBH though as bad as I feel about my own riding sometimes, I worry more about what people watching me think - if they're secretly thinking I'm totally rubbish and just not saying!

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Oh my god that was me today
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I did my thing in the class, demolished fences nearly fell off you name it (but some good jumps too!
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) And as soon as I came out all I could think about what 'I bet everyone thinks I'm rubbish'
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I tell you I really annoy myself sometimes and think how pathetic I'm being
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I am rubbish, but I know I am rubbish and try constantly to improve, then experience paralysis by analysis and then it goes even more wrong, then I blame the horse, then I get embarrassed that I have done that, and feel full of shame, then I try again, seldom any better, then I put the horse away and go back to dreaming that I can ride as well as I did before I had children!
 
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