One of the most common issues faced by equestrians is a loss of confidence. Sometimes this applies to one aspect of their riding, for example canter transitions or jumping, sometimes to all of their riding, sometimes to everything they do with their horse whether riding or dealing with the horse from the ground. The loss of confidence may be related to a specific event but often the rider does not know why their confidence has gone, all that they are aware of is a feeling of anxiety — or even sheer panic — when they think about riding.
Some riders lack confidence in a specific context such as out hacking, riding in an arena or at a competition. For others it may be related to a specific activity or problem such as fear of jumping, cantering, spooking, bolting, or rearing.. Again, these fears may be related traumatic events in the past or the rider may have developed anxiety about what 'might' happen without any obvious reason.
Of course, riding is a risk sport and there is always a balance between competence and confidence. If a lack of confidence is related to an insufficient level of competence then the solution will not be found only by changing thought patterns and emotional responses but by finding good professional equestrian support.
More pages will be added to this section of the web site dealing with specific issues faced by riders at all levels, as well as with different aspects of equestrianism such as eventing, show jumping and dressage. All of the 'stories' are written by the rider's. Some of them have written articles specially and others have asked me to use their emails to give a flavour of their experience as they reported it at the time. I'm grateful to all of them.
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