Sports psychologist, has anybody gone?

Celestica

Celestica

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I was wondering if anybody has been to a sports psychologist before? I've had a few falls in the past that have knocked my confidence a lot. Most recent one which still affects me is 2 Summers ago. I was out xc fell off a 17.2 hh who completely took off on me and even though I got back on he took off again flat gallop down a steep hill heading towards concrete.

I still ride this horse and love him although I only ride indoors on him in fear of that happening again. He does occasionaly get very hyper in jumping getting strong and fast and this causes me to panic in fear of the xc repeat. The problem is no matter what horse I ride there's always a big thought in my head saying 'GET OFF YOU'RE GOING TO FALL' and up to only a few years ago this would never happen to me :( I try to block it and it doesn't work, if a horse tries to speed up in canter I tend to freeze and just let go in hope they'd just get it over with already. I can't think when this happens, my breathing normally goes bad, I sweat and just panic, I'm at a barrier in my riding due to this mental block which my instructor has mentioned to me several times.

Although I'm just a pleasure horseless rider so I don't know if I should attend a psychologist, are they just for more pro riders? I have attended psychologists in the past due to severe anxiety problems and other mental health problems although that is a complete different story!
 
How awful for you, i do know how you feel, i had some issues after one of mine as a youngster bronced me down a road, got to the t junction and went up like a tower building, i dealt with it kept riding as adrenalin kicked in, stayed onboard took him off the road and through woods back to my stables ( i was on my own ) phoned hubby from the horse and asked him to call me in about half an hour as i was taking him into the field to work him in before heading back out on he short hack, which i did with no further incident, then put him away seen to the others and went home.
It wasnt till i got in and hubby asked about it i said " if a car had came round that corner when he was acting up, we were seriously injured or dead "
The next time i went to hack him out my gut was in a knot and i avoided going up the quiet country road, heading into the woods, and realised, the thought of taking him onto the road was making me ill, id ridden him on the roads loads before since i first backed him, in and out of company.
I went for NLP and it helped me loads, it was like i relearned the memory taking good things i did from it, like sitting the bronc and rear, keeping him going without getting off , and letting go of the bad in it, basically changing the way i was viewing the memory, so while the memory was the same, it changed how i was seeing in my mind, im sorry i hope that makes sense.
 
marydoll said:
How awful for you, i do know how you feel, i had some issues after one of mine as a youngster bronced me down a road, got to the t junction and went up like a tower building, i dealt with it kept riding as adrenalin kicked in, stayed onboard took him off the road and through woods back to my stables ( i was on my own ) phoned hubby from the horse and asked him to call me in about half an hour as i was taking him into the field to work him in before heading back out on he short hack, which i did with no further incident, then put him away seen to the others and went home.
It wasnt till i got in and hubby asked about it i said " if a car had came round that corner when he was acting up, we were seriously injured or dead "
The next time i went to hack him out my gut was in a knot and i avoided going up the quiet country road, heading into the woods, and realised, the thought of taking him onto the road was making me ill, id ridden him on the roads loads before since i first backed him, in and out of company.
I went for NLP and it helped me loads, it was like i relearned the memory taking good things i did from it, like sitting the bronc and rear, keeping him going without getting off , and letting go of the bad in it, basically changing the way i was viewing the memory, so while the memory was the same, it changed how i was seeing in my mind, im sorry i hope that makes sense.
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Sorry Marrydoll that sounds awful! I'm so grateful nothing like that has happened to me on the road as my yard is on quite a busy road and the drivers over here are crazy!
Beg your pardon but what is NLP?
 
Hello..I have been to a sports psychologist presentation and still use the techniques he promoted. I also had NLP for my serious fear of flying and have flown several times since. Definitely worth a try in my view. :)
 
Hi OP

I'm not a professional rider - I compete in the show ring and I've recently been trying to make the move from local/low county to higher level county shows.

I've really struggled with my self-confidence in my own riding ability and general life. Like you I suffer from anxiety. This was compounded with some bad experiences with my old horse.

I've very recently completed a short course with a sports phsycologist, and it's been the best thing I've ever done. I went from being frightened to canter to cantering without stirrups in six weeks. I never thought I'd be able to do it.

You've nothing to loose and everything to gain :)
 
I haven't but I would. I read some research where they took a basketball club and split them into three groups. Group one were told to practice baskets as normal. Group 2 were told not to practice at all. And group 3 were told to practice throwing perfect baskets in their heads.

At the end of the experiment, the two groups who had practised were, as I recall, equal (if not equal, then the mental practice was better), and the ones who hadn't practised were worse.


This is only one tiny piece of research out of lots. NLP definitely works, give it a go.
 
MissSBird said:
Hi OP

I'm not a professional rider - I compete in the show ring and I've recently been trying to make the move from local/low county to higher level county shows.

I've really struggled with my self-confidence in my own riding ability and general life. Like you I suffer from anxiety. This was compounded with some bad experiences with my old horse.

I've very recently completed a short course with a sports phsycologist, and it's been the best thing I've ever done. I went from being frightened to canter to cantering without stirrups in six weeks. I never thought I'd be able to do it.

You've nothing to loose and everything to gain :)
Click to expand...

May I ask out of interest what type of exercises did you do with the psychologist? Also thank you for your input! I think I may save some money up in order to go now.
 
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