Invariably, fear rides with you when you’re horse riding. You may not be aware of it, but it is there. And why shouldn’t it be there? If a rider weighs a median of 150 pounds (wild guess), a horse weighs an average of 1,000 pounds. I want you to understand and accept that in feeling fear, you are just one of a group. There’s very little unique about you, but be aware that courage isn’t the absence of fear. Bravery is the conquering of fear. Courage is doing something that has to be done in spite of the potentially paralysing results of fear. Your battle with fear should not be aimed at eliminating it, you can’t. Your battle should be directed at conquering it.

What is it that you can do to stop your fear from excluding you from enjoying your equine experiences to the maximum? I’ve got some answers for you below.

Fear makes you fret about what is going to happen, which implies you are projecting into the future, instead of concentrating on the present. You are more focused on what might occur, instead of what is happening. At such times, do you bother to remind yourself that that 99% of people’s fears never come to pass? It makes you wonder why folk burn so much energy and stress themselves out over issues that have the barest of outside prospects of coming to be? Your simplest way to combat fear is by staying in the here and the now.

Stick to the current time by engaging as many of your senses as your are able to. Open your ears to the relaxing rhythm your horse’s footfalls create. Let your eyes banquet on the scenery moving by. Allow your hands to feel the reassuring texture of your reins. Wrinkle your nose over the smell, and let salted sweat pucker your mouth!

Rub in some emotion, too. Think of times past that had you in rapture, that relaxed you, calmed you, made you feel confident. Whatever it was, a sunset, a morning jog, your pet dog squirming with pleasure as you scratched him, live it over again in your mind’s eye.

Recreate that joy and experience them once again by utterly opening up your senses and adding some positive memories to the mix, you’ll rid yourself of the temptation to think about the future (an activity controlled by your brain’s left side, which is also where fear resides) and keep both your feet forcibly planted in today. Keep the right side of your cortex engaged.

This system of shutting out the future and so shutting out fear can be used with practically any activity aside from pony riding. Make it a habit that you use whenever you feel fear, uneasiness or nervousness.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers go here