loss of Confidence

[Tracy]

Could anyone give me advice on how to over
come my loss of confidence after a fall
over a jump

[Sarah]

hello!

Sorry to hear about your loss of confidence. it can be a real knock to your confidence when you fall off and it can be hard to get the confidence to try to do what it was you were doing when you fell off again.

How long have you been riding? Is it possible that you started to jump before you really felt ready for it? If you are worried about jumping before you start, it makes it even harder to do it for the first time.

Do you have private or group lessons. it could be worth having a few private lessons so that you can really work on your postion, both on the flat and in jumping position (without jumping). Havinga few lunge lessons will help with this two. Unless oyu are happy and balanced on the flat, you will always have trouble when jumping.

If it is not possible to have private lessons, have a lot more flatwork lessons to establish your balance and seat on the flat. Make sure that you are perfectly happy in walk before trying trot and that you are perfectly happy in trot beofer eveen thinking of cantering. If you have a word with your teacher and explain that you have lost your confidence hopefully they will look after you, if not, change teacher or riding school.

Only try jumping again after you really do feel confident on the flat. Then just try going over trotting poles, then perhaps trotting poles that are raised at one end before trying the world's smallest cross pole. It really doesn't matter how high you jump at any stage, just you will feel more confident with smaller ones. teh technique is just the same, no matter what the height so you may as well get everything right at a low level before trying higher, more rider scaring heights.

This summer I had a few big scares with my horse jumping at shows when she started napping towards the other horses and would rear if i turned her away. I hadn't jumped her in 4 months, I just worked on flatwork and getting a bit more control in walk trot and canter then on sunday i went to a jumping clinic with a really sympathetic teacher. The feeling i had when i got over the first jump (I think it was relief!) was amazing and the whole lesson went like a dream. This has really worked with me. not only am i feeling a lot more confident, but my horse is much better schooled now too!

I hope this helped. Please let us know how your next lesson goes.

bye!