Happy progressive post

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Ceriann

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I’ve owned Red for 18 months now - when I got her my confidence was terrible, my riding ni5 much better. Scared to hack, wouldn’t canter away from home, had trouble mounting away from home (my nerves!) and just didn’t have the skills to get decent work out of her. My mare and I started competing prelim dressage this summer (we’ve done about 6/7 outings) - I’m new to dressage but bitten by the bug! This week I realise how far we’ve come - Monday we hacked through cows, a Hercules low fly over and survived, Tuesday we “got” counter canter at home (Im trying to get to a novice test attempt soon) and yesterday we managed a decent score at prelim at a BD event (we were unaffiliated) in fairly exciting winds. My little Red is such a dude. As we were first out at our test I didn’t quite appreciate how well she dealt with the weather until I watched the later tests with some neddies putting in some quite spectacular spooks! Good horse (I literally worship her) good instructor (I’m pretty close to worshipping her too) and being prepared to say “I don’t know how to do this” or “how do I get this better” and “I’m nervous about this” really have made riding enjoyable again. So much still to work on (as my test sheet shows) - I still have to tell myself to hack, I get really nervous at tests and I still haven’t managed to jump but even if we don’t I’m happy.
 
What a lovely post. I know exactly how you feel - my nerves mean hacking out is a constant worry and I have to make myself do it. It's so important to stop and look back at the progress you have made, all the little things add up
 
What a fab post! Lovely to hear.

I found keeping a little horsey journal can help as you can jot down what went well, what needs improving and then you have physical proof of how far you’ve come! Also get someone to video as much as you can, comparing a new video with one from a few months previous helps keep me motivated!
 
Thanks everyone - I think as horse riders and owners we all too often default to being critical of ourselves. That’s fine and that’s how we improve - I went to my lesson today with a couple of “I need to sort this out” but sometimes it’s good just to recognise achievements big and small.
 
What a lovely post to read.

Even as an instructor, I sometimes need to remind myself what I have achieved. And I spend a lot of time reminding my clients just how far they have come - you are right, we don't congratulate ourselves enough.
 
Well done.
We can be a hypercritical lot us horseriders.
My instructor told me recently not to be so critical and to recognise my achievements. It is hard to do so I suppose when you are having instruction which means you think you need improvement. Perhaps the next stage from accepting the need for instruction is recognising any improvement made.
 
Lovely post to read. I know from experience what the right horse can do for your confidence and it seems like you have found "the one" and have a great network of people to support you.
 
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