Overcoming Horse Riding Fear

Q: Why doesn't "just get back on" work?

Per Faith Meredith: telling a frightened rider to suppress the feeling skips the actual problem—usually a skill they don't yet have for the situation that scared them. Until that gap is filled, the fear comes back the next time the horse spooks. Real recovery rebuilds the skill first; the confidence follows.

Q: How is fear different from healthy respect?

Per Faith Meredith: respect keeps you alert—checking your girth, watching the horse's eye, riding inside your skill. Fear shuts you down—stiff body, held breath, hands locked on the reins, which the horse reads as a threat and reacts to. Respect makes a better rider; fear makes a worse one.

Q: Should I switch horses if I'm scared of the one I have?

Per Faith Meredith: sometimes yes. A green rider on a green horse is the most common mismatch in the industry. Borrow or lease a steady, experienced horse for six to twelve months while you rebuild skills, then come back to your project horse with the tools to handle it.

Q: Does groundwork actually help with riding fear?

Per Faith Meredith: enormously. Lunging, in-hand work, and ground-tying teach the horse to listen and the rider to read the horse's body language without 1000 pounds underneath them. Most confidence problems shrink dramatically once both partners trust each other on the ground.

Q: When should I get professional help?

Per Faith Meredith: as soon as fear interferes with the basics—mounting, walking, steering. A trained instructor can spot the missing skill in one lesson and design a recovery plan. Trying to push through alone after an accident is the slowest and most dangerous route back.

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Overcoming Horse Riding Fears by Faith Meredith Director, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre

Anyone who has ridden for any length of time would be dishonest if they told you they have never felt fear.

If you have any common sense at all, you should have a certain level of healthy fear whenever you get on a new horse. Call it respect if you prefer, but there is always an awareness that the 1000-pounds or so of bone and muscle you are sitting on is, physically, more powerful than you are. Horses can jump sideways in the blink of an eye, rear, buck, or reach speeds over 25 miles per hour in a matter of seconds. They are also capable of using that physical power to perform incredible athletic feats like jumping, dressage, cutting, or reining.

Our desire to become partners with our horses in those athletic endeavors makes us willing to take the risk of being thrown off or finding ourselves on a panicked runaway.

Having a bad experience, usually something that could not have been avoided no matter what the rider did, can turn healthy respect to fear. Once a rider has been physically hurt in an accident or even just really frightened, it can take a while to rebuild confidence. The old rough-and-ready, cavalry-style philosophy promised that if you just got right back on again, everything would be fine. However, suppressing fear seldom works. Neither does it help to tell someone to just get over it. Fear is usually related to the rider's skill level. The best way to overcome riding fears is to work on developing a completely independent seat. An independent seat gives the rider the confidence the he or she has the ability to ride through just about anything the horse might do. Riders also need to develop habits that allow them to stay mentally and emotionally centered in a rhythmic and relaxed way when their horse becomes excited or frightened. One of the partners has to stay calm in order to bring the other back to that state.

It is hard to get past your fear when you work by yourself. Finding a competent instructor who acknowledges your confidence crisis without either belittling it or catering to it is important. You need someone who understands how to back up and find the point where you are comfortable riding and how to help you work forward again from that point in a logical progression to regain your confidence. Having the right horse or horses available can also be critical when you are trying to rebuild confidence. People who are afraid of riding often have good reason to be, they may have realized that they are over mounted on their own horse. Trying to work through fear on the same animal that caused your fears can be very difficult. We are fortunate here at Meredith Manor to have the luxury of 130 to 150 horses to choose among when our instructors sit down to make weekly horse assignments for individual students. When we get a fearful student, we can put them on goldie oldie school horses that give them a lot of positive reinforcement and gradually rebuild their confidence by moving them onto horses that take greater skill.

Fear around horses is not limited to riding. Many people feel intimidated when they have to catch, lead or groom an unruly, ill-mannered horse. Even if they manage to dominate the horse using a chain lead shank or other artificial means, they may still have a queasy feeling because they know they are not really in charge of the situation. Here, again, a good instructor should be able to help a fearful student learn how to confidently and safely work around and re-school a spoiled horse with bad ground manners.

Training methods aimed at making the trainer dominant work only as long as nothing scarier or more dominant than the trainer is in the horse's immediate environment. Handling techniques that depend on chain shanks or war bridles do not result in permanent changes in the horse's attitude or true confidence on the part of his handler. We use a groundwork system we call heeding because it teaches the students to pay attention to their horses at all times and teaches the horse to pay attention to its handler at all times. Through consistent handling with rhythm and relaxation from the moment they enter a horse's stall until they put him away, they learn how to develop a rapport with their horses. The goal is to make the horse feel like the trainer or rider is always the safest place to be whenever exciting or unusual things happen.

Learning how to approach and work with horses on the ground in a rhythmic and relaxed way not only keeps the horses calm, but also teaches the students how to relax and stay calm. Using rhythmic breathing and rhythmic movements while they groom or lead their horses becomes a habit they can carry into their riding. The habit of staying rhythmic with their breathing, their seat, or their reins when things start falling apart helps both rider and horse relax and become calm again more readily.

Every rider must eventually face fear and overcome it. Fear is not something to be ashamed of or to hide. When it happens to you, find an instructor with the right attitude, the right program of progressive skill training, and the right horses to get you back on track again.

Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre

Meredith Manor is an equestrian vocational school dedicated entirely to producing professional riders, trainers, instructors, and farriers for the horse industry. All programs and courses are designed specifically to prepare you for a successful equine career. Our programs range in length from 3 to 18 months, and our students spend 6 hours a day in primarily hands-on, skill based classes with additional time spent in the barns and with the horses. Students don't have to excel in academic, classroom based classes to be successful in our programs, but they must have a passion for horses and a dedication to having a successful equestrian career.

Meredith Manor's name and reputation are known by serious horse people throughout the world. Students from the ages of seventeen to sixty-three have attended the School from every state and many foreign countries. Meredith Manor strives to provide a climate of learning in which each student may identify and accomplish his or her goals. We have continuously researched the horse industry, designed the facilities, and developed the educational programs that will give our students the training, experience, and confidence needed to have successful, life-long careers with horses!

Faith Meredith has successfully trained and competed through FEI levels of dressage during her more than 30 years as a horse professional. She currently coaches riders in dressage, reining, and eventing in her capacity as the Director of Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre.

Contact: Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre 147 Saddle Lane Waverly, West Virginia 26184 Phone: 800-679-2603 Email: info@meredithmanor.edu Website: www.meredithmanor.edu/

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Key Article Takeaways

Healthy fear is respect for a 1000-pound athlete—suppressing it almost never works.
Per Faith Meredith of Meredith Manor: most riding fear is a skill gap in disguise.
Build skill on the ground first; lunge, ground-tie, and groundwork rebuild trust fastest.
Match horse to rider—a green rider on a green horse is the #1 confidence killer.
Lessons with an instructor who can read both horse and rider shorten the recovery curve.

Questions readers commonly ask:

Why doesn't "just get back on" work?

Per Faith Meredith: telling a frightened rider to suppress the feeling skips the actual problem—usually a skill they don't yet have for the situation that scared them. Until that gap is filled, the fear comes back the next time the horse spooks. Real recovery rebuilds the skill first; the confidence follows.

How is fear different from healthy respect?

Per Faith Meredith: respect keeps you alert—checking your girth, watching the horse's eye, riding inside your skill. Fear shuts you down—stiff body, held breath, hands locked on the reins, which the horse reads as a threat and reacts to. Respect makes a better rider; fear makes a worse one.

Should I switch horses if I'm scared of the one I have?

Per Faith Meredith: sometimes yes. A green rider on a green horse is the most common mismatch in the industry. Borrow or lease a steady, experienced horse for six to twelve months while you rebuild skills, then come back to your project horse with the tools to handle it.

Does groundwork actually help with riding fear?

Per Faith Meredith: enormously. Lunging, in-hand work, and ground-tying teach the horse to listen and the rider to read the horse's body language without 1000 pounds underneath them. Most confidence problems shrink dramatically once both partners trust each other on the ground.

When should I get professional help?

Per Faith Meredith: as soon as fear interferes with the basics—mounting, walking, steering. A trained instructor can spot the missing skill in one lesson and design a recovery plan. Trying to push through alone after an accident is the slowest and most dangerous route back.