Nervous over nothing?

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Annagain

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Tonight I'm taking my friend's horse to a riding club jumping lesson and I am ridiculously nervous about it. Her horse is an absolute angel, will not stop, will not go too fast or pull my arms out, he is a dream to ride, especially when jumping. In fact he was the horse who restored my jumping confidence after a few nasty falls before I got my boy.

You must be wondering why! The problem is that it will be the first time I have jumped a horse other than my boy (who is lame at the moment) for four years. My boy has a quirky jumping style to say the least and I've adapted my jumping style to suit him. Now I'm worried that it's going to make riding even a dream horse difficult and that I won't be able to change back and I'll make a prat of myself in front of the whole riding club! (well 5 others at least!).
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My confidence took a bashing with my horse (not in a frightened way just had no confidence in my ability) when I found him so hard to jump but I persevered and although we've never managed to change his style we were at least clearing fences better to the point that clear rounds were a norm. I'm sure it's not done my riding abilty any good though as I have to ride him in such a different way and I'm worried that it will be exposed tonight.

The plan was to have a jump at home this week before going but the school was flooded.
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Am I worrying about nothing?
 
I would say start at a height that you feel really comfortable with and don't override it. let the horse take you into the first couple of jumps without interfering too much and you'll soon find your rhythm.
 
Thanks. I know I'm being daft but don't want to look like a numpty as quite a few people have ridden my friend's horse recently as she's just had a baby and they all make it look so easy! They go and do about 3'6" on him straight off and with my boy being so awkward he finds bigger fences difficult so I haven't jumped that big for a long time. It's not a problem as I'm happy doing 2'9"-3' and find the challenge of getting a difficult horse round those better than just jumping big, but at the same time I don't want to be wimping out of stuff that other people have done easily!

He is so perfect though that I must admit he's a bit boring if I ride him when we're hacking out. The first 10 minutes I love as I don't have to worry but then trolling along in a steady canter while all the others are bombing off across a field gets tedious! Maybe I'll find that with the jumping!
 
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