Getting back on

[Lesina]

Hi all, I fell back in March. Broken clavicle and several broken ribs. Now in the position of getting back on and I’m keen but very nervous. Any tips on overcoming that fear?

I has v. bad accident and it really knocked my confidence. Do you have your own horse or are you at a school?

With own horse I'd give yourself tiny goals e g. just get on on day 1, get on and little walk day 2, etc which will help you see if you have a boundary somewhere. Harder to do that at riding school, you could try a mechanical horse to check you feel comfortable and secure, or a private lesson and explain what you want to do.

Main thing is to not focus on the accident. I used to recount it to people, explaining just how terrifying the incident was and how badly I was hurt, because I wanted them to understand me (and not judge me for being nervous). This constant reliving is awful, don't do it!

Have some distraction techniques in place, singing or counting backwards from 300 in 7s or something like that.

Hope it all goes well.

My own horse but not the one I came off. I’m going to saddle up and sit on him this weekend. Even if it’s just a few steps it will be progress :)

Try and make sure you have someone on the ground who could hold or lead the horse if you get worried. I definitely had that T-shirt after a nasty fall of someone else’s horses. My own horse was lovely but I remember holding on very tightly to the front of the saddle and trying to sing to relax as she plodded very very slowly round the field. It didn’t take too long to get most of my confidence back