Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Feel the fear and do it anyway -

aka cowgirl up.

Have you hit a road block with your horse because you have gotten nervous handling them?

Maybe you have got a legitimate reason to be nervous of your horse.

Maybe they have gotten nervy, spooky and unpredictable or maybe they have gotten aggressive and started lashing out at you.

Maybe you had a bad accident and it was noones fault (which somehow seems to make it worse because you don’t know how to prevent it happening again)

Either way your riding and your handling has come to a stand still. You so wish you had your nerve and confidence back but your finding every excuse under the sun to avoid going and doing anything with your horse. I hear you. I’ve been there time and time again and I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m back there

So here are some of my best tips:

• Knowing why goes a long way to alleviating fear. If you can figure why your horse acted a certain way, you know how to address it and prevent it happening again. This puts you in a place of power and confidence that you know how to not put yourself in that position again.

• Developing the skills to manage the behaviour that is scaring you. Once you know what to do with your horse if they are doing something that scares you it can be less scary. And then you can give yourself props and motivate yourself to work through it when it comes up.

• Positive self talk. If you have worked through the behaviour and developed the skills needed to handle the behaviour talk yourself up. “I’ve got this, I’ve done it before, I can do it again”. Often our head goes to what it was like when it was at its worst but we can have come a long way with our horse and even though the behaviour is still there (because its actually your horses personality) its not as bad as it was at its worse and is a lot easier to work with.

• Breathing. Being able to slow your heart rate and breathing rate not only goes a long way to dealing with your nerves but also helps your horse bring their emotional state down

• Your riding environment. Having a safe riding environment is ideal for working with difficult behaviour. This includes suitable fencing and a good surface.

If you need more support with managing your nerves and your horses behaviour, join our free group. Our members have had some big wins in developing their confidence and their relationship with their horses just from the advice we share in there - and it’s free!

Afraid to Ride (Diary of an Adult Rider) - Part 1

As a child, I had an incessant fascination of horses.

I have always loved animals, but horses were my obsessive go-to animal growing up.

And like many children, my family couldn’t afford one. So I managed my fixation by riding friends horses, collecting toy horses (I still have an impressive collection of Grand Champion Ponies hidden in the back of a wardrobe somewhere), and running around pretending to be a horse.

Yep, I was that annoying little girl.

As a teenager and young adult, I lost a lot of access to horses and began focusing on my other passions – other animals!

So it wasn’t until I was in my early thirties that I was reinfected with the horse-y virus, when a then stranger (but now best friend) generously invited me to her paddock to play ponies.

And then we both met Katie.

Now the virus has fully invaded my system with no chance of reversing the effects. And it’s contagious.

Learning to ride as an adult has both advantages and disadvantages to learning as a child:

Advantages:

1. I can drive myself - so can choose my own schedule and ride when I want (outside of those pesky responsibilities)

2. I have my own income and spending allowance (outside of those pesky responsibilities, again)

3. I have clearly determined my values and passions in life, and have learnt to balance them (most of the time)

4. I know that I want to ride and keep riding forever…

Disadvantages:

1. My body is no longer as flexible, so I have had to work hard to make my body adjust to the seat of riding.

2. My posture is TERRIBLE! And that’s not conducive to horse riding (but Katie has a great program to Improve Your Riding Posture in 3 Weeks - check it out!)

3. I don’t 'bounce' like I used to and I certainly don’t recover as fast as I used to.

4. I am an analytic over-thinker and I know a lot (that’s the point of studying, right?). I can think of 10 things in 2 seconds as to why something might not work the way it should – and in the beginning I was often wrong regardless.

Learning to ride as an adult has resulted in me learning the basics while attempting to fully grasp the advanced concepts at the same time because my adult brain simply refused not to – thank goodness for Katie!

Unfortunately it has also resulted in me being a little more nervous or timid of some progressive stages - which I will go into later.

Now I’m not saying that all adults learning to ride will experience this, or that kids learning now or adults that learnt to ride as children can’t experience the same issues, but this is how it has progressed for me and I’m sure there are a number of others out there in the same boat.

Being nervous (or afraid) has been a hindrance and blessing at the same time.

Some people may say “4 years training to ride and still not cantering? Are you nuts?” and I may even agree with them a little, but I also know that I have spent this entire time building trust in my riding, trust in my horses, developing the horses and perfecting my basics and instincts. I am a competent (not always confident) rider in walk and trot with “an instinctive knowledge and application of skill for what the horse needs to develop and work” (thanks for those kind words Katie <3).

And I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Afraid to Ride Part 2

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.

Check out our courses on sound training techniques and improving your riding seat here

HELP! I'm Afraid To Canter!

Are you afraid to canter?

Most people at some stage of their riding career will go through a period of being too scared to canter.

Mine happened when I was 8 years old and I had my first fall.

It. Was. A. Doozy!

I was riding the old faithful of the riding school and we were doing games. I was cantering down the straight when, (and totally out of character for old faithful, Thomas) he turned into a bronco. He bucked me over his head and I landed on my head and flipped onto my back.

After that, it was a whole year before I cantered again. I remember every lesson being asked if I would canter that lesson and being terrified and sitting it out. Eventually, I worked up the nerve and started cantering again but it took a whole year for me to try.

 My second horse was also particularly good at bucking me off. It got too a point where I was too scared to ride him. We ended up sending him to an old bushy who spent a couple months working with him - but he said he was an absolute gem for him. At the same time, he would take me out on the weekends riding my horse while I rode his old faithful. Again I was terrified. I was so used to my horse bucking going up and down hills and basically any other given opportunity that I was terrified even on his horse.

My game changer?

My mum bought we a stock saddle for my horse. This meant that each time he bucked the wings kept me in the saddle and I was able to stay on, pull his head up. Eventually, I got really good at sitting bucks and pulling horses heads up!! It was a handy skill to develop to become a horse trainer. These days however, I prefer to not let my horses know they can be broncos.

What can go wrong with the canter.

Cold backed

If your horse is cold backed, the first canter few canter transitions is when your horse will buck.

The canter has natural scope and roundedness to it - whereas the movement of the walk and trot is flat and straight.

A horse can warm up hollow and flat in the walk and trot, and when this happens the first canter transition pulls over his topline and can trigger bucking in a cold backed horse. After the first few canters this should settle down and they can transition into canter without bucking.

This can be avoided by making sure the back is well warmed up before the canter and engaging the self carriage muscles correctly.

Need support with your riding? Check out our video course and exercise program focusing on improving your seat.

Rushing in the canter.

The longer the horse stays in canter the more on the forehand, rushed and unbalanced they get.

This can mean they pick up more and more momentum and it can feel like they are out of control. In this unbalanced, rushing canter it can be hard to pull up or turn the horse.

Often inexperienced riders will hang onto the horses mouth. If you are riding an ex pacer or race horse this actually encourages them to go faster and “take the bolt”.

You can correct this by spending lots of time on getting your horse to think “halt” & “rein back” in the walk from bit contact. Once you are ready to reintroduce the canter, spend time initially riding back to trot as soon as you’re in canter, then extending the canter for short periods before trotting again. Keep testing your brakes and riding back to the trot before the horse picks up too much momentum will help avoid the rushing, and the fear associated with it.

Stumbling.

The roundedness and scope of the canter can make horses more prone to trip and stumble if they are leaning heavily on the bit and not using themselves properly.

This can be improved by only doing short periods of canter, transitions into canter over the pole and making sure your horse isn’t on the forehand and leaning on the bit, especially in half halts and downward transitions.

Final Tip

The more established your seat is in canter the more confident you will be.

So if you are really struggling with your horse in canter a great way to improve your confidence is to go to a riding school and get some private lessons purely focusing on your seat in canter.

Periods of canter without the stirrups, transitions into and out of canter without stirrups and 2 point seat in canter for periods of time will all do wonders for your balance and confidence in canter.

Are you afraid to canter?

Are you struggling with your canter?

Have you ever wondered if your fear is holding you back?

I know I have, and I know that it’s true.

For a long time, I doubted that I would ever canter. It took a long time, a lot of courage, and some stern self talking to actually start working on the canter under Katie’s instruction.

I’m going to break down some of my fears, and what we did to overcome them:

I wouldn’t be able to balance into the movement

The concern that I wouldn’t be able to ride the canter itself was a combination of a lack of confidence in my own riding abilities and a need to refocus on my core strength. This took a bit of preparation, including:

• Practicing sit-trot

• Improving my core strength in the saddle with exercise (yes, I actually worked out to prepare to canter)

• A bit of self love and self reflection, to remind myself I have the tools needed to achieve my goal

• Selected a horse that was balanced in canter already

Having trouble with your seat?

Get the exercise program that translates to the saddle here

I wouldn’t have brakes

Ahh, the fear of not stopping. I also classify it as a lack of control. The fear that the horse won’t stop cantering when you ask leads into other fears, primarily falling off. Unfortunately, this fear also means that every time I would prepare to canter, I started to pull back on the reigns – and  confuse the shit out of the horse!

To overcome this, I:

Relinquished control of the reigns by having Katie put my horse on the lunge

Relinquished control of the paces by letting Katie manage the horse

It may sound counter-intuitive, but once I could trust that the horse would stop on Katie’s command, I knew that if I lost control once I was no longer on the lunge, the horse would listen to Katie’s call. It also helped to have a horse that had more Wow than Go!

I would be going too fast

In reality, this was a silly excuse that was a result of allowing the fear to grow larger in my imagination than the ‘threat’ it posed. In reality, this fear didn’t go away until I was actually trying to get into a canter, and would you believe it if I said I now want to go faster?

I would fall off and get seriously hurt

I would fall off because I couldn’t sit in the saddle and couldn’t stop the horse, and because the horse would be going too fast, I would end up seriously hurt.

Oh my, how this fear of riding a canter really escalated!

Self reflection was key. I had to remind myself that I could fall off at any pace (and in fact had done so recently at the trot, and survived!), and really think about what I wanted from riding.

Would I be happy if I could never ride beyond a trot or walk? What would my life be like if I never achieved my dream to canter? How important to me was it that I achieve this? Was my desire to canter stronger than my fear of getting hurt? Was I actually ready to canter physically?

I would fail when I really want to succeed

Fear of failure is a little pet hate of mine. I hate disappointing myself and I hate disappointing others. The reality is, however, that if I never tried, I would never succeed and I would be more disappointed. I simply moved the goal post – first it was try to canter, next will be sit the canter, next will be to canter without the lunge lead. By breaking down these steps, I can put a success tick next to each as I graduate and reward myself for the success.

What are you struggling with? Comment below!

Afraid to Ride (Diary of an Adult Rider) - Part 2

So while I am a competent rider, I will admit to not always being a confident rider.

This became extremely apparent when I started working with Custard after I lost my mare.

View fullsize

Custard is a gentleman and has never done anything to actually harm me, but there has been several moments riding him that have resulted in a shakeup of my confidence level, and they all come down to a mismatch in our training – I have been trained to expect a conversation with my horse when riding him, and Custard had no idea how to do this.

The first time he had a freak out while I was riding him, I ended up freaking too, as there was nothing I felt I could do to bring him back to me and I felt I had lost all contact - including the brakes. My brain was firing with images of how we would both end up dead, impaled on a fence picket.

Despite a lot of work and Custard’s increasing ability to talk with his rider, it’s still a niggling memory that flares up any time that he has to work a little bit out of contact – like at the moment, when he is trying to coordinate lifting his forehand in trot with a rider (or trying to get out of engaging his core by attempting to trot with a rider).

It was actually during one of those moments, in the midst of my heart-in-the-mouth moment, that I actually REALLY noticed my reaction – the anxiety increase, the need to curl into the foetal position, the clamping down on the reigns – I’m sure my face would have grimaced too. Nothing that a competent rider should really be doing to your horse, don’t you agree?

That moment got me thinking. If my confidence can impact on my competence, inversely shouldn’t my competence affect my confidence?

In that actual moment, after a minute or 2 of deep breathing and an internal monologue that consisted of phrases like “You can ride in trot”, “He can only hold it for a few steps so he is unlikely to take off” and my internal bitch piping up with “It’s time to put your big girl knickers on!”, that I decided to stop letting fear control my riding competence.

Custard and I had our first trot together the other day. It wasn’t pretty – we were both awkward – but it was real progress for us both.

Let’s hear it for big girl knickers!!!

UPDATE January 2020

It excites me to tell you that I no longer experience nerves when riding Custard in the arena. He has softened to our lessons, learnt that it is ok for him to say when he has had enough, and he has also learned that I won’t push him too far out of comfort zone (and never into pain zone).

The thought of taking him on a trail ride fills me with a couple of butterflies, but the great thing about that is I know only a small portions of that is nerves, and the rest is excitement!

2020 will be his year to have a comfortable, confident trail ride outside of the paddock - keep an eye on our facebook group for updates on our progression!

Nervous Horse, Nervous Rider (tips to help you both relax)

I'm sure you've felt it before - the back coiling up like a spring, legs braced and stiff ready to bolt, the neck jams tight against your rein.

Your own heart gets set off, racing a thousand times a second, then panic sets in, you stiffen, your chest tightens, your breath hastens or stops all together.

Your horses' sense of danger sets off your own instinct to survive, and your horse is now wondering if there actually should be something to worry about because it can feel your heart racing and the fear emanating from you. Your horses' fear feeding yours and your fear feeding your horse adding fuel to the fire. The slightest movement, a stick falling, a leaf caught on the breeze, a gunshot in the distance and all sense of control will be lost as your horse flees blindly from whatever perceived danger they initially caught wind of.

How do we unravel this set of events? How can we step in and change this scenario before it unfolds and then its just a case of pure skill, how well can you just hang on?

Well, from one perspective there is a lot to be done with building the relationship, establishing yourself as a trusted leader, showing your horse how to process its emotions without reaction but that's not what we are going to talk about today. Today we are talking about the vagus nerve. 

This is something I accidentally figured out with my 3rd horse King. He was super flighty, sensitive and mistrusting of people. He only let me ride him for fear of what would happen to himself if he didn't and mostly he lived in a state of anxiety on the brink of losing control of himself at the drop of a hat (literally) anything that dropped would set him off. I got really good at hanging on, like really, really good, like half the time you saw me riding King I was half off the side of him as he took the bolt trying to pull myself back into the saddle with the one rein I still had hold of. And there was one truly important lesson I learnt with King: never let your emotions become involved in the situation. 

If ever I got excited, scared, enthusiastic, tried to muck around and have fun, any kind of high erratic emotional state, bam I'd be on the floor, frequently winded, that boy had some skill. He drilled it into me so strongly that to this day, if people get too excited, chaotic and carried away around me, I feel like I'm going to fall off a horse. (seriously its a problem!) As a result, I stumbled across a few tricks that worked really well to quickly and effectively drop my levels of anxiety, heart rate and respiratory rate, EVEN WHEN I can feel my horse coiling up ready to freak out, and EVEN WHEN I am scared I am going to fall off (however, not when I've had too much coffee, although I do have a trick for that as well). And I didn't understand the science behind what I was doing until I became a naturopath and learnt about the vagus nerve. 

What is the vagus nerve?

The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve (nerve from the brain) which is in control of your parasympathetic nervous system. Your parasympathetic nervous system is in charge of rest and digest. It is that deep relaxation feeling that you get from eating and then you want to lie down and have a nap on the couch. The sympathetic nervous system is kind of like the opposite of the parasympathetic nervous system it gets stimulated by fear and threats on survival to be triggered into fight or flight. Stimulating the vagus nerve can block your trigger into fight or flight and keep you in that relaxed state even when your safety is potentially threatened. 

3 ways to stimulate the vagus nerve

1.        HUMMING, CHANTING AND SINGING: Have you ever found yourself in a stressful situation and started humming or singing. I do this a lot, in fact if you see me riding a nervy horse you will probably hear me humming. When I'm stressed at work or in traffic I start humming. Its a sure fire way to instantly drop my stress levels so that I can focus and concentrate. 

2.        STRETCH YOUR HEART MUSCLE: Have you ever looked at something like your pets, your kids, a friend, family member or partner and just thought argh I love it so much I just want to squish it and love it and hold it tight and never let go!! This is your vagus nerve and oxytocin in action. Problem is its the result of an external stimulation and therefore subject to your environment. When we meditate, we practice recreating these feelings of love and gratitude. We literally create these feelings with in us so that we can express them outwards not the other way around. Regularly practicing love and gratitude flexes these muscles so you can call on them when you need them when stressed. 

3.        DEEP BREATHING: When an external stimulus makes you feel threatened it will trip you into fight or flight, tighten your chest and make your breathing quick and tightened. By taking control of your breathing through breathing exercises you can pull yourself out of this spiral and get yourself back into a relaxed, deep breathing state. There are a couple of exercises I use: forcing your breath out through your teeth so that it engages your diaphragm and makes you breath out hard and slow. Another way to reset your respiratory rate is to breath in for 7, hold for 7 and out for 5. These are 2 exercises that you can use when your horse is on the brink of panic to help bring them back down. 

Doing breathing exercises with your horse is so effective in building your relationship together. In fact, when I practice it at the halt every ride I can tune my horses respiratory rate into mine so together we can get into a state of flow to better synchronise and harmonise our movements. I practise taking those deep breaths until my horse lets go of its breath and takes a deep breath with me. I got this working so well with my horses that when we would go to competitions, when I go down the center line and halt, I take a deep breath so that my horse takes one with me and together we sync up our respiratory rate for the rest of the test, creating synchronised, harmonised, relaxed tone in our movement instead of the jittery, nervous energy that normally comes from being out with the pressure we put on ourselves to do well and the new environmental stimuli for our horses. 

Health benefits of regular vagus nerve stimulation

Being able to control and stimulate our vagus nerve can vastly improve our performance and relationship with our horses. It can also reduce anxiety and overcome rider fear and help us get that foot in the stirrup and swing on even though our brain is saying no, no, NO!!!  It does take practice to get this kind of control over our vagus nerve and create vagal tone. The good new is, that regular practise also has some resounding health benefits. In the brain low vagal tone can contribute to anxiety and depression. In the gut it can lead to indigestion, IBS and other stress associated digestive upsets. Working with your vagus nerve can lower your heart rate and risk of heart disease, lower your blood glucose, support your adrenal function, reduce systemic inflammation and promote your bodies detoxification processes. It influences the release of oxytocin, which is the hormone that makes you feel love for other people and responsible for social bonding. It helps to get you into a state of relaxed concentration and movement, which is what we are trying to do when we ride. Vagus nerve stimulation also normalises stress hormones and reduces excess cortisol.

Other practices that promote vagal tone

·        Yoga

·        Meditation

·        Positive social relationships

·        Laughing

·        Prayer

·        Probiotics

·        Exercise

·        Massage

·        Fasting

·        Tai chi

·        Gargling

·        Getting sufficient EPA and DHA from your essential fatty fish oils

·        Acupuncture

·        Getting sufficient zinc.

These practices aren't anything new, we're just getting new science on why they are so effective. Being able to be in control of how stress affects your body and being able to switch yourself out of the sympathetic nervous responses by practising these exercises, making sure you get the right nutrition can boost your health and athletic performance. 

Keen to learn more?

How to go from "Nervous Nelly" to Superhero Brave on that Frisky Horse

You now that feeling, right?

• The “butterflies ini the stomach” feeling…

• The “heart in the throat” feeling…

• The involuntary tightening of muscles preparing to react…

It is a feeling I have experienced SOOOO OFTEN. Let me tell you the story about how I figured out how to overcome it!

So recently I had the pleasure of riding a new horse, Boo.

After weeks of rain, sweet green grass growing in abundance, and cooling weather.

And he was fresh.

Immediately I became a nervous Nelly – tense in the saddle, fighting the urge to curl into the fetal position. Again. Fear not, he was in no way nasty.

He did not shy or rear, he wasn’t snorting and he certainly didn’t race off into the night with me desperately clinging to his back with the control of a sack of potatoes. But that night, Boo, a normally lazy (or so I’m told) Percheron x, was fresh. He was eager, alert, and his back was tense.

So why is it that, after years of riding, a new horse can set of a stream of emotions that result in butterflies and heart palpitations?

It comes down to the conversation.

See, while Boo was eager, attentive, head high and searching for any slight movement, there was no conversation in the reins. No connection between his thoughts and my own.

And it appears I have progressed to a level where I expect to have a two-way conversation with a horse whenever I sit in the saddle.

Oh, for the days of naivety!

When the conversation isn’t flowing back and forth, there is a risk that a dangerous event may occur that can hurt either the rider or the horse. And the conversation is a subtle experience – some people aren’t even aware of the fact that the horse they ride lacks the ability or confidence to speak to them! I certainly didn’t when I first began training with Katie.

The conversation first starts with listening. We as riders listen to our horse through multiple cues – the posture, the movement and the ‘feel’ of their emotions. Horses listen to us as riders via our posture, our tone and our aid.

In my case with Boo, I could feel that he wasn’t listening to me. His posture, his movement and even his emotions were attentively focused on everything else bar me. As far as Boo was concerned, I didn’t exist. This was a potentially dangerous situation, it was no wonder I was nervous!

Our warm up then consisted of firstly capturing Boo’s attention and helping him listen. This exercise is great any time you ride a horse you don’t know, don’t trust or even when your own horse is a little overexcited.

Turns.

This is a really simple exercise to undertake (in a safe environment of course) to reengage your horse’s mental composure and help them listen to aids. And it takes it back to the very basics – one of the first lessons we ever learn ourselves or teach our horses when they are first taught to be ridden.

What to do:

• Begin in a walk.

• Sit tall and confident in your seat, breathing deep (this will also help calm you)

• Position your hands at the standard riding position – slightly above the saddle, about the width of the neck apart.

• Without applying any other aids, lift and bring your right reign out, and encourage your horse to turn to the right. If your horse ignores the reign (doesn’t turn), make the aid louder (bring the reign out wider and towards your hip).

• When your horse turns right, immediately release the aid by bringing your reign back to the starting position, and at the same time, lift and bring your left reign out, to turn left.

• Repeat.

What we are trying to achieve here is how much your horse is listening to your via your reign aids. 

Don't worry about where you are walking in the arena (unless you are about to walk him into a wall), and disregard perfect serpentine's - this isn't the goal. Just focus on your horse responding to the reign. If he can listen to one reign alone, we can then apply both reigns together in a halt movement.

And there, we have a listening horse. Breathe, relax, praise and ride on.

In the case where your horse isn’t responding to those reign aids, it’s time to hop down and commit to some ground work first – this isn’t letting the nerves win, just a smart and safe training philosophy. 

Boo and I went on to have a lovely ride and I learnt a lot of new things from him - that is until a sudden storm came through and shortened our ride. Them's the breaks though!

Happy trails!

Sarah