Horse Riding Injuries

How to overcome your fear

Have you ever felt that overwhelming kind of fear - so much so that it prevented you from doing something you wanted to do? Like getting back into the saddle? Believe it or not, this is a common problem faced by many riders daily.

Fear has the power to hold you back from taking risks - even calculated ones, following your dreams, or becoming successful at what you attempt to do. If you allow it to control you for long enough, it can eventually erode your quality of life and keep you locked in a prison of inactivity.

What many horse riders fail to realize is that fear is nothing more than a conditioned response. It's a natural reaction to a frightening or unfamiliar situation. While it is usually automatic, there are things you can do to overcome it.

1) Are your expectations overwhelmingly negative?

One major contributor of fear is the prevalence of negative expectations, like falling or not giving a good performance during a dressage test for example. Do you usually find yourself expecting the worst in every situation? Do you worry obsessively about what could go wrong, rather than focusing on your strengths and capabilities?

If you make a conscious effort to expect the best, see the positive side of each situation and keep reminding yourself that you can handle more than you often think, you'll find yourself with much less fear to deal with. Even if feelings of fear do manage to creep into your consciousness, you'll still be able to keep them in perspective and balance them against an underlying sense of confidence.

2) Measure your fears against reality.

Experts will tell you that the majority of things you fear will never come to pass anyway. While this may be true, it sure doesn't feel that way when fear has you in its suffocating grip! Surprisingly, if you look a little more closely at your fears, you may be able to dismiss quite a few.

For example, if you were injured while hacking out, you may have a debilitating fear of leaving the arena, you might feel like your life is on the line. You may fear falling off, getting injured or that your horse may get injured.

How likely is this likely to happen? In most cases, not as likely as you think. Rather than worrying about what "might" happen, you might brainstorm ways to ensure your and your horse's safety, such as being well prepared, going out accompanied, starting with very short outings and so on.

3) Determine to do the very thing you fear (without taking any unneccesary risks).

When you remember that fear is simply a feeling, it loses much of its power. It can't harm you and except in truly threatening situations you can choose to ignore it and move forward anyway.

If you weigh the pros and cons in any situation, you may decide that the possibility of negative consequences is minimal so there's nothing to stop you from ignoring your fear and going for it! This will be determined by you on a case by case basis, of course. The point isn't to become reckless with your decision-making but rather to empower yourself to know when a fear is groundless and easily overcome.

A very practical way of coping with fear is to use affirmations> Some of the most powerful affirmations are equestrian quotes, words of wisdom from horse riders who have overcome their own fear. For a weekly supply of empowering quotes, subscribe to the Equestrian Quotes e-zine, by e-mail:

Or order your own personal copy of the popular "Ride with Supreme Self-Confidence" e-book: Click here to find out more

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