Are You a Timid Rider?
Learn to rewrite your fear and anxiety to common sense. The first time you truly admit you are a timid owner/rider you may hold your breath, tears may appear, but then your heart beats again. You are ready to turn your fear into common sense, and the weight on your shoulders will lift. Let me help you achieve that.
Or are you a Timid Horse Owner?
My client Selina contacted me recently. “Chanti I have a confession to make! I have fallen out of love with my horse and I don’t know what to do.”
Now if you knew Selina, who is, and has been pony and horse mad since she was 3 years old and has spent her entire childhood and adult life to date in the saddle – you knew that this statement was totally untrue.
You see Selina was fast approaching 50, her children had grown, and for the first time she had time on her hands to do what she wanted to do. She had moved to a home with land so her horse and companion pony literally lived in the back garden; and George was her dream horse – an Irish sports horse that was a true gentleman.
“He’s too much horse” she said. “I just don’t think I can do it anymore and I don’t know what to do. Can you come round?”
So I headed out to her beautiful home to a warm kitchen with coffee brewing, cookies in the oven I sat down in her kitchen with her 4 rescue dogs milling around and said “So what’s happened?” I was genuinely concerned.
“I saddled up George the other day to go for a hack and I couldn’t do it.” She went on to describe how she was feeling.
What became clear quite quickly wasn’t that “She couldn’t do it” as she put it – she had suddenly become aware of a certain voice in her head that is reluctant, concerned and stressing about the “what if” situations – Selina had gone from common sense to cautious apprehensive, nervous to downright overwhelm.
She had become pathologically tense and couldn’t breathe and her fear was now disabling her.
Phew. Selina was apologising as though her timid, fearfulness was a bad thing.
I have a confession to make I love timid riders and supporting them. You see timid riders after a few sessions no longer see being timid as a flaw. They realise that it doesn’t matter what kind of rider other people think they are – what matters is what kind of rider your horse thinks you are.
Timid Riders will work on themselves with a little help and guidance and take things slow, they are sensitive and really want to listen to their horse. They are the kind of partner that will take the blame for their equine friend.
They have the honesty to admit how they feel and they have compassion for how they feel makes their horses feel.
Dear Timid Rider, please do not apologise for being sensitive, as it’s the language of compassion and empathy and considered a real strength. However if you feel that your timidity is becoming overwhelming – get in touch.
ps, Selina is no longer an overwhelmed, anxious fearful rider - she is now full of common sense, awareness, sensitivity and is happily back in the saddle.
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