Each year I lose more nerve cells.....

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to the fear of riding.....I do! Please tell me it's an as you get older 'thingy' that happens to you.I have over the years lost so much confidence, that it has now dwindled to no confidence at all! When I was in my teens and twenties,I took a days hunting,rode anybodies nutcases and wonder off on 4 hour hacks on my own, (without saying a word to a soul where I was going!
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)....and nothing fazed me! Have you found this loss of riding nerve,or do you still ride with out any fear at all!
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I too am having this problem and wondering is the fear, sweating, dry mouth are all worth it.
I love my horses BUT......my confidence is in tatters, Im 46.
Its not even as though ive had a bad experience, Im just not enjoying it anymore.
 
I definitely think it is a older thing. When I was a kid I would do anything with my pony, hunting, cross country, jumping, I shudder to think about some of the things I did.

I haven't lost my nerve and I competed until fairly recently but I found that nerves sapped my strength something rotten. The day after I would just about be done in.

However, personally, the desire to do well and achieve outweighs the negatives, i.e. nerves and I will continue to do that as long as I can! I am 50
 
I am totally different to how I was as a teenager. I also doubt my ability constantly - I always seem to cope with any ridden problems that occur but in my head I can't cope with them - if that makes any sense?!
 
Oh tell me about it!!! When I was younger I would hack out on my own (or sometimes with dogs) and if I had a fall I would think it was funny!! I am SUCH a wuzz now. Sometimes even I don't know whyI am frightened.
 
I agree, its def an ageing thing. But is it also that we have got more sense now? Self preservation kicking in? Need to pay mortgage etc etc

I used to revel in riding the nutty ones... in fact actively went out looking for them. I loved the challenge, had excellent stickability and if I did come off usually landed on my feet.

Now...its a different thing altogether. I want 'em good and sensible. Although I was heartened to find that I recently managed to stick on a unpleasantly determined bucking horse at a dealers yard (I have to say I wouldnt have got on if I had known it was going to do it! - I went with a friend to look at a so called safe horse for her). At least I still have the sticking power, but not the nerve to go with it!!
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(Then again I might have been clinging on for dear life!!
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I saw something on tv once...

Apparently there's a certain chemical in the brain or somewhere that makes you want to risk-take & it declines as you get older therefore you lose your risk appetite...

(Lots of research has been done on violent offenders ie people in prison to see what makes them tick.)

My theory is also that bad experiences affect you more than good ones. Eg if you go on a hack & have a near death experience, it sticks in the mind a lot more strongly than all the times when you went on a hack & not much happened.

I am trying to fight it all the way cos there's prob also an element of use it or lose it...
 
Perhaps we should set up a WUZZ group then.....so glad Im not the only one.
My daughter laughs at me and takes the P*** constantly, sometimes I could cry.
I am at the point of giving up........think I will buy myself a little in hand pony to show.
 
Ooh I so know what you mean. I had hoped to grow older and wilder not olderr and wierder. It didnt help matters when I spoke about a small tumble Cross Country to one of the young girls on the yard and she said you are so brave still going cross-country at your age (50 something or other)!

I think the hormonal change (sorry lads womens talk) doesnt help its a shame we arent all in one place. I also think it depends on the horse. I bought Gulliver at 4 (hes now 17) and I dont intend my next horse to be a 4 year old.
 
Can I join the wuss group please??!!
Definitely WAY more nervy than I was as a teenager - in those days I actually did a PC test with a fractured arm in plaster! Wouldn't even think about it now, and have got nervous enough not to showjump my youngster until it's hot and he can't be bothered to have hysterics! The very thought of XC makes me go into a cold sweat...
Older and wiser? Maybe
Once bitten (or broken)? Definitely
and I think I finally realised that it HURTS when you come off and seems to take longer to stop hurting these days!
 
Interesting scenario for me because I never did any riding when I was younger but instead started later on in life so I can’t compare, but I have noted younger riders are more willing to take risks.
Nerves are a strange thing, you need to get some kind of buzz to enjoy the ride but not too much to scare yourself from repeating the experience.
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I'm definitley with you on this one, am more fearful now then when I bought Mac 4 years ago and he was never anything but the perfect gentleman.

I think it doesn't help that as you get older you have less time to ride and spend with your horse. I found the more I'm in the company of my horse the more confident I get but now I'm lucky if I have an hour to ride and then it's always pitch black so stuck in the arena.

It's not like we have a 6 week holiday to play with our neddies all day now is it.
 
Think of me all of you, when my first foal is born in early May, will probably be 16.2hh. I cannot imagine I will be able to part with it and plan for it to be my riding horse eventually. However, sometimes when I think about bringing on a young horse my insides go all quivery.

My mare is a handful enough! When I say handful I mean just a bright person, enthusiastic, spooky, forward going but not nasty in any way. I am hoping that if I handle baby from day 1 and bond with it straight away we will have a special relationship!!!! It doesn't help that I will be 54 by the time I am riding it!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.
 
I'll join too please! I can't say I've ever been fearless, but like the rest of you am becoming more anxious as the years go by. I've had a fantastic confidence giver (not boring at all though) who I trusted completely for 4 years, but he's been retired to a hacking home, so armed with my, I thought, new confidence, I bought a lovely 6 year old (nearly). He's a complete poppet but more like nearly 5 as he's very green, but in 9 weeks hasn't done anything awful, apart from cantering up the road bucking for a few steps the other day when a pheasant flew up. So WHY am I spending half my time worrying about what he might do, including waking in the middle of the night? Pinkweasel, I hope you don't find the birth of your first foal too painful at your age - did you have IVF?
 
Can I join too please? I used to have nerves of steel and would ride anything - so much so that they would always put me on the nutter at the riding school - and I used to hunt and xc my mare without a care in the world. Somewhere along the line I seem to have developed an over sensitive sense of self preservation and my spooky TB doesn't help matters much!!
 
Took me 3 years to get back to where I was after breaking collar bone and galloping again, getting back on 9 weeks later wasnt a problem, it still felt the most natural place in the world to be, but getting used to a new pony that would take the piss at every opportunity was frightening, a half hour ride would wipe me out mentally and physically having to be switched on for the whole time, not a problem anymore, a big turning point was taking him on holiday and riding every day at a strange place to him and me, and one day going out for 8.5 hours uphill and down dale over all sorts of terrain and onto the beach which was a first for me and him I think, when I got back home after the week my riding and confidence was 100% better, still can get nervous in certain company and on busy roads with traffic though, think thats an age thing
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Can I join too. I took up riding again after a 20 year break in my mid 40's and its taken me two years to get to jumping 2'6. I have one spooky horse that I dont enjoy hacking alone, she's great in company and one smaller one that's not afraid of anything jumps with no intention of hesitating and is doing wonders for my confidence. I dont have the suppleness and sense of balance that I had when I was younger and am certainly more cautious
 
I find a bit the opposite, however the main reason for that is that I rode a nutcase for 20 years and have now got a mare who is not frightened of traffic, does not nap for no reason and has brakes. I am much braver on my new girl as she does as she is asked. I have competed on the new girl, never did manage it on the old one.
 
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