THE WORST MISTAKEN BELIEF ABOUT HORSES HELD BY NERVOUS RIDERS

The Worst Mistaken Belief About Horses Held by Nervous Riders

Ready for it….

That horses can put up with your fears and insecurities…

Let me explain…

You cannot hang on to your fears and insecurities and expect the horse to change itself. To put up with your fears and insecurities the horse must shut down to physical discomfort and become emotionally disengaged. Basically, a robotic zombie.

Fearful, insecure riders become reactive, tense, hanging tightly onto reins or snatching at them. They become hypervigilant, focus on potential threat or danger, and perceive their horse in a negative light when they are triggered to feel unsafe.

Besides the horse experiencing unrelenting pressure or physical pain, they are absorbers of emotions from their environments. Therefore, fearful riders trigger fear within horses. Depending on the horse this might take seconds, other horses might be more resilient and take a few rides before their tolerance to the discomfort and emotions collapses.

Therefore, a horse cannot remain obedient, relaxed and blaze to the world and let you enjoy your trail ride if you are feeling unsafe. It does not work like that – horses don’t work like that….

But here is the good thing. Whilst they cannot put up with your fears and insecurities, the way they “mirror” back your emotions and insecurities at you is why horses are so powerful in equine assisted psychotherapy.

Therefore, horses cannot put up with your fears and insecurities…but they can inspire you to dig deep into the cause, address them and be that mirror that shows the positive change within yourself.

But sadly, because of this mistaken belief they get labelled as “bad”, “difficult” or “problem” horses. Typically, this problem emerges not long after the purchase of the horse and in many cases the previous owners get accused of “drugging” the horse or misrepresenting the horse as being suitable. The truth is, no horse is suitable to the fearful rider, because fear triggers fear.

This illustration depicts what I call the vicious cycle of horse and rider fear and I write about this in my book Confidence & Trust – Solving the Horse + Rider Equation. This book digs deep into the causes of emotions and insecurities in the saddle and details a process of building confidence and trust with your horse.

If you liked this article please hit LIKE and SHARE, because this mistaken belief causes a lot of disappointment in the lives of people and causes horses to be misjudged, misunderstood and many times – mistreated as their “bad” horse label can put their life in jeopardy.

For more information about my book visit https://www.calmwillingconfidenthorses.com.au/courses