Nerves??

[Starbucks]

I was just wondering after reading the "are you brave or good" post if you get nervous very often and why??

I get wound up if I've got a hard competition, I don't cope very well if things don't go to plan and I suppose I'm a bit scared of failure!! I have a bit of a thing about horses refusing for some reason and it's like a major thing for me if they do! I find it quite strange that I feel much more comfortable jumping huge things hunting all day than going round a 1m SJ course!

So whats everyone else like??

 

[dozzie]

It depends really! If its dressage then I get a bit tense- mostly worried about not remembering the test. Team chasing(only ever did local one at novice level) I used to be terrified until I got going and then loved it! Always relieved to get to the end!
Eventing I used to worry more about the dressage as horse could be silly. Never worried about SJ. Sometimes worried about the cc if there was a ditch as my old boy had a thing about them.

I always was worse in RC Team comps as didnt want to let anyone down.

I walked an intermediate event course and decided that I was never going to do that level!!! Far too big and scary! Nowadays even Novice looks huge!

Im getting too old to be scared now so stick within my comfort zone!!

I tend to be more worried now about finding the venue, getting lost and being unable to turn round or being late! Usually get to a place with hours to spare!!

 

[paintsplat05]

yup i'm the most nervous rider ever! I sold my pony nearly a year ago, and although he was a dirty stopper and a bucker i leanrt to trust him 100% and would jump anything with him. Now i'm back riding at my riding school i chop and change with horses every so often. This doesn't help as i've just got to know a horse and then i get thrown in at the deep end and have to start all over again with a new one, which does my confidence no good at all. I'll pretty much refuse to jump any more as i've had a bad jumping lesson on every suitable horse at the yard, so i'm stuck in a rut now and my riding is getting worse as i seem to have problems in every blimming lesson, when i actually get one!

 

[welshstar]

I don't get nervous over the actual thing that i have to do (i.e a cross country course) but more, as you said, the fear of failure. I tend to get a bit nervous over letting myself down by doing a stupid mistake like pushing him to hard into a fence causing a pole down, it really frustrates me!
When i was younger i used to be really nervous over most stuff until one day i just cracked, i went to a little riding school nearby and i actually realised how good my pony was! After then i wouldn't say i was confident but just cautious! I'm now very confident with my ned charlie as he is so easy to trust and i seemed to have really clicked with him

 

[jesterfaerie]

I am a calm rider but that is just my personality full stop, I am quite unflappable and calm upfront and inside I am curled up in the feotal (sp?) position, in a corner crying!
I used to be a faily confident rider until a RS put me on several horses which ran off with me (one because we got to their normal galloping spot and i couldn't hold him, another when I was still on the LR broke away form the leader over the moors after the other riders and another spooked and i came off and went staight through their p&r fencing) since those incidents I have never had my confidence back.

I think if I regained my confidence and got ride of the paranoia and negativity I have which came with it I think I would be a half decent rider, as I am not too bad on a horse I feel happy on.

I will have to wait and see.....but at the moment I am just a poo, scared, nagative rider i think lol.

** this was also my answer on the other post

 

[moodymare1987]

Im generally a calm rider, I get a bit fidgety before a show but thats the pressure to do well I think. I also worrying about my working hunter course I am doing on sunday if show not cancelled as i worry about getting around.

I can be fine one day jumping anything and then another day Im just not into it I am not nervous just know when I am in the right frame of mind to do it.

I am one of them people though that dont look at all like they are enjoying something when I truly am But I can concentrate that much I look a bit scared lol. Oh well. Im not that nervy though it is pressure I think that makes me all nervous.

 

[paintsplat05]

hardcore i'm like you! I know i'm far too self-critical and am always judging myself against much better riders, which makes me feel worse.
I'm not trying to sound pompous but i know i can ride, albeit not exceedingly brilliantly, but i reckon i'd be a lot better i i wasn't so nervous all the blimming time!

 

[jesterfaerie]

You don't sound pompous at all, but if you do then I do too! Because I am the same I think, hell I KNOW I can ride but my 'mentality' gets in the way of it all and it puts my riding down because I am permenantly backwards thinking. Unfortunalty I am like that normaly, so I just need a personality transplant and all will be well, maybe even my riding

 

[jenbleep]

apparently i am quite good with forward going spooky horses because i am calm, and am in no rush to get anywhere! so it calms them down a little bit. however i do tend to get nervous - not so much that im scared of the horse but i tend to have an over reactive mind and think "what if?" not if im jumping or anything, but if im out hacking!! i hate hate hate riding on the roads

i have a big thing about people watching me ride - i can ride well in my lessons and when im schooling but as soon as someone starts to watch me, i crack up, fall forward and bounce all over the place! all i think is that they must be thinking "oh my god she is so crap why is she riding that thing!" and it makes me worse. its a vicious circle!

that is something i have to get over, and soon, because i would like to compete with frankie soon!

 

[WFL]

I used to get nervous, but then something happened which changed that. I dare not say what it was as I would get banned by Admin!

 

[parsley]

The thought of jumping anything makes my heart race and brings on nausea. I am working on it and can face a very very very small course of jumps now - my goal is to be able to jump 2 foot 6

 

[MagicMelon]

I dont like hacking! Sounds so petty I know but Ive had a few incidents hacking like a horse falling off a big bank on top of a barbed wire fence (she sliced open her leg & had a big nosebleed - luckily I was thrown clear) and have been bolted with 4 times - once THROUGH a barbed wire fence into a boggy field where horse bronc'd until I jumped off (horse still has the scars....) and another horse who bolted onto a main road and fell straight over. So yes, hacking does now worry me! I dont hack one horse (the one who's bolted twice) as it got too dangerous although I felt brave the other day and took him a short way down the road and into a neighbouring farmers field, he was spooky as hell, I panicked and got off

Cant believe how woosy I am!

Ill happily pop round Novice BE courses & BSJA 1.15's but make me go hacking and I freak out! (unless on my 20yr old first pony who's a plod and trusty as hell!).

Otherwise I suppose I get a bit nervous before the dressage phase of eventing because I always think itll be so bad! And I get slightly more worried about SJ than XC - By choice, Id rather jump 1.10 XC than 1.10 SJ!

 

[Acolyte]

I used to get incredibly nervous at every event I went to, mainly because I think I'm not a very good rider and I always felt people were watching me and thinking 'whats she doing here, she's rubbish!'

The last competition I went to I wasn't nervous at all, and I'm really looking forward to eventing this year. Not quite sure whether that is due to being on Prozac or because I'm now riding Josh (who is just the most fab horse I could ever imagine owning - go to Andrea Verdina at AV Sporthorses for all your eventers

) He is such a confidence giver and feels great when you ride him.

Either way, I'm so glad I seem to be less nervous now, it used to really affect me

 

[jenbleep]

how can i get over the fear of people watching me??!! i know i can ride, and i have produced some good work with the horses i have ridden (and some bad stuff too!) so i can ride, but i am very self critical and i think people are looking at me and thinking "she should take up knitting!!" xxx

 

[Acolyte]

TBH I would have to say I don't know - sounds really corny, but I enjoy riding Josh so much now I find I just concentrate on making sure he achieves the best he can with me on board (getting the right 'feel'). I think he is the best in the world (

) so what other people think actually doesn't bother me.

ETS: Unless I have a lesson with Andrea that is - since he used to compete him he KNOWS Josh can do more, so it is not always a good experience for me

Mind you, in our last flat lesson he did say I had got Josh going really well