Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Fear: rational vs irrational fear

Okay, I gotta chime in here, when I first learned to ride my instructor made
us ride bareback without reins on the lunge line.  It helped me get my
balance and I still do occasionally ride bareback to re-establish my seat,
so I understand where she is coming from.  I don't however agree with the
'have no business on a horse remark,' but I think her idea about bareback
riding can be very valid in some situations.  It is for me.  I'm putting on
my Teflon suit now and throwing my fire blanket over my shoulders....

C.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ridecamp Guest" <guest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 1:54 PM
Subject: [RC] Fear: rational vs irrational fear


A. perez walkergir@xxxxxxxxxx
  Having just gotten bashed via private email for my last post, let me first
apologize for any I may have offended, and clarify.

  Someone posted "I can't see how bareback would help.  I too am short and
have short legs and am also overweight.  I doubt I could ride across an
arena without toppling off."

  Fear can be classified as irrational and rational.  I would be scared to
hop on a pair of skis and go down a black-diamond slope.  Why?  because I
don't know how to ski. This is a perfectly rational fear.  How to deal with
this fear?  Ummm learn to ski, maybe? IE: overcome the limitation that makes
the activity dangerous.  Once you have minimzed the danger, probably the
fear will be less as well.

  Now suppose I am scared of walking out of my house because I am afraid a
meteorite is going to fall fromt he sky and kill me.  Now that is an
irrational fear: the probability of that happening is slim to none, and
dealing with that fear most effectivley probably won't involve lessening the
likihood of ot happening.  Instead you need to work on overcoming your fear
(lots of books, articals etc on that).

  So let's take being afraid of falling off a horse.  If you are a
rock-solid rider, riding a bomb-proof horse, but are scared of falling off
becuase of a past bad experience, than you need to work on overcoming your
fear.  HOWEVER: if you are NOT a rock solid rider, if one says "...I doubt I
could ride across an arena [bareback] without toppling off", than MAYBE this
is a RATIONAL fear: MAYBE one IS in danger of falling off, and MAYBE one
might want to work on improving one's seat?  Bareback riding is one way to
do that (or ride without stirrups if bareback is too intimidating.  Of
COURSE it should be done safely: on a horse that is quiet, sane etc,
smooth-gaited and of the appropriate size etc.  (I did NOT mean to suggest
you should do the dumb stunts I did as a kid: my point there was that the
only reason I survived those is because I had a strong seat.  I was NOT
advocating them as a way to get the strong seat!)




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