My two cents:
I think it's true that you should listen to the
inner voice. I also think "sh-- happens".
Most importantly, I think that your
youthful sense of invincibility can save you, especially with
horses.
When I was 16 or so, I lived in Karachi,
Pakistan. In those days, most of the male horses were stallions and the
more difficult the horse, the more I wanted to ride him. We used to ride
at a local stable. My sister was on a 3 yr old colt that reared all the
time. I could hardly wait for her to get off, so I could ride him.
About a week later, a group of us rode our horses through Karachi to the
training ground of the President's Body Guard. The stable was maybe a
couple of miles from the Body Guard training ground, through city streets,
crowded with camels, donkey carts, buses with people hanging off the doors,
trucks, cars, motor rickshaws, well, you get the picture -- a Pakistani
version of Los Angeles traffic.
Anyway, I was riding the "could be considered
fairly greenbroke" colt that liked to rear. I rode him on a loose rein,
at the rear of the group, and everytime some outlandish vehicle passed I told
the colt how lucky he was to be seeing such interesting sights. No
question that I was enormously helped in all this by the fact that the other
horses had all "been there, done that" (the colt had not) and, probably, by
the fact that the colt was so young, but we rode to and from the training
ground with no problems other than some little shies and turns to stare at
things.
More than 40 years later, I was riding Fox, a
gelding who has broken my bones before, but who had been quietfor a lot of
rides since and who had been so quiet under saddle the week before that I
thought we had finally arrived at his true personality -- he is very quiet on
the ground. Probably three seconds after I was settled in the saddle,
Fox started bucking. He bucked for some 50 to 75 feet before I came
off--but I don't think I would have fallen, if previous falls and broken bones
hadn't interfered with my ability to work through the situation.
The only difference to me is that I'm old and,
Fox has made it clear, no longer invincible. I'm getting riding lessons
again because now, I think, I'm the one who's dangerous--not the
horse.
I don't think horses necessarily key off your
fear. I have been sick with fear sometimes and still handled the
situation well. But I do think that when your fear makes you stupid,
then things get ugly.