FEAR

            What holds you back? What keeps you from achieving your dreams? It’s fear.

Fear is that pesky little thing that causes anxiety, anger, and it causes us to give up. Fear is also what keeps you from getting into trouble that could get you hurt or killed. We have what is called rational fear and irrational fear.

            When we are afraid of something irrational, it keeps us from reaching our goals and dreams and keeps us unhappy. We are in our safe zone but we can’t expect anything extraordinary to happen in our safe zone. We all have different sizes of safe zones. Some people have really large safe zones where they feel comfortable a good amount of the time taking certain risks. Whereas other people have very small safe zones and they can’t even interact with people much at all.

            When we are afraid of something rational, it keeps us safe from injury or death. Pushing the limits on these fears is unwise because we end up in the hospital or the morgue.

            When it comes to horses, fear holds back so many people. Fear of cantering, of trotting, going to a show, going on a hack, or even getting in the saddle. The list goes on. What we need to do is combat these fears, but not all of them.

            Some people will tell you to strive to be fearless while you’re riding and working with your horses. And they are half right. We should conquer our irrational fears but recognize and accept your rational ones and be cautious when these crop up.

            So when we talk about the two extremes of horse riders, we have the ones who let irrational fears keep them from enjoying their riding and progressing with their horses. And then you have the ones who ignore their rational fears and they ride horses they shouldn’t or ask their horses to do things neither they nor the horses are ready to do and end up getting hurt or worse. Or they put the horse into very dangerous situations and the horse gets hurt. And even if they don’t end up getting injured, their horses lose confidence in them as a rider.

            So how do we find the balance? We need to identify what types of fear we have. If you are afraid to get on a horse that has proven to be calm and well trained, then it is of course irrational. If you are afraid to get on a horse that has proven to be dangerous, then your fear is rational. You must find your limit, whether that may be getting on the horse, trotting, cantering, etc.

If your fear is irrational, you must push this limit to get past it. You do this by making yourself get out there, no matter how hard it is. Keep telling yourself what you want to achieve with your horse and your riding and why you want that.

When we think about riding our horses we have a sort of ‘horror movie’ that plays in our heads. The ones with irrational fears will envision a ride that goes awry. Whether the horse spooks, they fall, they get dragged, they break a bone, they die, etc. This leaks into your subconscious and creates a fear that feels so real for you that it keeps you from enjoying your riding or even riding at all. You must change this ‘movie’. Start envisioning a good ride on your horse. Imaging a ride where you are both happy and relaxed and nothing bad happens. This will help you to get past your limit.

If your fear is rational, you must stay behind your limit until your limit moves itself. Say your limit is cantering, if your horse has a problem cantering you need to go back behind that limit, even back to ground work, until your horse no longer has an issue. 

If you have trouble identifying the limit or are one of those people who ‘have no limits’, it’s always wise to go back to the ground if you are having an issue. Most of the time, people who have this issue have trouble listening to the horse, reading the horse, and understanding timing.

Once you identify your rational and irrational fears, you will have an awakening. You will be able to enjoy riding and working with your horse again. Once you start to listen to yourself, you will be able to listen to your horse and be the rider and partner he needs.