26/ FEBRUARY 2022 THE RIDER
Anne Gage - The Rider - February 2022 Do you feel anxious about
Why Do You Feel Anxious To Ride Even Though You Have The Perfect Horse? With generalized anxiety y,ou
riding even though you have the perfect horse? You know your horse is wonderful. Other people can ride your horse and there’s no issue. Your horse doesn’t put a foot wrong and yet you are terrified every time you ride (or even think about riding). In this article, I’ll explain why
that happens, why you haven’t been able to change it and what you need to do to be able to over- come that anxiety. So you can feel confident and enjoy every ride. When you worry about riding
in general it’s a form of general- ized anxiety. It’s a bit different than worrying about one specific part of riding (e.g. cantering, hacking out, jumping, etc.) In that case, you’re fine with some parts of riding ex- cept cantering or jumping or riding outside of the arena. That is spe- cific anxiety.
might not be able to figure out why it started or why you have it. Log- ically it makes no sense. It may have started out with a specific in- cident that you can or can’t recall. You may have started with a spe- cific anxiety that has now grown to affect every aspect of riding for you.
Anxiety is not created by your
logical, rational mind. It’s not cre- ated at a conscious level. So it can’t be fixed with the conscious, logical mind. That’s why positive thinking and positive self-talk are not effective in eliminating it. Certainly, those techniques
can be helpful before you start to feel really anxious. But not once you’re feeling overwhelmed and experiencing physical sensations like pounding heart, shortness of breath, nausea, shaking, sweating, or chills. This type of riding anxiety is best dealt with at the unconscious
Karen Dallimore, OAC ‘85 Great Beginnings
Horse Basics is a coaching service for horses and their handlers based in Orton, Ontario. Call me to find out how I can help you with
handling and husbandry, goal setting, Extreme Cowboy obstacle work, recreational riding or just plain enjoying your horse. For more infor-
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level. Now, your unconscious (much like a 5 year old child) communi- cates best in pictures and feelings rather than with words. It connects strong emotional feelings to different experiences or events in your life. When another situation has some similarity to the event that the emo- tions have been connected with, then those same emotional feelings get triggered. That’s great when the experi-
ence is connected to positive and empowering emotions like joy, laughter, or confidence. But it isn’t so wonderful when an experience is connected to negative dis-empower- ing emotions like fear, sadness, or anger.
A problem that is created at the
Racehorse Injury/Lameness Prevention & Care Course Instructor Announced!
Dr. Melissa McKee
Guelph, ON Jan. 27, 2022 - Dr. Melissa McKee of McKee-Pow- nall Equine has been announced as the course instructor for the Racehorse Injury/Lameness Pre- vention & Care course. Funded by the Central Ontario Standard- bred Association (COSA) and offered by Equine Guelph, the two-week online short course runs from Feb. 21 - Mar. 4, 2022 and will be FREE (value of $95) to the first 100 AGCO licence holders who enrol at
www.The-
HorsePortal.ca/COSA Participants will learn daily
practices that can optimize
health and performance and re- duce the risk of lameness issues in their athletic racehorses. Everything from early detec- tion, footing and exercise regime can have an impact on soundness. Dr. Melissa McKee grew
up in the local horse industry. After graduating, she worked in New Jersey at a large equine re- ferral hospital that provided sur- gical care, lameness, medicine, emergency, and ambulatory practice, followed by a year in equine practice in Alberta before returning to Ontario as a found- ing partner of McKee-Pownall Equine Services. She is certified in Veterinary Spinal Manipula- tion Therapy through the COAC. Melissa has served on the American Association of Equine Practitioners Scholar- ship, Racing, Education, and Ethics committees, and is an Equine representative for the Ontario Animal Health Network. Dr. McKee’s professional inter- ests include lameness, diagnos- tic imaging, MRI, VSMT, and racehorse/sports medicine prac- tice.
McKee will be joined by
guest expert, Dr. Orlaith Cleary who graduated with a veterinary degree from University College Dublin, Ireland in June 2003. Cleary joined the Ontario Equine Hospital team in April 2019. Dr. Cleary’s special inter- ests are in advanced imaging (MRI, CT, scintigraphy), as well as all aspects of soft tissue and
unconscious level must also be solved at the unconscious level. Working with a coach who uses techniques like NLP and hypnosis is a great way to resolve horse riding anxiety. With these techniques, you don’t need to go back and relive bad experiences. You don’t even have to know what the root cause of the anx- iety is in order to be able to eliminate it.
We work with the unconscious
mind to release the negative emo- tions and limiting beliefs it created. And once that’s done, the anxiety is no longer triggered. So you can ride with confidence and enjoy every ride.
Dr. Melissa McKee, Instructor, Racehorse Injury/Lameness Prevention & Care course
orthopedic surgery. McKee and Cleary will be
discussing common lameness is- sues for racehorses as well as early detection and prevention. You will also learn about the horse’s musculoskeletal system, how they move, best practices for detecting lameness, assess- ment tools, management of a lame horse and the latest re- search. In the 2017 Ontario Horse
Racing Industry Survey con- ducted by Equine Guelph, ‘in- juries/lameness’ was ranked the number two health issue of con- cern after respiratory issues. “COSA is pleased to sup-
port the racing industry through its partnership with Equine Guelph,” says Bill O’Donnell, president. “Anything we can do to reduce injury and lameness can only benefit our horse peo- ple and the racehorse.”
Ontario Trainers, Grooms,
Owners – Sign up now for the free Racehorse Injury/Lameness Prevention & Care starting Feb- ruary 21. Help your racehorses reach their full potential. For those who have never taken an online course before, no prior online learning experience is re- quired. Limited registrations available. Racehorse Injury/Lame-
ness Prevention & Care is kindly sponsored by COSA: Feb. 21 - Mar. 4, 2022 (free to the first 100 AGCO licensees to register) –
www.TheHorsePortal.ca/COSA Next in The Horse Portal
series of racing specific courses will be Racehorse Gut Health & Colic Prevention, kindly spon- sored by Standardbred Canada: Mar. 7 - Mar. 18, 2022 (free to the first 150 Standardbred Canada members to register) –
www.TheHorsePortal.ca/SC
About Equine Guelph: Equine Guelph is the horse
owners’ and care givers’ Centre at the University of Guelph in Canada. It is a unique partner- ship dedicated to the health and well-being of horses, supported and overseen by equine industry groups. Equine Guelph is the epicentre for academia, industry and government - for the good of the equine industry as a whole. For further information, visit
www.equineguelph.ca. Story by: Equine Guelph
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