Irrational fear....

B

Bounty

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I have a feeling that most of you won't understand where I'm coming from in the slightest, but anyway...

I have the most irrational fear of showjumps
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Hunting and XC I am perfectly happy to jump really sizeable fences with dubious approaches/landings, and even on strange horses... but if you put me in a SJ ring I fall to pieces once they get bigger than 2'9"ish
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Showjumping was my 'thing' for a couple of years and me and my mare used to jump to the moon and back without a second thought, so why have I turned into a stomach-churning mess?

Any help in conquering this would be fantastic.
 
From my experience this not an uncommon fear
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I think it stems from people over complicating SJ in their mind.
How many people worry about really seeing a stride out hunting or XC versus SJ.
This fear often develops as a persons knowledge improves. In the early stages of SJ, ingnorance is bliss. Very much a case of kick-on and hope which below a certain height works very well. Then we go off and gain more experience and feel we have to do lots more to get round a course of SJ. So we start fiddling and it goes a bit wrong. So we fiddle in a more determined manner and goes even more wrong so we fiddle .......well you get the picture.
Most of the time if you get a person to just think about 1 thing on approach, ie quality of canter and nothing else the situation corrects itself, horse starts to jump nicely as it can now do its job and the riders confidence grows.
Further down the line the cycle repeats itself
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are you me? People think I am bonkers when I say I am scared of SJ - especially as I am schooling over PN/Novice XC fences! I think I know what my problem is though:

(i) my boy had not jumped before I got him and he found learning to jump XC at speed easier than needed to keep round and bouncy over SJs. He started to catleap SJ fences and was generally a nasty SJ ride as he would panic and start cantering on the spot then charging at the last minute;

(ii) people can watch you do your whole SJ round and critic you; and

(iii) my boy does not refuse as a rule so the only way we fail on an XC course is it we get time penalties unlike SJ where a touch of the pole can be the difference between first and last place....the pressure is horrid!

Anyway - steps I have taken to combat my fear:

(i) I do gridwork once a week and make sure I always finish on up to heigh fences

(ii) lots of pure SJ over the winter months to help my confidence

(iii) plenty of SJ lessons over courses working on our approach and trying to keep things balanced and soft
 
Bounty, how far away are you from Cirencester? My mum had completely lost her confidence SJ and recently had a lesson at Talland with Brian Hutton and is now raring to jump again.

Maybe you could book a couple of lessons with him? Maybe with a schoolmaster horse to start with like my Mum did?
 
QR - Thanks guys
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I have to say gridwork doesn't present a problem to me at all, nor single SJ fences, it is just the course that I cannot cope with.
What I haven't admitted is that it isn't just a fear of riding them... if I watch the SJ at a big 3DE then purely being in the grandstand looking at the SJ's will make me feel wobbly
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I think my problem comes from probably something along the lines of TimeFaulter's theory, plus a succession of ex-racers and as I have avoided SJing for soooo long now I'm really ring rusty, which doesn't help matters.
Safina, I think I need to follow your example of *making* myself get out there and do it, and more lessons working on jumping wouldn't go amiss either... but I just want to shut my eyes and ignore it
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ISH_Lover - Where are you based and what do you and your horse look like (is your girl the skewbald?).. if we looked vaguely similar then I'd do your XC for you if you did my SJ?! I think it sounds like a plan!
 
I'm about 45mins away from Talland, so definitely do-able... good idea
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I'm also wondering whether I've spent too much time exclusively riding my lot, whereas I used to ride freelance alot, so maybe I'm just too absorbed in my guys if that makes sense?
I am about to beg a family friend with a yard of 30 competition horses to let me spend a few days down there riding out on her lot.. and hope that it brings me to my senses a bit
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Help I'm not normal!! fine with SJ but currently in a cold sweat about going XC for first time in about 10 years, and its only an unaffiliated.

Spent too long concentrating on strides and hiting SJ's spot on i've forgotten how to kick on !! lol
 
Im the same! Timfaulter has it spot on I think, and my horse was a bit sticky SJing to be honest to start with, that prob came from me!!. For some reason I ride alot better at XC fences, than I do Sj's, which is silly as you are much less likely to do yourself an injury Sjing!!! But hey
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Im completely the opposite!!

I love SJ and will quite happily fly over anything even on horses i have never ridden before.

Am fine hunting but put me on a XC course and i lose the will to live. Have had no reason to fear it so much as i havent had a bad fall out (yet). I am fine when i watch it and sit there wishing i was doing it but when it comes down to it i get stupidly worked up (need diazepam to help me overcome the anxiety) so i have given up going xc with sus.

I think i just prefer my poles to fall if i hit them.
 
To those that panic XC....
At least that is vaguely understandable as the fences aren't collapsible and there is a shockingly high risk factor involved. So I think you can pass your qualms off as self preservation - whereas I just sound like a wimp!
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I don't think you can compare hunting to XC either really (even though I did in my OP!) as out hunting when emotions are running high you end up doing all sorts of things that you would never even consider in normal circumstances
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If I had lost my nerve XC I would understand it completely as my instructor was killed XC in a rotational fall, but as far as I can remember, bar one major balls-up when I was 10, I have never had a fall showjumping...
 
[ QUOTE ]
From my experience this not an uncommon fear
wink.gif

I think it stems from people over complicating SJ in their mind.
How many people worry about really seeing a stride out hunting or XC versus SJ.
This fear often develops as a persons knowledge improves. In the early stages of SJ, ingnorance is bliss. Very much a case of kick-on and hope which below a certain height works very well. Then we go off and gain more experience and feel we have to do lots more to get round a course of SJ. So we start fiddling and it goes a bit wrong. So we fiddle in a more determined manner and goes even more wrong so we fiddle .......well you get the picture.
Most of the time if you get a person to just think about 1 thing on approach, ie quality of canter and nothing else the situation corrects itself, horse starts to jump nicely as it can now do its job and the riders confidence grows.
Further down the line the cycle repeats itself
blush.gif


[/ QUOTE ]


OMG!! You are SO describing me!!
 
when I go into the SJ ring now its almost always to an overture of "ride it like its cross country" from my buddies! I appreciate its not a good idea at height but over 2'9" and as a confidence giver that you can actually get round its might be worth a try.
 
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