Just saying hi! and need advice on cantering!

[ponypinkyp]

Hi everyone!

Ive been riding now for approx 14 months 'on and off' my own horse bear, who I keep on a working livery at a local riding school!

He is a very nice natured horse 'but is quite moody at times' and I have not yet established canter on him. I went away for a week to the Equestrian centre hotel to be able to gain confidence on and around horses enough to feel at ease, around my own,,,as I am very nervous!!!

I managed to ride umpteen diferrent horses whilst there, and also established canter too,,,, which i was over the moon about,,, but,,,,

I have my own horse,,, and cant seem to get enough courage together to just 'go up to him and get on',,, continue to ride him and go into canter,,,,,,,,,,,,, without worrying about what will happen to me!

ALL I WANT TO DO IS RIDE MY OWN HORSE!!!

I am in the worcestershire area,,, Droitwich 'in actuall fact' so if anyone local to me can help,,,, I would be very grateful? Other than this,,, would anyone be able to give me some advice on nerves and how to overcome them,,, also, I need someone to explain to me 'in child like terms' how to establish canter ' aids' and how to properly apply them'????

any help would be great!!!!

[Echo64]

I know all about fear when riding, as I suffered a broken arm about eight years ago, and then a stop in riding two years ago. It's like I regressed back to the point when I had initially recovered from my injury - not fun at all.

The horse I currently have was purchased at an auction and the old owner told us he bucks, so I was absolutely terrified to canter on him for the first time. Though when I did canter, there was nothing to worry about.

I would suggest getting a knowledgable ground person to help you out. It can be a really traumatic thing the first time and can leave you more shaken than you'd intended. You may even want to try going round on the longe line and getting a canter that way, so then there is a person there to help you and make sure that your horse won't go far.

The best advice someone recently told me is to start training your nerves and/or fear into something useful. You are not useful when you're thinking about how terrifying everything is, and if you can convert that energy of being scared into something that will help you in the event something happens, then you will eventually gain confidence in your riding skills, ability and most important - your horse.

[ponypinkyp]

Trouble is,,, I want to learn with my own horse. I actually plucked up the courage to lunge him once,,, everything was fine till he decided to hop skip n jump into a full blown rodeo show! whereby,,, i ran a mile out of the menage'!

Lost my confidence there,,, and would still worry 'even more' if i was on his back 'knowing' he had done this with NO rider, on the e nd of the lunge line to me!

Im stuck!

[Bay Mare]

You could get an instructor to come and work with you and Bear. I've got a trainer who comes to me to work with Saffy and he's helped me no end.

We can tell you the aids on here but it really sounds like you need someone actually with you to get you through this, maybe starting to canter on the lunge or even getting on and riding him for you to see how he goes.

Just a question first though, DOES he canter in the school or is he quite unbalanced? If you cantered ok at Wrexham then what is different with your own horse? If he doesn't canter in the school and you aren't confident enough to take him through it then it probably would be a good idea to get an experienced rider/trainer to help you with him.