Fabulous 50+ Club - need some support/advice

Cowpony

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So......I'm now (whisper!) 55 (but don't tell anyone!). I've owned my pony for 4.5 years and I bought her as an allrounder. She loves jumping and I enjoy it at a low level, but prefer dressage. We compete at both, although we do more dressage than jumping and more jumping than xc. We've had some good results at everything, now competing at Novice dressage and 2'3 - 2'6 jumping and xc.

Yesterday, in a lesson, my 100% honest jumper went to stop at a scary filler, I put my leg on and she launched herself about 10ft in the air and I came off. Got back on, went round again, she put in a dirty stop and I flew off again. Took the top pole off, so we were jumping just the filler and she popped over beautifully twice.

I wasn't hurt, I'm normally quite good at falling on my back. But I've spent most of today feeling like bursting into tears. I've booked a private lesson with my instructor next weekend, and I'll see how that goes, but my question is, do I take this as a sign that it's time to give up the jumping or do I just need a good kick up the backside? Everybody else at the yard who is my age or older has either given up jumping completely or just does the occasional low level competition. It goes against the grain to give up and just say maybe I'm past it!
 

Cowpony

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Thanks for that. It's just that it wasn't that bad a day, but it seems to have affected me far more than it would normally!. Resolve starting to stiffen after your lovely response though.
 

mattydog

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Hell no not time to give up til you can't get on! I. Am 54, well 54 and 3 quarters actually! I lost my big ginger ninja 18months ago and needed a second horse as company for hubbys horse so bought a nice gelding to hack about and do low level dressage on. He has one hell of a buck in him and has managed to get me off several times breaking a couple of ribs in the process. Have had all his bits and pieces checked and have come to the conclusion he is being a git and I have to man up, put on my brave pants and get on with it.
Your horse sounds lovely and she just had an off day. Put it behind you spend a few days hacking out and then let normal business resume and have fun. Join me in growing old disgracefully. We just don't bounce quite like we used to.
 

Greylegs

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If you're going to give up jumping, do it because you're not enjoying it any more, because your horse isn't up to it, because you genuinely prefer dressage, because you hate wearing a body protector ... Or for any reason at all EXCEPT that you're too old fgs!!!! You've had a bump and a knock to your confidence. You'll soon be back on track.

Hot bath, glass of wine and crack on tomorrow. (PS ... I'm 62, not a spring chicken at all ...)
 

Dollysox

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You are NOT too old! I am 58 and desperate to be jumping again but horse isn't up to it now. Coming off does shake you up a bit more though when we are older so today was probably just delayed reaction. Get back on with doing what you love ASAP x
 

Hanson

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You are never to old if you are enjoying it. Hope you are ok, falls, whatever the age are unpleasant.
Live life in the moment, have fun.
 

rhylis

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All the time you enjoy it just carry on! write today off as a bit of a blip and then see how it goes, the next jumping session may well be brilliant! I wish I was doing even half as much as you do.
 

Cowpony

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Thanks all. Yes you are right, I just need to put the brave pants on and get back to it. MD hope the ribs are healing. I don't have the excuse of breaking anything so you are much braver than me.
I've always loved the poem "When I am old I shall wear purple" and always intended to wear it as my xc colours! Just never quite get to the point where I consider myself old....Thank you everybody, I am already feeling better and more determined.
 

Maesfen

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I'm 67 and just about to start breaking in Rowan. I haven't done much riding for the last five years so I'm honestly not sure if it's bravado or stupidity and I'm also not sure if I still have the confidence to do more than the ground work or find a kamikaze to do the actual backing and riding away for me - but I do know I won't be doing any jumping; I think you're brave to even think about it.
 

Mrs B

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Keep going, Cowpony! I'm not much younger than you and my brave pants do get mislaid sometimes now ... I came off in a jumping lesson a year ago (my own fault) and I felt just the same. Nearly in tears and thinking I should just stick to hacking in future ... it really surprised me and actually felt quite humiliated. I used to be the one who, while technically pretty crap, would get on anything. In my youth (she says, leaning on her zimmer) I actually wore the union jack on my shirt, playing polo for the British Ladies U21s.

And there I was on my arse, after what should have been the kind of fence I'd have waved my private parts at years ago ... metaphorically speaking of course!

Now, my dear late mum was not a natural rider. But boy! she loved her pony and used to ride with me 5 days a week until her late 70s. Used to scare the Bejesus out of me, but her little brown pony was a star until she lost him when he was 29. She was still talking about getting a new one when she was 80, just before we lost her as well.

I've posted this picture before, so apologies if others have seen it but it still inspires me; it was taken when she was 78 and Benji was 28. Kick on and I hope you heal quickly. 'Wear purple' poem was Mum's favourite too :)

attachment.php


ETA - yes, Mum was tiny - Benj was only just 14.3hh!
 

cobsandbassets

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I'm 56 and bought a little safe cob last year to see me into retirement. She isn't and I've been launched twice now. It b***** hurts! Never came off the big lad in 16 years. Huge knock to confidence. All I can say is keep going, book some lessons or it's all downhill to coffee mornings and browsing round Hobbycraft.
 

Cowpony

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Aw Mrs B what an inspiration! That's what I intend to do too...just days like this provide a reality check :)
 
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Deltaflyer

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I'm 56 and did my first One Day Event with Sam on Saturday and had the most fun yet with him, we only did the 70cm but working our way up to 80cm in the hopes of doing a BE80 by next year.

I love jumping and I have no intentions of stopping until I physically can't do it anymore. If I have a problem I just go back down a height until I get my confidence back. There's no shame in doing that at all. Sam is a very honest and genuine horse (well, big pony really) but he does 'punish' me if I sit like a lemon expecting him to do it all without any input from me. I have come off jumping a few times with him- my fault totally, but luckily I haven't been hurt, just a bit stiff the next day. But, I kick myself up the butt for being a wally and feel more determined to get it right next time.

I have done one of my 'must do' things now - the One Day Event and plan to do more. My next is to get brave enough to pop round a British Novice (on a ticket) just to prove to myself that we can :)

Best of all my friends accuse me of only being mentally fourteen when I go out hacking as I do all the things a fourteen year old does - I like to canter (gallop) wherever I can, constantly looking for logs (or anything else suitable to jump) Luckliy Sam loves going 'off-piste' and popping over anything remotely jumpable too and he's the sort of horse who loves going fast on a hack:)

I've decided that age is just a number and as long as the body holds out I'm going to what I want to do as long as we both enjoy it. The day I can't jump anymore will probably be the day I'm too far gone to have a horse anymore

Have fun, that's the most important thing :)
 

Cowpony

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I'm 56 and bought a little safe cob last year to see me into retirement. She isn't and I've been launched twice now. It b***** hurts! Never came off the big lad in 16 years. Huge knock to confidence. All I can say is keep going, book some lessons or it's all downhill to coffee mornings and browsing round Hobbycraft.

:D Yes, not quite feeling ready for the needlepoint yet....
 

Cobbytype

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I'm 56 and bought a little safe cob last year to see me into retirement. She isn't and I've been launched twice now. It b***** hurts! Never came off the big lad in 16 years. Huge knock to confidence. All I can say is keep going, book some lessons or it's all downhill to coffee mornings and browsing round Hobbycraft.

Love this:)
 

JillA

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I'm late 60s. There, I've said it .:( So I do know a bit about riding as you get older (I do still ride, in the school and it takes a few minutes to get my legs in gear!!) and I know that you get less flexible and the shifting of balance to sit a jump, buck, whatever, doesn't come as easily. I find I have to make a conscious decision, which is why these days I ride a horse who no longer bucks or spooks and doesn't jump.
For you young whippersnapper though it is about confidence - go and sit on your horse, have a pootle around and you will find you get braver and braver and wanting to do more. But do it soon, and often - your riding muscles seize up if you don't use them often enough!
 
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YorksG

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I've never been keen on jumping and the older Appy is not a jumper, so we haven't done any in the eleven years I've had her. I am going to bring on the Younger Appy this summer and back the "little Brown Cob" (16 hh and growing) I am the same age as cobsandbassets, have ridden since I was 7 and have no intention of giving up any of it till I can't actually get on (and off!).
I have bought an air jacket as the Younger Appy is a little erm.... reactive :D
 

debsflo

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I'm 52 and looking for my new partner and am trying new horses which already makes me anxious. I bought a hit air jacket and has already been worth every penny as it has helped me feel braver. I think it's much easier to have confidence knocked as you get older Physically and mentally we don't bounce quite as well but don't stop if you're enjoying it.
 

J&S

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OP, what happened to you could have happened to any one, it was not any thing to do with your age! Confidence takes along while to build and can disappear down the drain in seconds but take time and care and you will get back to where you were and there are still plenty of years left to make progress in.
 

YorksG

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Yes I have a standard BP too, but don't like it, I do have a JoyRiderz jacket, which is much more comfortable, but too warm for anything but winter riding :)
 

ycbm

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I'm older than you! Got two six year olds. One I'll do anything on but I jump in an air jacket. One I won't even sit on without an air jacket on.

Give up when you really don't want to do it any more. Meanwhile, get an air jacket and get airborne :)
 

blodwyn1

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Hi cow pony
As you know I had a bad fall last year and I started back riding my old pony to start with. I set myself the target of riding the younger mare I came off in competition again on my 60th birthday! Well that was last Thurs and I not only managed it but also won the intro A and came 7th in the prelim class! Of course you can still jump if that is what you want to do!
 

MochaDun

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I think it's an important decision that you make yourself - I don't think by the sound of it you're ready to pull back yet so see the falls as just one of those things - I think you would know in yourself if you really don't want to do it anymore. I do think naturally confidence is more easily knocked by age. Also I think it's important not to feel you have to keep going just because other people may think you should. The worse thing is to feel pressure from others who don't live your life, feel what you feel.

I'm 53 and not keen on doing anything dramatic on my pony anymore - will happily keep hacking, have the odd lesson when I feel like it and pop the odd little jump but was never a competitor type anyway and so it's not like I've got much to give up on in the first place!
 

Cowpony

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Hi cow pony
As you know I had a bad fall last year and I started back riding my old pony to start with. I set myself the target of riding the younger mare I came off in competition again on my 60th birthday! Well that was last Thurs and I not only managed it but also won the intro A and came 7th in the prelim class! Of course you can still jump if that is what you want to do!

Hi Blodwyn 1, lovely to hear that you are back in the saddle and doing so well! That was an awful injury and you've done so well to come back from it!
 

Cowpony

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Maybe an air jacket is the way to go. I find the price daunting, but what price do you put on a healthy body? If anything bad happens I'm sure I will consider it worth paying.
 

ycbm

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Maybe an air jacket is the way to go. I find the price daunting, but what price do you put on a healthy body? If anything bad happens I'm sure I will consider it worth paying.

Mine makes the difference between riding my second horse at all or selling him (and he wouldn't fetch much!) . It was worth every penny.
 
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