The Fear And Nerves Never Go Away
One of the things that riders seem to think of professional trainers and riders is that they don’t get scared to ride.
I can’t speak for everyone, but for me definitely the nerves and the doubt never go away - if anything I have more now than when I started.
There’s a certain naivety in lack of experience that means you’re not seeing every flick of the tail and twitch of the muscle and knowing where that could potentially escalate to.
You’re not seeing every worse case potential of even the most mundane scenarios.
As horse riders we learn to feel the fear and do it anyway – it’s either that or we quit!
Most falls I’ve had and most I’ve witnessed have been fairly innocent bounces. Some people do fall harder than others, and of course it still hurts, but you can walk away with some bumps and bruises and get back on.
One thing I have learnt is to have patience and err on the side of caution. I won’t do something I feel uncomfortable with, or let others pressure me into just getting on. I want to be able to ride for as long as possible, so I’m trying to avoid silly mistakes.
Being aware of your environment, your horse and your riding surfaces play a vital role in how injured you will get if and when you do fall off. The worst injuries I’ve had have been from breaking and riding green horses in inappropriately fenced or surfaced paddocks.
Accidents still happen but we can do a risk analysis and find ourselves somewhere in the middle.
For me to feel confident, I need to get to know the horse on the ground first.
How does it react to pressure?
What does it do when it reacts to pressure?
How does it react when it becomes overwhelmed or stressed by pressure?
Does it understand its cues?
Does it know how to communicate back rather than just react?
I used to think if you had to lunge your horse to ride it you didn’t know how to ride - but now I know the work we do on the ground to open the communication and get horses processing cues (and not just reacting to them) are key to our overall safety and therefore confidence in the saddle.
However long that takes, is how long it has to take. There’s no short cut, no quick fix, just the slow and steady development of relationship and communication.
The nerves and fear may never really go away even for the most experienced – but if we know more about the horse we are working with, we can make a sounder risk assessment and move forward with more confidence.