out of 100% how confident are you on your steed ?

I am really pleased by the honest posts coming through - I really thought it was just me being a numpty scardie cat and was expecting loads of "are you mad girl, sell the thing if you arnt 100%" type posts.

We ought to do a review at the end of the summer and see how we have all got on !
 
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Hacking with his field buddy 99%
Hacking alone 80%
Hacking with a group of horses 50%

Going hunting for the first time on Sunday ............. 1%
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good luck! x
 
ClipClopPop: Can I join you in the wimpy riders clique? I'm sure having children and Responsibilities defintiely makes you more aware of the possibility of coming to grief. I know in my early 20s I thought nothing of going out for a hack on a pony I'd never ridden before, and thought it hysterically funny when he swerved left jumped a ditch and a few logs and thought he was playing 'charge up and down the firebreak ' games in the Purbeck Forest. Whereas now I seem to put off going back to safe old Mulligan at the RS for a hack. Not been since early October. I know he's safe as houses - his idea of spooking is eyes on stalks as you pass the cows with a mini step left which I'm sure with a better rider he wouldn't bother to do. So I'll join you!
 
200% on my old boy - can read him like a book and don't mind what he does, I know exactly how far I can push him.

My new boy I have had 2 1/2 weeks, week one i'd say 30%, week 2 50% and now week 3 65% - just need to work out where we both stand!! I'm more than sure that we'll get there!!!
 
On share horse, in general 100%. I've only been riding him since October but he's one of the very few horses that I completely trust.

My general confidence hacking would be about 90% - there is nothing I won't do and nowhere I won't go, but I always worry that they'll slip on the road or spook into a ditch or a car, so I'm slightly wary, no matter what I'm riding.

Jumping about 90% - I'll jump anything, but I have had a loss of confidence in the past so I need to get to know and trust a horse before I feel really confident. Share horse is an absolute star - only jumped him twice as he's been coming back from an injury, but as with everything else he gives me such a great feeling that I think with a little more practice I'd feel happy jumping anything on him.
 
95% confident on the flat in the school, as I don't always know if I am doing something wrong or he is being naughty or he just dosen't understand what I want.

99.9% confident jumping him, thanks to an amazing instructor
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85% confident out hacking, had a very nasty fall in the summer whilst out by myself that really knocked my confidence.
 
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ClipClopPop: Can I join you in the wimpy riders clique?

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woohoo! i've just created a clique... *goes to work out how to add it to her sig*

i do think having children is the cause. i blame them for a lot... stretch marks, caesarean scar, flubber, stress levels...
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On my old girl (when she used to be ridden) and on my big lad - 110%.

BUT - got a new horse last October and we never quite hit it off and found my confidence dropping like a stone! He's just a little too strong for me, but luckily have found a perfect new home for him. However I'm now feeling somewhat nervous about looking for another horse, I just want a clone of my other horses
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it depends from day to day

on a good day riding something I know - 70-90%
on a windy, cold day outside riding something I don't know - 10%

My confidence has gone up MASSIVELY last year since I started believing myself a bit more and following a few things

- I have a great instructor
- I've learnt there is no shame in being nervous
- I don't lump myself in as a "nervous rider", I'm a rider who gets nervous
- I've learnt that there is no shame in not doing something - refusing to get on a horse, not jumping that huge jump but also that I need to push myself a tiny bit all the time, and thats where a good instructor comes in
- and doing what I feel happy with. If a horse was nappy, spooky, it was windy, I was scared I'd get off, and leave it for another day providing it wouldn't cause any schooling issues
 
100% on my pony, I completely trust him!
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On my young horse, I would say 90% in the school and about 75% out hacking at the moment as he can be very spooky and isn't completely bombproof.
 
I'd say 98% confident hacking out (as we have the very occasional small nap still once in a while and big groups of people or other horses that we meet out will send him into a bit of a tizzy but these are rare things)

We don't really do dressage so that doesn't apply but in the school having flatwork lessons 90%, the feeling of incompetence I sometimes feel at schooling means it whops my confidence and then it all goes to pot.

And about 40% confident jumping at the start of the summer when we can get out on a jumping paddock but as we practice more and more it probably goes up to about 70%. Jumping in school I'm less confident as the surface is dreadul and I really worry about us tripping over.
 
I trust Motor with my life and in nearly 19 years he has never ever once scared me, even though he has, in the past, been a little s***t ..... but more from exuberance than anything else ..... so yes more than 100% in any sphere
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please can I join the Wimpy Rider Clique????

I was 100% confident on anything since I was about 5, until i got my own horse (at 30 yrs old). He threw me off several times and scared the berjeezus out of me... after a bad fall resulting in hospital treatment and physio, I am still about 20% confident before I get on (shaking like a leaf) then 80% confident when riding him. This rises to 95% when I'm doing flatwork in the school. Drops to 5% when jumping.
I ask myself why I keep him, but he is incredible to ride.
 
100% on everything now(our jumping has come on loads but it wasnt his confidence it was mine
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),except x-country
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,he isnt a fan,we tried it and it ended up with me being ditched on the log
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He is an absolute angel on the roads etc,and a big soft sod too handle
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I've not ridden for about 8 weeks due to lack of confidence. So would say confidence is virtually none existent at the moment. Totally irrational
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For a while now I've only been able to ride at weekends and I think that's part of it. Bought myself some rescue remedy to see if that helps?
 
With River my old lad it was 110% all the time... he was a little tyke but he was my little tyke and I trusted him to not throw me, in our 7yrs together he never threw me off and looked after me even when rearing backwards under a tree...

Luca... well when we first broke him I was 100% - then we had the 'incident' we've bonded a lot now through all the ground work and I can get back on in a week and a half after 9 months off riding for both of us - so I'm sending him to a professional as I doubt my confidence, but am hoping for 100% again pretty quickly... I definately think practice and repition have a lot to do with it - these nerves seem to come from being out of the saddle for soooo long... oh and getting older!
 
Pretty much 100% hacking as far as riding is concerened when we are on our own, I will leave out certain roads as I have 0% in certain motorists.
Out in mixed company 100% walk and trot, when cantering in company I reckon 80% as he can be difficult, same with jumping.

All in all it's a tricky question, as I ride relaxed one handed a lot when hacking so am 100%, we have no problem with cars lorries diggers roadworks you name it, but a skateboard rollerskates or a pony and trap and it's a different story, but other than cars passing I feel 100% confident in dealing with it.
 
Can I join the wimpy riders clique too?

I would say I am 85% on my share horse out hacking - 50% in the school with him cos he spooked and bucked a while back and it took me right back to my old horse who kept putting me on the floor!

100% in my weekly riding lessons cos my instructor is ace - she has me jumping 3' 3", doing flying changes and all sorts, and I trust riding school horses more.
 
My own horse, perhaps 20% out hacking. 9 times out of 10 he won't put a foot wrong but he's so damn unpredictable it isn't too fun.
In the school it was about 80% confidence- he would be a little sh!te but I knew most of the time I could control him/ride him through it.

On most other horses I'm very confident- the horse I used to ride I was 101% confident on, despite being a baby he never put a foot wrong and even when I took him for his first ever solo hack you couldn't have asked for more.
On the horses I ride now 95%, don't have too many brakes on one of them and don't 'click' too well with the other.
 
Hey Tiffany, you are in exactly the same situation as I am in!!! Exactly the same.

Joe has been off since just before Xmas and I've only ridden once or twice. My friend has been riding Joe for me, but again probably only 2-3 times. It's down to the weather and our yard owner bringing in new rules that the yard will be shut from 8pm (long story) so I don't get time to ride in the evenings now, don't get down there until 6.45pm.

I have become a complete paranoid nerv bag about riding but for absolutely no reason whatsoever. The times I have ridden he's been a good boy, just the odd little spook or sillyness but my friend has been with me for support.

I've also got myself some rescue remedy but keep forgetting to take it before I go to the yard. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my horse - he's a safe and lazy cob but who has a little more energy being winter.

It's totally down to me, I just work myself up and get into a state, its so stupid.

I can conclude by saying I rode last night on the spur of the moment and it was lovely. Do it when you fancy it and when you want to. Get the support of a good friend dont worry about it or put pressure on yourself - take the pressure away and the worry and do it in your own time
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Also can be a nervous nellie! Have had mine for just over a year now and he is 5. Why I thought it was a good idea to buy a 4 year old I don't know. It was all fine as lots of other people say when you were in your teens and twenties and a good laugh - just not now! Mostly he is good, did start doing huge bucks which really scared me, but a change of saddle sorted that. Don't mind the spooks, mostly he stops OK except when very excited but the FUN RIDE - well, not for me it wasn't!! Friend who has excellent and laid back cob insisting we go on lots more - sob sob! So fun rides about 2% - because he stood when we arrived there! Hacking out - in the summer when we ride lots 60%, in the winter about 30% a lot of the time.
 
Is it wrong that I have read this thread and not taken any of it because I can't stop thinking "you can't be more than 100% confident" ARGHHHHH! SHUT UP PEDANTIC VOICE IN MY HEAD!!!!

Sorry will go and read something that doesn't involve percentages or fractions or anything else likely to irritate my brain on a friday lunchtime.
 
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