Freezing in dressage, Help!

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Matafleur

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Hi there,

I am at my wits end so I was hoping someone on here may have some suggestions!

My problem is that I get hugely nervous at dressage - so much in fact that I can't ride at all and my poor horse gets completely confused!

I have tried rescue remedy and we have been trying to do more and more stressage to see if that hepls but I seem to be getting worse! it is nearly the eventing season and I am still not fixed!!! My horse is fantastic, he is always calm and well behaved but because I am so tense it makes it impossible for him to go well. I am getting really demoralised as I have worked so hard with him and he is now capable of a super test at home.

XC and SJ are fine, no nerves at all. As I said, horse is never at all nervous or badly behaved and tries his hardest but is getting fed up at useless rider letting him down!

Please help me and sorry for the lomg post!
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have you tried TFT? a few people on here have used it with great sucess.

Also do you go and watch many dressage competitions? This might help you to relax just by going for a fun day to something local to you to just watch other people doing it.

What does your trainer say? Could you not get some help/advice there? I wouldnt keep forcing yourself into doing it as you are likely to make the problem worse.
 
My instructor is really good normally and she has helped me get my horse to his current level from being able to do nothing!

She only recently watched me compete for the first time and found it hard to believe how nervous I got as I am naturally very confident and relaxed - I'm a real show off so I can't understand my own reactions. I think I worry too much about what people think of my riding!

What is TFT?
 
people are often nervous because they think they will forget the test or miss a marker so the first thing i would do is eliminate that possibility as far as you can by learning the tst well in advance. as you event, ther will not be more than a two or three at any level and so you could learn them ALL now if you liked. buy one of those wipe boards and put dressage letters and put it where you can see it and use it to trace the track of any test.
another thing to try is to learn some old tests just to practise. dont use the current tests else horsey will learn to anticipate, and this is for your benifit not his anyway.
you need to remove the fear of doing it as the more nervous you are the more nervous you will get. i am sure some other people will have suggestions you are not the only one!
 
To be honest I'm not really sure. I start to feel very ill as soon as I start to pick my horse up a bit in the warm up.

I can't describe the feeling I get, it's almost like complete panic. Maybe like stage fright?

I'm fine so long as my horse goes completely perfectly, which of course never happens because I make it impossible for him by being so tense. It has got worse as my horse has gotten more capable - I think because I put more pressure on us to do well.
 
what level are you competing at? is it affliated?

TFT is thought field therapy, its done my a lady called Jo Cooper, i dont have her details, but im sure someone on here will.
 
I don't affiliate Dressage as there seems little point when my marks are so bad. I have had the horse about 8 months now and he did his first Intro and the end of last season, I hope to finish this season with him confident at PN.

I may do some aff prelims simply because they are close to me. One of the two venues I regularly go to also runs aff.

My instructor has ridden to PSG in the past and says my horse is v capable (although he is not a "proper" dressage horse!) and he does have a fantastic attitude. It's just me!
 
Her name is Pam Pearce-May - I may have confused you as my thingy says Dorset but I moved to Glos earlier this year.

I did used to compete at KMC and Moreton but very rarely in dressage!

I have to say that technically my riding has improved hugely and I'm starting to actually enjoy schooling rather than just putting up with it to get to the jumping. I am proud of my horse and his ability and want to be able to show him off properly!
 
I can completely sympathise with you on this one. I am fortunate not to suffer myself but I have a couple of pupils that have the same problems that you describe.

One lady has a real fear of cantering since she had a couple of bad accidents with an old horse.
Even though her new one is a sweetie, she cannot let go of this fear that she's about to get dumped and seriously hurt.
One lesson, she was warming up whilst I was finishing the lesson before hers and suddenly I heard thundering of hooves. OMG, I immediately thought, but when I turned round, there she was bombing round on her cob with a grin on her face from ear to ear.
confused.gif

Now, I was astounded, but what had happened was that she had seen Paul Mckenna on GMTV that morning, dealing with phobias. She'd followed his advice all day and there she was cantering round the school!
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Of course it's not completely solved the problem and she has good days and bad ones, but it has helped enormously.

Paul uses the TFT, (Thought Field Therapy), mentioned earlier. It involves tapping the accupuncture points on the body.
It sounds daft but I couldn't believe my eyes that day, so maybe it could help you too? Worth a try.
 
It sounds as though you are putting so much pressure on yourself to do well that you are making it impossible to relax. It is quite daunting to ride into an arena where there are people watching and knowing there is a judge watching your every move and 'judging' you. I try to block everything out except me and the horse. I talk to myself in my head to remind myself of the test and if the horse tenses I try to ignore it rather than react as that seems to make things worse. It is very easy to say this, but not so easy to put into practice. I hope things get better for you. What about trying those training days were you ride the test, have a 10 min session with the judge and then re - ride the test. It may just trick you mentally into thinking it is a lesson and unlock your nerves?
 
that sounds like a good idea, loads of centres do them now. if you are in Glos now matafleur, they might do the classes icestation zebra suggests at Summerhouse or Hunters, Forest of Dean and i know they did them at west wilts quite often x
 
I used to have passenger syndrome! I once took my instructor to an event with me and she worked us in and could see the nerves building up. Her advice was to sing to myself while riding, it relaxed me which made me ride instinctively and obviously more effectively! I still use it now when I get nervous.
 
I think (at least from a US perspective) the problem is that way too many HTs are won on Dressage these days.

It's a whole other subject, but IHMO, SJ and XC should be the determinants, but here in the US at least, it is Dressage. As Dressage is kind of contemplative, people tend to contemplate all the things that could go wrong. With SJ and XC there's little time to over-analyze what could go wrong.

I've lived through exactly the same problem with a young rider last year. We tried going to all manner of Dressage shows over the winter last year and I think she and her horse were finally just bored into not worrying.

Now we have a XC issue with her, not understanding how to gallop a fence, so guess what, instead of "the winter of dressage" last year, she has "the winter of fox-hunting" this year. At least we can stiill do that over here. I never sure whether I agree with the principle of fox-hunting but from a "learning how to gallop fences" its easier than riding steeplechasers :-(

Margie

http://eventing-blog.com
 
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