THE NERVOUS RIDER - WHAT TO DO?

by
John O'Leary
Horseman

I have met my share of Nervous Riders' in my day and have fixed a few too. As a matter of interest, they are almost always female and mostly have had kids, suffered bad experiences, got hurt, bucked off, although falls off horses when starting out does see kids suffer from it too. To qualify the 'female' point, two things. The majority of the Horse World are female and it is a fact that male riders' get less worried and are more 'gung ho'

I have already handled one side of this subject in another article and so with this one, I want to give you some ideas of what to do to overcome it and some other ways of looking at the problem.

The fear of falling from a horse or having already done so is usually the catalyst for the nervousness. So why do people fall from horses?

  • An inability to read horses by the Coach.

  • An inability to read  riders' by the Coach.

  • Wrong selection of horse to rider by a Coach.

  • Falling from horses at the point of sale, normally caused by liar's.

  • Purchasing the wrong horse or a change in personality by a horse in the new environment.

  • Over facing of a rider by a Coach.

  • Learning to ride a horse without being taught the 'independent seat'

  • Not enough knowledge about Horsemanship.

  • Not enough teaching by Coaches of control mechanisms of horses.

  • Too much teaching by Coaches of 'hey look at me I'm pretty'

  • Too much focus upon correct English riding rather than horse control first.

  • Too much teaching in the arena and not enough out of the 'cocoon' in rougher Country including ditches, up hill and down dale and so on.

  • Not enough teaching of horse control and other alternative methods of control.

  • Too much teaching that brakes means grab two reins and pull against the mouth.

  • Purchasing horses without knowledge or advice.

  • Too much teaching on 'brain dead and bomb proof horses' where the pupil is being 'taken for a ride' rather than 'riding the horse' and taking it for a ride.

If I had to choose my top two however, it would be these:

  • Not being taught an 'independent seat' and to not balance on the mouth of a horse, and...

  • A lack of teaching of horse control and horsemanship which equals survival.

So lets talk about the seat thing. Go here and read this first.

INDEPENDENT SEAT

In my opinion, as you have already read, riding pupils are allowed to have the reins of a horse far too early and pretty quickly learn to balance off the sacred mouth of the horse. They learn to walk trot and maybe canter but the whole time they are using the mouth as their crutch. They never learn to ride in balance and to have an independent seat and therefore, fall off at the 'drop of a hat', as soon as a horse sneezes. I see it almost daily.

It follows therefore, that if I were a nervous rider and I could improve my balance to the point where I didn't need the reins and could ride a shy, I would become less nervous. This would be because my brain would start to believe that I am not going to fall off and so I would relax more and more. That would compound as relaxation equals a better rider.

I am constantly contacted by nervous ladies telling me they went for a canter, got frightened, grabbed the reins and the horse got nervous and so on. They should not be off the lunge then imho. What danger? Get lessons on the lunge where you can relax, have fun, get your balance and then chance your arm.

CONTROL OF THE HORSE

The fear of the horse acting up, running away or doing something to hurt me would be the other major factor that makes me nervous. So if I could improve my Horsemanship and knowledge base of how to control horses better, I would have the horse more and more under control. Wouldn't I? Then, the more I achieved this, the less nervous I would become. True? Why do you think I don't get frightened every day as I get on the unknown quantities that I meet? Because I know I have the Horsemanship knowledge and controls, together with an un-clouded brain that is not frozen in time.

WHAT CONTROLS?

Almost every nervous rider that I have met, only know one horse control defensive action when things begin to go wrong. Grab the reins, lean forward and clamp the legs on to grip. 3 of the worse things that one could dream of doing and all designed to conclude your fate. Let's look at them individually.

  • Grabbing the reins signals worry, heightens the 'flight response' and causes horses to grab back, normally ending in the opposite to what the rider wanted in the first place. They have designed their worst fear to come to fruition.

  • Leaning forward tells the horse to 'go fast' and run away. It also causes our bodies to emit the fear chemicals that horses are so susceptive to.

  • and grabbing with the legs to hang on completes the trio of run aids as you are putting the accelerator to the floor whilst trying to jam the hand brake on.

So, if you could learn better ways, you would worry less, wouldn't you? Here then are those ways:

  • Learn to use one rein only for stopping a horse.

  • Learn to use one rein only for slowing a horse.

  • Learn to use one rein only for stopping a horse from evading or shying.

  • Ensure the mouths of your horses are genuine and light. Go here and read these.

Horse Problems Australia Making a horse stand without a fight

The One Rein Stop page/

.......and watch this:

Video Pages of Problem Horses       Day Two

If you are a pleasure rider, 'galloping housewife' or even a member of the 'crinkly wrinkly Club', forget about your Dressage skills and learn Horse Training skills. The concentration upon what Dressage Coaches tell you is one of the main reasons for your problems.

So, get control of your horses, laterally and learn to use your 'air brakes'. Get off the mouths of your horses with your hands, off the ribs of your horses with your legs and let them relax and you will too. Your horse can't relax if you are on it's mouth at the walk or on the trail because it can't put it's neck down. If it can't relax, nor can you. Rein controls are about having the luxury of letting the reins go so the horse can relax. Not having the 'grip of death' all the time, which only sends related bad vibes to the horse. Rein control allows me to be 'on the buckle and yet have a horse's head up it's you know what, in a split second. You know what? .....that's why I am not nervous.

Happy Trails

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