Rider anxiety: how to get past it and enjoy your horse again
Horse rider anxiety is a very common problem and as is often the case with anxiety it presents itself in a number of ways. For some people its overthinking things for others its doubting themselves and for others its worrying about what might happen. A lot of anxiety problems are habits that riders have got in to and it takes roughly 100 repetitions of a new habit to get rid of the old habit. So there is a lot of effort that has to be invested in change before you get the benefit of it.
Anxiety doesnt just affect horse riders who compete it can affect riders at all levels and with a range of experience. It is typically seen in riders who have had a break and gone back to riding later in life or a rider who has got a new horse or a young horse they are bringing on. The good news is that people can get past anxiety and enjoy riding again.
What it means
This comes back to selfbelief. When we try to validate if were a good person or not we typically look internally and externally. If internally we dont reinforce ourselves very positively and dont have a lot of positive selfbelief we then become very reliant on external feedback from other people.
Symptoms
When riding in front of other people such as on a livery yard or at a competition riders worry about what other people think.
Work on developing some strong positive beliefs using evidence through what people say you do well as a rider. Ask people around you for positive things about your riding and ask yourself what you are working on that is making you a better rider so you can start to build selfbelief. You can also ask what your trainer thinks you are good at. Ask them to point out the things you are doing well as well as the things you can improve on so you know what your strengths are as well as what you need to work on.
