can i join the cc - i need a good talking to!

sophie33

sophie33

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2004
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Or maybe just some positive encouragement!
I am a novice, and have always been quite nervous. However, I have weekly lessons and have been getting steadily more relaxed (and my riding is improving).
However, I also look after an old tb one day a week. When I first looked after him he was rideable. And despite being a wuss I regularly rode him in the school and even hacked him out on my own...
Then he was too lame to be ridden for well over a year...
And now he is okay to do walk hacks again and can trot and even canter in the school. Who knows how long it will last. But his owner is kindly really encouraging me to take advantage of his new found soundness. And I am really scared! Ridiculous - I ride much better now than when I rode him before. I have ridden him in the school and on short hacks but only with his owner there to help me! Today she shamed me when I couldn't get him trotting forward by getting on in her skirt and sorting him out :redface:
And then when we were coming back down from the school the dog starting barking (he doesn't like dogs) and she had to get hold of him for me :redface:
I don't know why I'm being so weedy - He has never really done anything when I've ridden him but when you first get on him he feels like he is about to explode - neck right up, eyes on stalks, all prancy. He gradually settles down but I find that first bit really hard to deal with.
So my plan is:
a) always turn him out before riding (he hadn't been turned out today)
b) ask RM to stay with me while I get on him and get him settled but then ride on my own in the school
c) Work up to hacking him out with RM on her horse (he is much calmer in company)
However, telling all of you this plan to try and stop me chickening out and not riding when his owner doesn't literally put me on the horse!!
 
Perfectly normal reaction dont beat yourself up you are not a professional horse rider just a happy hacker like most of us. I have a had a horse for years and rode nearly every day was super confident go hunting ride her anywhere in any conditions. Unfortunately that horse has now been retired due to arthritis so i have bought a new 7 yo Irish Cob not a heavy. It was strange on a new horse and she gave me a severe testing to-day but i got through it but has made me a bit nervous however i know the more a ride her the better i will get and the better she will get to know me. It takes time to get to know a horse and for it to know you unless of course you do it for a living. Because we are happy hacker types we tend to ride only one horse and there in lies the problem the more different types of horse you ride the more you confidence grows but for most of us we just have to take time and be patient.
 
IT sounds like you're putting pressure on yourself to immediately be comfortable and confident on a horse you haven't done much with for a while. Give yourself a break!
 
I agree entirely with pinkheather - I think the problem for a lot of us is that we usually only ride the one horse. Which is great because we can build up our confidence and get braver as we get to know the horse better.

But then when circumstances force us onto a different horse, the confidence just fizzles out completely and leaves us bewildered that we have so quickly lost our comfort zone of our regular ride!:redface:

I am very confident on Dolly - but if I had to get on a different horse I am certain I would very quickly revert to the trembling knees and white knuckles of pre Dolly days!

Don't be hard on yourself, the more often you ride the Tb the happier you will feel - especially if you dont let anyone pressure you into doing any more to start with than you are absolutely happy to do.
 
Thanks Cortsana and Beakysian. And to be fair to me the horse is out of practise too... And his owner has had him for almost 20 years, so I shouldn't feel too bad she is so much more confident than me! I'll try to stop beating myself, but I will also try to get on with plan!
 
Is it possible for you to lunge him a little bit before riding so you don't have so much of the giraffe act when you first get on. I find that really unsettling because I always think if they act up when getting on then it can only get worse:stomp: but ditto what others have said don't be hard on yourself and only do what you are happy with, horses can feel your nerves at 20 paces:hot:
 
I agree with everything the others have said, and also note that the horse you are riding has had a long time off work. Even the most sensible horses need time to get back into it when they have had time off, and if the owner doesn't mind, could you consider doing some groundwork with him and taking him out for a couple of in hand walks so that you calm him down to the idea of going out and reestablish yourself as a leader?

If he's had time off for injury, he'll also be feeling well and fresh, and that can lead to the 19hh-giraffe-with-eyes-on-stalks before you can say Oops.

I have done all this with Ziggy once, and when he comes back into work again in 10 weeks' time I will be doing it all over again!!!!
 
I dont think this is nerves but common sense.

At the time you rode this horse so comfortably, the circumstances and the horse were different. My 24 year old share horse was likewise safe as houses but over the period when she was intermittently lame and off work she surely changed.
Leading her out to grass, I found her towing me along the road and too bargy for my liking - so I had a ground work lesson working with her.

When I rode her next, she spooked at a bucket by the track, span and cantered for home with mne on her - unprecedented behaviour which her owner said was due to her having been off work -

It isnt easy to balance the food,energy/work given a horse who is not doing its regular work and then there is the revision course as the horse needs to be reminded of how you want it to behave for you.

So you made a sensible decision. The wisest thing any rider can do is to decline to ride a horse they think they cant manage. More subtle is to differentiate and know which are the risky ones? Sometimes knowledge actually increases the horses one feels one cant manage.

However, Sophie - I dont think that knowledge in itself is a bad thing and since you are a fellow RS rider, I will tell you that what made the difference for me was starting to read a bit on NH, horse behaviour and horse training, guided by folk on NR. And watching clinics and demos.

It doesnt make one an expert over night, but if you havent read them, books like Kelly Marks' Perfect Manners and the Mark Rashid, Michael Peace or Richard Maxwell books, do extend one's competence - Riding in RS lessons , one tends to accept what one is given - there is not much practice at equestrian problem solving.

In fact it is sometimes said that the development of NH is due to the social change - that the 19th century lady rider had a male groom who trained her horse. Now the majority of owners are women and they do their own horsecare and training.

Like you, I got my chance to try this out by helping in the yard and by sharing. It was something that took time and lots of questions on NR and lots of looking up in books -

So I dont think it is wise to classify it as nerves.
 
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