How To Find Confidence again! Nervous rider!

[Sponymum]

Hi everyone,

Im not entirely sure why im posting this i guess im hoping for some advice. Il keep my story short, i have always been a fairly nervous rider and after a bad fall about ten years ago in a riding school i stopped riding regularly. In the past ten years iv ridden a few time, had a couple of lessons and ridden a friends horse once or twice. I recently purchased a pony for my daughter who is a complete saint and whilst im ok on the ground with horses there is still fear. I watch my daughter ride her pony and wish i could have the same confidence she does and get back on and ride but my fear takes over. I guess im wondering how people overcome there fear and gain confidence again? Id love to be able to ride for pleasure but cant seem to find my bottle!

T.I.A

SPM xx

 

[Rollin]

I was a fearless young rider. Like you I lost my confidence after a bad fall. I am in my 60's. I have a new trainer who understands my fear. I don't do anything I am not ready for we take it one step at a time. Now I ride my Shagya stallion and a big strong Cleveland Bay mare. I jumped for the first time in years two weeks ago.

Find a sympathetic trainer and start slowly. There is a lot of skill needed to get a horse to walk well. Being afraid is nothing to feel ashamed of.

 

[AdorableAlice]

The key to you enjoying your riding again is finding the right instructor and using the right horse. If you tell us roughly were you are in the UK you might find someone can recommend the right establishment for you to go to.

 

[Soup Dragon]

Hi, I can only speak of my experience of getting my confidence back slowly and it's still a work in progress.
I loss my confidence 18 months ago after a fall and started getting panic attacks when I got back on if the horse looked at anything or sped up a bit.
To sort this out I have a couple of sessions of hypnotherapy to lessen the influence of the accident.
Following this I took it very slowly on a friends pony in a school - at first it was half a circuit in walk and then I got off. I carried on increasing the amount of time I spent in the saddle but got off when I started getting a little nervous, as the pony is one that picks up vibes from her rider. I progressed to cantering again in a lesson but still not 100%
I am currently going to an excellent riding school who are aware of my confidence issues and I am regularly hacking out and increasing the speed and variety of horses I am riding.
So in my case it was slowly and steadily and I am finally relaxing and enjoying riding again.
Good luck in getting your confidence back - I hope my experience has been some help.

 

[Sponymum]

Thank you for your kind replies. It certainly does help me to know that I'm not alone out there. Iv talked myself out of it so many times because I figured why bother if I can't fully enjoy it but I guess we all need to start somewhere.

I'm located in Berkshire

 

[Sponymum]

Can anyone make recommendations for anywhere Berkshire/Hampshire for riding lessons? X

 

[LHIS]

A sympathetic instructor, a patient pony, a lot of time and not expecting it to happen overnight. I'm well versed in confidence issues and battle with my own on a daily basis. There's no quick fix unfortunately, but getting the above suggestions in place will put you on the right road. Good luck x