RE: Fear--long

["Kathy Mayeda" <kathy_mayeda@atce.com>]

Having just started another horse, I have plenty of fear, too.  He has
dumped me only once, but every time I get on the horse I take a long
time to mount.  I play Parelli type games with him first, make sure
he's focussed on me, and then take him to the mounting block.  Then I
take a deep breath, get centered, pray, then tug on the stirrup leathers
a couple of times before mounting.  If he moves, I stop him then repeat
before I get on.  I've done this as long as 10 minutes before I
actually swung on to his back.

I broke my mare to ride as a 3 y.o. and I guess it's like giving birth-
painful while you do it, but memory fades...  It's funny - she is actually
a little more dangerous than Drako to ride right now, but since I know
her so well and that she's a -itch, I expect her to behave badly sometimes.
And I know how much I can get on her case.  She needs someone more
strong-willed than her to make her toe the line.  I learned how to
get tough with a horse in an appropriate manner because I had to with her.
But I needed a break from having such a confrontational horse.  She's like
a high performance vehicle that needs constant tuning up to run smoothly,
and I just wanna truck.

With Drako - since he's so vulnerable right now I don't know what he's
going to do, so I'm actually more fearful of riding him.  He wants to
please a lot more than my mare, but he sometimes gets to the point
where he almost "loses it".  We just take a step at a time - for myself
and the horse - to earn trust in each other.

K.



-----Original Message-----
From: RhndLev@cs.com [mailto:RhndLev@cs.com]
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 1:27 PM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Fear--long


I had a major wreck on horseback (on that ornery Appaloosa mare I used to
have) a couple of years ago and ended up unable to walk for over a week and
a
long recovery.  When I was well enough, I went back to riding my good old
TWH
gelding to get my confidence back.  I started riding the Appy again, but
remained very fearful of riding with her.  I was fine with Laddie, but not
the Appy.  I eventually met and fell in love with Special and sold the Appy.
Special really helped me get over my fears, I thought.  The few times I've
been afraid on her, she seemed to sense it and slow down for me.  I've also
started a three year old Arab under saddle without too much difficulty.
However, apparently, I'm really not over my fears.

Remember that four year old filly I sold and then bought back because she
was
being starved?  I tried riding her last night.  She's had 60 days with a
professional trainer, but I still had a lot of anxiety about riding her.
She's a lot of horse and VERY quick.  [This is the horse that trotted for an
hour half-starved without ever trying to quit.]  I mounted her a couple of
times last night to see how she would do.  She stood like a rock.  However,
the third time I mounted, she flung her head back just as I settled into the
saddle, and cracked me hard in the mouth and nose.  My husband tried to grab
the reins to give me time to recover and the filly ducked down and to the
side and I went off.  The filly went down also.  I waited for us both to
settle down and re-mounted and went up and down the driveway twice and got
off.  Getting back on that horse was SO hard.  She's going to be a
phenomenal
horse but I just don't want to ride her.  She moves so fast and there's so
little horse in front of me compared to Special (15.2 with a loooooong
neck),
that I kept feeling like I was going to come off of the front of her again.
We do plan to sell this horse eventually, but Knightmare really needs more
riding experience and I have to ride her because there's no one else to do
it.  Please someone tell me how to get rid of this fear.

Rhonda


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=