To ride or not to ride?

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notverryveggie

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I'm the wrong side of 50 and have lost what little riding confidence I had.
My highland hacks out , but is forward going and is getting 'looky' at things he would have passed last year. This started when he got frightened by pheasants flying out of the hedges, and even happens when my instructer rides him (with/without company). Do I leep going with my Highland, give up riding, or try to find the perfect confidence giver ie 'dope on a rope' to hack.I have no riding ambitions at all! I still enjoy driving a pair of ponies at competition level, but they are too small to ride. Sorry for the long thread, but I really need some ideas.:o
 
Sounds daft, but here's a tip that might help you.

We have the shoot on our land and there are pheasants everywhere before the season, which can be a bit hairy when out cantering, so I use rythum beads. Add a rack more bells and you won't see a single animal in your path, although you will see them running hell for leather way ahead in the distance!!
 
That's something that only you can probably answer. It's a difficult situation for you to be in. If you really don't feel confident enough to ride your Highland don't pressure yourself as it will just make you feel worse and possibly more nervous. Would you sell him or loan him out or possibly get someone in to ride him? How about having some hacks out at a riding school to boost your confidence? Could you have two horses, (time and money etc)?
 
Why don't you find a sharer for your boy or put him on loan and get some lessons on a trustworthy riding school horse to get your confidence back? Then you can re-evaluate the situation. If you sell your boy now, that is quite a final move, and you may find that the new horse has more problems than the old one. If your boy was reliable he just needs to regain his confidence a bit and he'll be fine again. To be honest any horse is likely to lose a bit of confidence if ridden exclusively by a non-confident rider so you may have the same problems with a new one.
 
What happens (besides you panicking and making it all worse... don't worry, we've all done it!) when your horse 'looks'?

If the answer is 'not a lot' then get over it. :-)

You want, if you want to ride at all, to ride a living flight animal. Occasionally they will 'flee'. If you stay on and aren't on roads then, frankly, so what? This isn't what we're always taught, but it helps!

OH is learning atm and, as I'm teaching on a totally unsuitable horse, (strong, TBx, wants to be a competition animal, pref eventing!), we are going very slowly. There is nothing more reassuring than seeing a 6foot something man in fits of giggles when tanked off with (because horse saw jumps and wanted to do a course instead of trotting circles).

I used to get nervous abt spooks etc. Having ridden an Arab as a 'first' horse I got used to them pretty quick.

Think about the spooks your horse does (looking/shooting forward/Arab-style disappearing and re-materialising four feet to the right/whatever) and how you ride them. And learn to laugh about them.
 
Its really only something that you can decide, I lost my leg after a riding acident and all I wanted to do was get back in the saddle, when I did at first it was very scary and I went through this because when its not fun anymore why do we do it. I carried on and it got much better just by having someone walk with me and slowly we took it from there,the begining of this year things were really great then she had a nasty fall after spooking up a bank and I came off on the road, the last five years of hard work seemed to go out of the window in a spit second, after that got back on and for weeks in my head I thought she would do something and if she looked at anything I froze, and again came home in floods of tears asking why am I doing this, but now four months on we are getting there again and the trust is coming back we are not quite there but I am glad that I did not give up, but that is me, so perhaps take things back to basics with a friend to walk out with you and see how it goes, I wish you best and hope you make the right decision for you.
 
elsbells said:
Sounds daft, but here's a tip that might help you.

We have the shoot on our land and there are pheasants everywhere before the season, which can be a bit hairy when out cantering, so I use rythum beads. Add a rack more bells and you won't see a single animal in your path, although you will see them running hell for leather way ahead in the distance!!
Click to expand...

And I should of added, that it gives you and your horse a distraction and beat. Other cultures such as the american indian, believe that they keep evil spirits at bay. ;) Spooking is pretty damm evil:D

Good luck:)
 
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