Help with nervous horse (and its rider)

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Long Post - Please be patient all help and advise welcomed!!!!

I had a lesson today on a horse I have ridden a few times. My instructor said however that when I ride this horse I am a passenger and not a rider becuase the horse takes the micky, avoids corners and doesn't respond as it should to the leg...

I have taken a fall from this horse before. He can be nervous, particularly around males (yes me and my instructor, who is BHSI and FABRS, are both males) and since my fall I have never felt 100& confident on him or about riding him. I tend to take it easy and be gentle to try to avoid him throwing me again...

Now today my instructor was encouraging me to make him respond more from the leg and drive him into the corners. It did work, admittedly. In walk, trot and canter we completed all the corners successfully, however, to start with the horse was nervous and did tend to speed up out the corners - cantering up the long side with me on one occasion. Cantering is obviously not a problem, however, last time this happened he bronked and I was unseated. I had visions of this happening again today, but luckily it didnt.

The problem is, although I completed the tasks and what I was told successfully it didn;t help my confidence on this horse and I am slightly concerned about the next time I have to ride him.

Any advise?

Thanks a lot :)
 
Is there something else you could ride to help you get your confidence back? The nervous horse will only pick up on your nerves and become more nervous and you could end up with a vicious circle!
 
He is the only horse I am nervous on - I have plenty of hroses at my disposal (luckily) and there is one mare I ride who can do almost anything to me and I am not bothered amd am never nervous about riding her!
 
I would advise you do not ride this horse if you feel apprehensive, the horse will pick it up and you will have a downward spiral, whats the point if you have other horses to ride that you are confident on. Horses should be enjoyed not endured !!
 
I find that nerves are best tackled by building up lots of good experiances.

Carry on riding the other horses but if you want to work on this horse, go back to something that is really, really easy (and therefore will go well) for both you and the horse. Even if it's just working on walk, halt and changes of direction/shapes. You can then in another session introduce trotting poles (still in walk) and walk with a long rein. When you are fully in control in walk, add some trotting. Keep building up slowly, slowly as the idea is for everything to go well.

Don't forget, when nerves take hold, riders often use very light leg aids and sometimes grip on the reins, when what you really need to do is to ride normally.
 
Hmmm... this is a difficult one.

I used to ride a pony who had a bad experience with male handlers and didn't like my male instructor. TBH I ended up trying to book male instructor with different horse and girl instructor with nervy pony. There are some things you just can't help a horse get over unless you have complete control over their lives.

Depending how much turn out and feed this (RS?) horse has bucking could be a sign of badly fitting tack/physical problem/confusion as well as nerves and/or high spirits.

You can only really help with the nerves and confusion when you're riding.

For that it could be a question of promising yourself that you'll have one/two more lessons on horse where you will achieve <what ever exercise you think is suitable> and then simply not riding that horse again.

Not all horses and all rider and all handlers and all work loads/management regimes are great combinations.

By all means ensure that you don't end up with a 'phobia' about this particular horse (or any other horse you come off - there will probably be a few over the years!) but don't force a combination that just isn't great for any of you.

ETS: for if you try another lesson - Faracat's advice is great
 
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