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Re: [RC] Dealing with a little bit of fear after two disasterous rides - Barbara McCraryThis may not help you at all, but whenever I have developed a fear with a particular horse, and the danger became too great to ignore, I bought a new horse that did not have the same problem and the new horse helped restore my confidence. I have always been terrified of riding narrow trails, on sides of mountains, looking over edges or down into deep holes. The horse I am now riding is very careful, very cautious, and very steady on this kind of trail. I makes me wonder WHY I was ever afraid of this kind of trail. He makes it seem so safe. One horse I had 35 years ago, had a long weak back and he reached a point where he could not climb even a moderate hill. He would bolt up the face of the hill and when he ran out of wind, he would thrash around on the face of the hill and frighten me to death. I got rid of him and a couple of really strong, safe climbers we bought afterwards restored my confidence.Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: "Claire Nystrom" <claire.nystrom@xxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 8:45 AM Subject: [RC] Dealing with a little bit of fear after two disasterous rides 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. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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