Solve Horseback Riding Fears

A couple of moths ago I started a Facebook Fan page called Solve Horseback Riding Fears. It has become so much more!

You’ll find free video clips, articles, and training tips on the Wall.

To get to the page, click on Horseback Riding Fear.

The Right Attitude is a Choice

I thought you’d enjoy this great note from my friend, Kris, who really understands that the right attitude is a CHOICE.

“I woke up this morning with a nasty headache. Grumbling, I crawled out of bed, gently pushing aside two cats and a little dog (Hot flashes or not, I’m well known in this house as a great heat source..). John was already up, as usual. I started down the stairs and winced at my sore knee. Too much trudging through the snowdrifts pushing a wet, heavy manure cart. John was standing at the bottom of the staircase, arms open wide. I snuggled in, enjoying his warmth. He asked how I was.

“My head hurts, my knee is sore, the house is a mess, and I feel like hell…” I replied, sighing into his embrace..

Suddenly, I gasped and pulled way, looking into John’s eyes. “NO!” I shouted, abashed. “I am wonderful! This is 2010! This is THE year! I am healthy, I’m loved, I’m thrilled to be here with YOU! This is THE year I’m going to get that book done, I’m going to get into shape, our business is going to explode with abundance, and I’m going to have the BEST year of my ENTIRE LIFE!”

As the words left my mouth, a rush of energy flowed through my body as though the earth herself was shooting heat up through my feet. It felt it like a physical charge of electrical power, my nerves the conduit as my brain seemed to glow hot with incredible life force.

“I CAN CHOOSE! I CAN CHOOSE! I CHOOSE THIS AS MY YEAR!” I yelled, headache and sore knee totally forgotten. The dogs started barking in response to the jolt of energy that shot through the house. John grinned, pulled me close and squeezed me hard. (My goodness, how I love that man! ).

So, rather than a resolution, I’m choosing for this New Year, an Affirmation. I affirm that I can choose. I affirm that I attract whatever I put out there in the world. I affirm that I will do my best to send only love, kindness, prosperity, understanding, honestly, and gratitude into the world. I affirm that I will look only for the same in return. Anything not of the Light can pass me by. I CHOOSE! Yes, this will take discipline and dedicated mental vigilance, but I’m ready for the challenge. I CHOOSE!

And, I affirm that it doesn’t matter what happens, only how we respond to it. I CHOOSE to do my best to respond to everything that happens in 2010 with maturity, with compassion, and with Trust that all is just as is should be.

For me, this is the Year of Choice. I am CHOOSING a new way. I am CHOOSING a new life. That new life starts on the inside first, and will show up on the outside second. Of this, I am sure, and I intend to prove it.

So, I wish for you, this New Year, a year of CHOICE. A year where we all discover that we really do choose what we receive. I challenge myself and I challenge you to choose from the inside out. What do you want? To get in shape? More money? A new or better relationship? YOU CAN CHOOSE!

Listen, IT STARTS FROM THE INSIDE FIRST! Perhaps, if you are so inclined, you can spend a few moments today deciding what you want from life. The Power is Now. Choose your life, today, and watch it unfold. Let the Divine lend you a hand. All you have to do is choose. And I’ll be right there with you.”

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Kris

Increase Horseback Rider Confidence

Click on the link below to watch this quick video to Increase Horseback Rider confidence by raising your fear threshold through Advance and Retreat.

Increase Horseback Rider Confidence with Advance and Retreat Technique

Manage Horseback Riding Fear By Staying In The Moment

2 Quick Tips For Coping With Irrational Fear while Horseback Riding

I often hear from horseback riders that they have irrational fears about being out of control or getting hurt when riding. The fear seems irrational because they’ve never actually had an accident or injury. So they wonder where the fear comes from.

For what it’s worth, I used to have “irrational fears” about flying. It was so bad that I would only do clinics within driving distance. It turns out that the fear of flying was just a convenient “hook” to hang stuff on. It allowed me to express fear, anger, or even grief.

Apparently, my mind thought that fear of flying was an acceptable way to express those emotions. After all, no one was going to tell me I was crazy to be afraid to fly. After all, how weird is it to go hurtling through the air in a huge cylinder? What holds that thing up anyhow?

By the same token, no one is going to say you’re crazy to be afraid of being out of control on a horse. After all, horses significantly outweigh you. Plus they’re reactive creatures of flight. They don’t operate “logically”.

So hanging other fears, anger, or grief on something like flying in an airplane, heights, or bolting horses is something we can justify to ourselves. No one would ever say we were “crazy” to be afraid of those things.

So here are two quick tips to help you cope with irrational fear while horseback riding.

1. Here’s one I use that I learned from Susan Jeffers who wrote Feel the Fear…And Do it Anyways.

Since fear is future thinking, our self talk often takes the form of “What if” questions. What if my horse bolts? What if I get tense when I ride? What if I fall off?

Preface your “What if” questions with the word “So”. Then answer yourself with “I can handle it”.

Here are some examples.

So what if my horse bolts? I can handle it.

So what if I’m tense? I can handle it.

So what if I fall off? I can handle it.

Because the truth is that you can and will handle it. You have no other choice.

2. Try scheduling “worry time”. Sometimes it’s better to acknowledge and give permission to your fears  than fight them.

Tell your fears they have 15 minutes a day to make themselves uppermost in your mind. Then worry your head off. At the end of 15 minutes, stop.

After time is up, if the fears return, acknowledge them but tell them they have to wait until your designated 15 minute “worry time” period tomorrow.

So you don’t have to be victimized by seemingly irrational fears when horseback riding. Arm yourself with tools and strategies to help you manage your fear. Click here for more info on coping with horseback riding fears.

4 Tips On Breathing To Help You Relax When Riding Your Horse

The simplest, quickest, way to find relaxation on your horse is to BREATHE. Here are 4 quick tips to help you with your breathing.

Ride Your Horse Proactively with “The Valium Exercise” To Reduce Shying

Horses shy from tension so there’s lots you can do to ride proactively to help them relax. I call one of my favorite exercises “the Valium Exercise” because it’s so effective at relaxing a tense horse.

Let’s say your horse likes to shy at a particular corner of the ring. Start the Valium exercise well before you get to the corner.

Here are the aids for the “Valium exercise”.

THE ACTIVE AIDS
1. The Inside Rein:
• The action of the inside rein is the same as it is for loosening the poll (indirect rein). However, in this case, ask for a bigger bend. Turn the key in the lock to bend his neck until his face is 7 inches (+7) to the inside of a neutral position (neutral means his chin is directly in line with the crease in the middle of his chest.).

To use an indirect rein, turn your wrist so that:

1. Your thumb points toward the center of a circle.

2. Your fingernails point up toward your face

3. Your baby finger “scoops” up toward your opposite shoulder

4. Your entire fist stays forward in the “work area” but moves over toward the withers. (Come very close to the withers, but don’t cross over.)

5. As soon as you’ve turned your hand in that position, return to a normal position with the thumb as the highest point of your hand

• Bend and straighten your horse’s neck 7 inches three times.
• Do the “three bends” one right after the other. Do them very quickly but very smoothly.
• Make sure to keep a contact with your horse’s mouth before, during, and after you bend him. Don’t let the rein get loopy.

2. The Inside Leg:
• It’s very important to use your leg at the same time you use your inside rein.
• For example, bend your horse’s neck 7 inches with your right wrist, and squeeze with your right calf at the same time.
• By doing so, you’re telling his right hind leg to go forward into your right hand.
• In this way, you put your horse “through” the right side of his body.

THE PASSIVE AIDS
1. The Outside Rein:
• Keep your outside rein steady and supporting to limit the amount of bend in your horse’s neck to seven inches.
• Don’t let your outside hand go forward toward your horse’s mouth. Keep your hands side by side.
• As soon as you’ve bent your horse’s neck 7 inches, use your outside rein to straighten it and bring your horse back so he flexes at the poll. That is, his head is one inch to the inside of where it would be if you had his chin lined up directly in front of the crease in the middle of his chest.

Important: Don’t keep him bent until he “gives”. That’s the wrong kind of “giving”. He’s just giving in the jaw, and that’s not what you want! You want him to come over his back as he connects his hind leg to your hand.

2. The Outside Leg:
• If your horse is very stiff because he’s so tense, you’ll need to support him with your outside leg to prevent him from swinging his hindquarters out when you bend him with your inside leg and rein.
• Make sure all four of his legs stay on the original line of travel. Your horse’s neck is the only part of his body that comes off the line of travel.

The Sequence of Aids Is:

Go on a circle, and bend your horse’s neck 7 inches three times in a row. Then leave him alone for 6-8 strides to give him time to react to the aids. During those 6-8 strides, make sure your contact is elastic depending on whichever gait you’re in.

Elastic contact means:

1. In the walk and canter, your elbows open and close as if you’re rowing a boat.

2. In the trot, your elbows open and close like a hinge or like you’re washing clothes on an old-fashioned scrub board.

Keep alternating between doing the valium exercise three times and then being quiet for 6-8 strides. If you’ve been effective, your horse will lengthen and lower his head and neck. He’ll also feel looser and softer in his body and more mentally relaxed.

For more information on how to ride proactively and help your horse pay attention to you so you can both relax, go to relax tense horses.

RIDE AND COMPETE YOUR DRESSAGE HORSE AT HORSE SHOWS

Each year, you eagerly await horse show season so you can ride and compete your dressage horse. But when the time times, the fear gremlins creep in and you end up feeling paralyzed by “stage fright”.

In my own personal quest, I’ve discovered practical techniques that have given me a performance edge at dressage shows. I’ll share some of them with you here.

“DRESSING UP” YOUR PRACTICE SESSIONS”

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of dress rehearsals. Your practice sessions should include dress rehearsal on a regular basis before a live audience.

Grab a few relatives and friends and invite them to your “performance.” Have some on the sidelines and one or two in the “judges’ chair.” Before the rehearsal, braid your dressage horse’s mane. Put on your horse show clothes. Can you feel the adrenaline already starting to surge (for you and your horse)? Can you feel the anxiety building? With enough practice, these preparations won’t create stress for you.

“What do the judges/spectators think of me, my dressage horse, my performance? Do they think I’m a poor performer? “Are they critical of my horse training?”

Riders often get so side tracked and preoccupied with what other people think that they can’t do their job in the horse show arena. Dress rehearsals give you an opportunity to practice concentrating on your performance with the distractions of people watching and judging you.

At home, try warming up in one arena (the way you would at a dressage show), then moving to a second, performance arena. Often at shows moving from warm-up to performance arena produces anxiety.  Watch your and your horse’s reactions as you go from one venue to another. Practice moving until you and your dressage horse are so bored with it that it is no longer a novelty, just a “ho-hum” part of the routine.

Better yet, load your dressage horse into a trailer, go a short distance down the road to a neighboring farm, and hold your dress rehearsal there (with the permission of the owner, of course). The action of loading and unloading and being away form your home turf will add an extra dimension to the practice.

Dress rehearsals are great because they can call attention to problems or details you may not be able to anticipate.
My own personal experience is an excellent example. I was preparing for a schooling show in Florida with a Grand Prix dressage horse. I was very hot, so I was warming up without my jacket. I was actually quite relaxed, having done this show for years.

I finished the warm up and put on my jacket–a long tailed shadbelly coat.  I proceeded into the ring. My dressage horse, who had been just fine during warm up, was suddenly and unexpectedly very tense. I mentally reviewed what might have changed from the warm-up ring to the performance arena. The only difference was that I was now wearing my jacket. I finally realized that the long tails of the jacket were brushing my horse’s back in the wind. From then on during practice, I pinned a bath towel (not very elegant but it did the trick!) to the back of the  saddle pad to desensitize my horse to the feel of something brushing his back in the wind. If I hadn’t rehearsed, I wouldn’t have become aware of the problem until the day of the show.

Use the dress rehearsal to learn how to continue on after a mistake. It’s important not to focus on the problem you just had. If you do, you’re sure to ruin your next three moves. Stay in the moment. Don’t let it snowball.

JUST ANOTHER SANDBOX

Robert Dover has certainly done it a few times! Dover, a six-time Olympic champion and dressage coach to many Olympic and World Championship students (including me) taught me some valuable lessons. One in particular can help you overcome the fear of competing at horse shows.

Dover used to say that whether you were performing at the county fair or the Olympics, you were just doing your work in another 20-by-60-meter sand box but in a different place.

I’ve used this idea by making competition a very personal pursuit for me. It’s just another opportunity for me to get into a sand box and build an even better sand castle. I compete against myself. I set up personal achievable goals both for me and for my horse, and I concentrate on those. I’m relaxed to the point that I don’t even look to see who is in my class or what the scores are.

One winter, I was exhibiting in my first Florida show of the year with a horse that was competing for the first time at 4th Level. I had set up three very achievable personal goals: (1) use my corners effectively; (2) perform clean flying changes (this was the first time my horse would be doing these in sequence in the show ring); and (3) do well using a double bridle (again, a first for this horse in the show ring). After the show, it didn’t matter to me how I had placed. All that was important for me was that I had met all of my goals.

A couple of days later, I met up with one of the other riders competing in my class. The conversation went something like this:
Him: “You beat me!”
Me:  “I did?”
Him:  “You won all the money!”
Me:   “I did?”
I was oblivious of the results. I was totally focused on my personal goals.

So when you make horse shows personal, it removes so much of the pressure.

DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE!

Deep breathing exercises can add to your relaxation. Yoga breathing exercises are excellent for helping you to get into an Alpha state, in which brain waves slow and you feel relaxed, free, and easy.

When you inhale, keep your shoulders DOWN, and let your stomach expand as if you’re getting fat. That means that you’re breathing deeply and lowering your diaphragm.

When you exhale, relax your butt into the saddle. As a trigger phrase, say, “My butt is a marshmallow.” Also, imagine your butt dissolving into your horse’s barrel so you look like a centaur.

IT’S SHOW TIME!

Get to your horse show early. The day before is best; it gives you and your dressage horse time to get used to the venue.

Ride your horse before you compete so you can see his reactions to his new surroundings. Put him away for a few hours to relax, then bring him out again. Notice that the second time he’s more relaxed.

If you can’t ride him (or in addition to riding him), hand graze him. Get him out of the trailer or stall as many times as you can (of course with rest periods in between). Each time you’ll notice that he’s more relaxed. The more relaxed your horse is, the more relaxed you’ll be.

Your mind set is most important. Remember: This is just another ride, another day, just a different place. Be sure
not to change something because you see someone doing it differently. Stick to your routine. This is not the time to try something new that isn’t part of your practice. Have your personal goals in mind. Make those your focus.

Take three deep breaths, lower yourself into the saddle. Visualize what you have done over and over again in your dress rehearsals: 20 meters in trot; pick up canter; ….

Your subconscious has done this all before and will serve you well. Remember, if you make a mistake,  focus immediately on your next movement. The mistake is only one score of many scores. This is only one of many horse shows to come.

Have fun with your dressage horse at horse shows this summer! Competition is just another great outing for you and your horse. And isn’t having fun the reason we do this anyway?

Click here for more tips on competing your dressage horse at dressage shows.

KEEP YOUR HANDS FORWARD IN THE “WORK AREA” WHEN RIDING YOUR DRESSAGE HORSE

When riding your dressage horse, it’s important to keep your hands forward in what I call the “work area”.

The work area is just in front of the saddle above the horse’s withers. Put your hands in that position and draw an imaginary box around them. That box is your work area.

No matter what rein aids you’re giving, keep your hands in the work area. If you bring your hands closer to your body, you steal power from the hind legs. If you put your outside hand forward, for example, you lose control of the outside shoulder.

Most dressage riders tend to draw their hands toward their bodies and behind their horse’s withers. So here’s a simple tip to remind you to keep your hands FORWARD in the work area. Imagine there’s a basketball in front of your stomach. Keep your hands in front of the basketball. You can’t draw your hands closer to your body because the basketball is in the way!

Click here for more on dressage rider equitation.

Don’t Let Your Horseback Riding Fears Hold You Back!

My new program to help you Raise your Fear Threshold and escape “Fear Paralysis” while horseback riding is just about ready.

I want to thank all of you for your awesome input on your personal riding fears last month. After hearing about some of them, I added extra tips and tools to the program. Thanks to your help, it really has become your program.

Next month, I’ll be offering a special introductory price ONLY for my newsletter subscribers. If you’re on my newsletter list, you’ll automatically get that info so you’re all set.

If you’re NOT on the newsletter list, go back to the Home Page and sign up right now so you can get in on the special offer.

Among other things, when you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll IMMEDIATELY get a free special report on 5 Tips to Demolish Fear while Horseback Riding.

Click here for more info on managing your horseback riding fear.

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