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Horse Riding Confidence: How To Regain Confidence After A Fall Or A Scary Ride


Anne Gage for The Rider - August 2021 issue It is not just nasty falls


or falling off frequently that can damage your confidence leaving you feeling nervous or anxious about riding.Your confidence can be affected by the worry about the pos- sibility of falling off because you’ve experienced a lot of spooks or bucks. Seeing someone else


take a bad fall - even if they haven’t been injured - can also affect your confidence. The anticipation of


dealing with a horse’s spook- ing, bucking, or bolting cre- ates a habit of feeling anxious. So why do some riders


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end up struggling with nerves after experiencing or witnessing a fall - or riding through a spook or buck - while others do not. Because they relive the


experience over and over again in their mind. And our powerful brains cannot tell the difference between a memory or an event that’s happening in real time. It’s all real to your brain. So, re- playing that event over and over is, in your mind, as if you’re actually experiencing it over and over. And because your


brain’s main job is to keep


you safe, it triggers the fear re- sponse anytime you go to do something it thinks will put you in danger. Adults fear is also triggered


by having life responsibilities such as being a wage-earner, car- ing for children, elderly parents, or a spouse. Because others rely on you, you know (and your un- conscious mind knows) that you really can’t afford to get hurt. So, adult riders are more predisposed to reliving traumas of a fall com- pared with riders who don’t have those life responsibilities. You also know that you


don’t bounce as well as you did when you were younger. Falls seem to hurt more. Injuries seem to take longer to heal. And many adults also have existing daily aches, pains, and physical limita- tions.


The first consideration after


a fall is how long you wait to get back in the saddle. The old adage of getting straight back on is not always the best advice. You can do more harm than good - emo- tionally as well as physically - but getting back on too quickly. It’s best to wait until you feel physically well and able before riding again. Next, if your fall was a result of your horse’s behaviour (e.g. bucking, rearing, etc.), you need to step back and figure out the root cause of that behaviour. Until you eliminate the cause, the behaviour is likely going to be re- peated. The most common causes of unwanted behaviours under saddle are physical pain, confu-


Continued from Page 25


Tournaments on Face- book here.


$75,000 RBC Grand Prix - Saturday, July 24, 2021


Rider / Hometown / Horse / Faults / Time 1. Hyde Moffatt /Brantford, ON / Donjo / 0:0 / 40.98 2. Ali Ramsay / Victo- ria, BC / Bonita vh Keizershof Z / 0:0 / 42.45 3. Mac Cone / King City, ON / Zaia di San Giovanni / 0:0 / 44.28 4. Susan Horn / Bolton, ON / Dominka van de Lucashoeve / 0:1 5. Mac Cone / King City, ON / Con Couleur / 0:3 / 47.52 6. Nicole Walker / Aurora, ON / Excel- lent B / 4 7. Lauren Hayes / Mono, ON / Golden Boy / 4 8. Francois Lamon- tagne / St-Eustache, QC / Chanel du Cal- vaire / 4 9. Alexanne Thibault / Boucherville, QC / El- dorento / 4 10. Alexanne Thibault / Boucherville, QC / Chacco Prime / 5


esults. Get the latest updates, news, and photos by following Ottawa


Equestrian


sion, and fear. Finally,


examine


what’s going on in your mind. Are you having “what-if” or other nega- tive thinking patterns? Thoughts about what might go wrong can be a result of feeling anxious. But they can also come before you start feeling nervous and then create the physical feelings connected to fear - dry mouth, not breathing regularly, increased heart rate, shaking, and even feeling nauseous. Horses are geniuses on pick-


ing up on how you’re feeling. So your physical tension affects your horse causing him to also be nervous and tense. And that be- comes a vicious cycle between you and your horse. Here’s are 3 tips to help you


handle those unhelpful thoughts: 1/


Interrupt that unhelpful


thought pattern by saying out loud “Cancel! Cancel! Cancel! ” or “Delete! Delete! Delete!”. Or visualise a large stop sign. By doing this, you’ve redi-


rected your brain’s attention away from the negative thought stopping the run-away thought train in its tracks. 2/ Have a mantra prepared that you can say as soon as you’ve stopped the negative thought. Use a phrase that’s simple to re- member and easy to say like “I’m okay now”. Repeating this mantra at least 3 (or more) times gives you


mind something else to focus on. 3/ Notice the negative thought in- stead of trying to push it away. The more you think about some- thing, the stronger it gets. By paying attention to it, you can analyse it by asking “Is this thought true? Is it helpful?” Challenging the thought that


is coming from your emotional unconscious mind brings your logical mind into play. When you answer the ques-


tions, you realise that either: a) The thought is not true


and/or not helpful - so you can let it go.


b) The thought is true - so


you can make a plan and steps to take to prevent the potential prob- lem from happening. You’ll bounce back from a


traumatic riding event much bet- ter when you’re not reliving the experience. If you can’t stop re- living it then it’s time to get pro- fessional help from a horse riding confidence coach to resolve the problem.


$75,000 RBC Grand Prix riding Zaia di San Giovanni (pictured) as well as fifth with Con Couleur. Photo by Ben Radvanyi Photography


Canadian Olympian Mac Cone of King City, ON, took third place in the


Hyde Moffatt pictured on Donjo is presented as the winner of the $75,000 RBC Grand Prix by RBC representative Jenn Ritchie, accompanied by her daughter. Photo by Ben Radvanyi Photography


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