Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Thanks to everyone who just responded to my post about the S-Hack & my
saddle slip incident.  Just posting a follow-up to what I already put
up.
My past two rides have been disasters, one, my friend fell off and
broke her wrist and the horse I was riding bolted and I couldn't stop
him.  He just wanted to follow my mare who was trying to hightail it
back to the barn.  In hindsight it worked out for the best, as I was
able to catch up with her, jump off and catch her and go find my
friend.  But it was rather petrifying.  Even though she had a broken
wrist, she managed to get back on and the horses were again perfectly
behaved and we rode the rest of the way back home.
I generally do not have these sorts of rides on my horses and am not
sure why I had two rides in a row that were such disasters.  Each get
ridden 4x a week on average, and are fantastically behaved.  They are
both 8, have lots of energy and are fit, but this is the first time
I've ever had disasters on them.  I have ridden plenty of nutcases
over the years (used to reschool OTTBs for jumpers and ride lots of
horses that my boss had bought at the auction with all sorts of
behaviour problems), so am not generally a timid rider.  And this is
certainly not the first time I've been on a runaway horse.  Even
though I got back on after both rides, and my horses were behaved, I
find myself feeling a little apprehensive about riding.  I'm sure this
is just natural.  Even though it's in the twenties here today with
wind chills making it feel like it's in the teens, I am going to force
myself to ride my mare.  I just don't want to feel nervous to get on
and worried about the ride.  I got her as an unhandled 5 yo and have
had her for almost 4 years.  I've had some scary rides on her in the
past (she used to rear when she felt nervous/insecure, but hasn't in a
very long time), but worked through the problems and now, until
Saturday, when I had my disaster, trusted her completely.  I realize
this is only one incident, but I feel a little nervous.  I don't want
to turn into a scared rider-- I'm sure my feelings are just coming
from two difficult rides recently and I'll get over it, but I figure
others on the list have had to deal with this, so I just wanted to get
a little advice on getting over the fear.  I don't want to have
butterflies in my stomach when I get on or feel nervous, as I know my
horse will sense it and it will not help either of us.

Thanks again,
Carol

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