How to get my confidence back

[Lesina]

Returned to riding after a break of some 10 years. Prior to break rode regularly had my own horses. In the main hacking with the odd bit of low level jumping. When I returned to riding, due to my poor balance, I fell and broke 5 ribs and my collar bone. Was fairly traumatic. I really want to to ride again but feel sick at the thought of it. How on earth do I get my confidence back?

Sorry to hear about your fall, that is an understandable confidence knock.

You could have a search for rider confidence courses, I see lots pop up nowadays.

But my honest advice, if you recognise the cause of your fall to be lack of balance, is to do everything you can to get in the best possible shape for riding. I really rate pilates as helping my riding strength and balance. Squats on a balance board, lots of core work, strength training would all help.

And when you do get back in the saddle, set yourself up to succeed. Controlled environment, reliable horse, neck strap, sticky bum jods, on the lunge if needed, check your girth before getting on! Sometimes it's the simple things.

Hope you find a way back to it.

I agree with getting in shape. I think being reasonably fit with half decent core strength will help so much with confidence and balance.

Do it a bit at a time. Little and often if you can and don't push yourself.

The best thing I ever did after a fall and loss of confidence was to ride bare back. My instructor has a beautiful horse, very big boy but so calm and gentle and she suggested going for a walk on him without the saddle. We started incorporating this at the end of lessons and honestly it's done my core strength and balance a world of good.

Find someone with a horse who is a bit of a schoolmaster. Older and chilled, preferably large as I've always found bigger horses easier balance on.

Work without stirrups and without the saddle if you can. It makes for a very secure seat as you sort of sink into the horse and your body automatically follows theirs.

Last year I had a bad fall, broke 5 vertebrae, 4 ribs, pneumothorax, spectacular bruising everywhere - pretty much the only parts of me that were fine were my head, hands and feet ..

I started riding again about 4/5 months later and thought I was fine until I asked for canter and just froze. Things that helped me were:

• finding a riding school that does lunge lessons (harder than I thought to find, no idea why as lunge lessons are brilliant!) - my first proper canter back was on the lunge so I wasn’t having to worry about getting the horse into canter or keeping it, I was just having to concentrate on my own position and remembering the feel of the canter. As soon as I’d done that it was ‘oh yes that’s what it’s supposed to feel like, that’s fine, what was I worrying about!’

• hacking - I’m usually more relaxed put hacking than in the school - you’re in the saddle for longer, you’re mostly going in straight-ish lines and cantering is easier if you’re following another horse up a slight hill - it all seems a lot more natural

• finding a fabulous teacher who’s studied a lot of sports psychology - she gives me enough ‘process’ to concentrate on so that my mind doesn’t have space for all the ‘what ifs’

• finding the right build of horse for me - being an adult returner I was usually put on your standard round riding school cob but for a lot of women that barrel shape isn’t actually that comfortable. My share horse is actually a TB - I find it so much easier to get my leg in the right place to give clear aids and because he’s naturally more forward I’m not having to chase him constantly to get him going which means I can relax into the movement and concentrate on how I’m riding

Good luck - I’m so glad I got back into riding - the last few weeks it’s been the only time I haven’t had a million traumatic thoughts swirling around my head

I fell from my young horse in April and fractured my femur - I started riding again very quickly (7 weeks) but being led around on a school master pony; gradually increased to riding independently and did a lot of groundwork with the young horse to build trust before I got back on. Im not back to where I was, but Im hacking out and not anxious, so that's a win for me.