Comments on: HI Spy: Do you ever experience fear while riding?

By: Tesla

Tesla — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:01:05 +0000

Sometimes I’ll get scared or nervous when I’m approaching a jump that I know my horse might refuse but I quickly take I deep breath and remind myself that if I become afraid then my horse will too. So I just put a goofy smile on my face and urge him on if he tenses up.

By: Philomena

Philomena — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:13:28 +0000

Like anyone else( I’m sure) I experience fear while riding. Sometimes when my horse seems to forget that I’m on her back and starts to “act up,” my body wants to panic, but my mind stays peaceful. By being calm and firm, I eventually get my horse under control again and reward her for good behavior with an affectionate pat.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:53:17 +0000

I definitely do experience fear while riding sometimes. I started leasing a new horse a couple months ago and she is very fast. The horse I used to lease was older, so he was slower. This new horse can get really fast while jumping, and when she does, she jumps early. One time I fell because of it. To calm myself, I take deep breathes and remind my self that I AM in control.

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 08:38:58 +0000

I was bucked off after a couple weeks of riding, and have a fear of pain. Since then any horse that bucked would freak me out. I had to sell my horse because I trained him to do all kinds of reigning manuvers, and he couldn’t hold up, and I needed a horse that could work hard for Rodeo Queen and barrel racing. I finally got over my fear of getting bucked off by riding an off the track thoroughbred. He got in 7-8 really good bucks before I did cartwheels through the air and landed in the deep sand. I was ticked that he got away with that, lunged him till he was lathered, and got back on. Since then the mare I got will playfully kick out, or strike when I am riding her to protest something, and I’m not scared. She gets in trouble for doing it instead of me baacking down out of fear.

By: Anne Marie

Anne Marie — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:53:07 +0000

I think what I fear most is the horse slipping and falling sideways onto my leg while I’m riding him. My horse has never come even close to doing this, but it still seems to haunt me sometimes.

By: Kylie

Kylie — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:04:19 +0000

I experienced fear while riding when I was learning to canter a horse named Yada. As soon as I would ask for the canter she would go into this extremely fast, out of control trot. But when she would canter it seemed so much nicer than that fast trot. And I was scrared of cantering I should have beem scared of the trot.

By: Phoebe

Phoebe — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:16:30 +0000

My mare, Raven, had an injury in her hip and she had been bucking at the canter because of the strain. Even after she had healed, I was still a little bit apprehensive about cantering. Once, I said I had to sue the bathroom and when I went in there, I gave myself a pep talk. I said, ‘You can do this. You’ve been thrown plenty of times before. If she bucks, she bucks. If she doesn’t, awesome. You’re just gonna go out there and canter on your mare. You’ll be fine.’. I went out there, relaxed, and asked for the canter. She did wonderful.

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:51:04 +0000

I used to be wet-my-pants nervous of riding the colt that I have been training. However, I’m not anymore, because I expirienced a ‘flash moment’ when everything was going wrong, but then I did something, and I got control of the situation. Then I had that ‘flash moment’ when you realise that you CAN do that, and you have NOTHING to be scared of, because you were in a death-sentance situation, and you were able to get control of it, and everything was OK.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:37:25 +0000

I use to always get nervous before a IHSA show. I was showing western (I’ve always been a hunter/jumper) and showing horses I never knew before. Those two things combined made me nervous wreck. So I found out music would calm me down. I’d always start singing to myself and to the horse while going around the area before everyone entered. It calmed both the horse and I and we’d do great!

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:57:02 +0000

I used to be in an organization where I rode a different horse every Saturday. Just the fact of not knowing what horse I was going to get, and whether or not we’d get along, always put butterflies in my stomach. My hands would actually shake waiting for the wrangler to assign me my horse. At this point I would just be praying to God, asking him to keep me and my teammates safe today regardless of what horse I got. In all my eight years there I never had a bad accident. God really came through for me, and I believe that is one of the reasons why I am such a confident rider today. Thank you, God!