Would natural horsemanship work for us?

[Mysreyah]

Hiya everyone,
I have just gotten a new horse about a month ago, and now I am terrified of him! I have fallen off him twice, and he is the only horse I have ever fallen off. When I am riding the schooling horses, I am not very much afraid, and even if one bolts off, I get nervous but I am not crippled with fear like when my own horse bolts off. I fell off yesterday. We had been riding along at a walk nicely when he takes off, twisting and going all around. I stayed on, but I was so scared I let myself drop off. I think I have it in my head that he is green and that is giving me a lot of fear. He is a Standardbred trotter racing horse and has really never been ridden. He has wonderful ground manners and is not shy of anything on the ground. When I first began to ride him, he was amazing to me. I couldnt believe he had little saddle training. But now I am getting more and more afraid...
I would like to purchase the Natural Horsemanship series, but it is extremely expensive. Do you think that we would benefit greatly from the training? Will it help me to get over my fear and do you think it will help to teach him what it is he must do when a rider is on his back? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.... Thanks!

[nutkin]

I would enlist the help of an instructor immediately before your confidence is further dented or your green horse becomes unrideable. I get the impression that this is your first horse and although I hate to sound horrible green and green is not a good combination. If you can't get the help you need from an instructor perhaps you would be better off either returning him to the previous owners or else selling him and getting something with a little more experience. I don't think that the natural horsemanship series will do anything to improve this situation as once you are in the saddle all of your fears will still be there. Sorry to sound so negative about this.

[Yann]

It doesn't sound like he's ever been schooled properly, all they learn as racers is to accept a rider and go as fast as possible. You could go down the Parelli route, but your money might be better spent in the first instance getting professional help to retrain your horse from scratch to understand what you want him to do.

[Mysreyah]

Well
As a trotter, he never even had to accept a rider because he was a harness racer, and raced with the small cart behind him. I actually adopted him, as it is. I am going to talk to some of the trainers at the barn about working with him.

[Danehill]

I think that the first thing you should do is forget your fear. Your horse know it; if you feel safe, he will be nice, but if you show him that you aren't safe, he will take a chance and do some crazy things.

I don't think that natural horsemanship would be a better solution than something else in this case.

The horse (3,5 years old) I bought last year had been ridden only a dozen of times before. So when I tried him, he was green, but not mad at me. With practice and time, he became wonderful. You should have seen him in June in his first show.
But in july, i've been sick and during 1 week nobody rode him, he spend his days in his boxe. I can tell you that I past a really difficult month of July... The only thing he wanted was to go back in his home and to throw me off his back. I haven't ever seen him rears like that. That month, i was thinking of why I had bought that horse, i could'nt realize that it was the same.

But now, he his coming back to his better days, and prefers to have fun with me than to throw me off.

I think the best thing for you is to forget your fear at first. When it will be done, you and your horse will have a big step done.

[Mysreyah]

Hi Danehill
Thanks for your suggestion. Sounds a lot like my guy. Today, I am having him assessed by the trainers at the barn. They are going to work with me and him together. THis horse has such wonderful ground manners and is so gentle that I know that with a little training he will be wonderful and I will have no reason to be afraid any longer!