At 15:27:47 on 03.10.10, Daniella Howe wrote:
a few weaks ago i had a bad fall when my horse refused a jump, he threw his head up and hit me in the head with his head, knocking me off balance then he jumped to the right making me land on the hard ground with my left hip, although i am young i have started having a couple problims with my hip sice then, after about a minute of screaming bloody murder because my hip hut so bad my dad had caught my horse and come to help me up once i stood up i lost my vision for about 10 minutes then i could see but the color was gone and this went on for about an hour i now can see fine and have started to ride again but always feel nerviouse when my horse does a few funny things that used to not bother me, i am almost 16 and have been riding this particular horse sence i was 11, i have had many bad falls why is this one the one to shake me? please help me. thank you :)

At 18:49:50 on 03.10.10, Brihorses14 wrote:
this might not help and sorry for that but I was afraid of my first horse who never hurt me but did dangorous things and im not afraid at all of my second horse who ive fallen off of (my bad for not wearing a helmet) and she bit me in the face (it was my fault for not looking but it hurt), its just weird things on how we feel and think about it. and maybe take a slow trail ride I dont know if you only ride english with jumping or stuff like that but my horse always calms down ALOT after a trail ride with someone walking beside me (im still nervous to go anywhere alone after my first horse even though my new horse is safe) after a trail ride your horse might be a little tired but they listen alot better and its nice to go a little slower sometimes.

At 23:17:58 on 03.10.10, CarolineP wrote:
Hi Daniella, sorry to hear about your accident. I can't say why this particular fall has dented your confidence but these tips will help you. Review your jump one more time to identify what you did that contributed to the situation. Be honest. This is your chance to learn how to make the problem less likely to occur again. When you have learned what you need to learn from it, be ruthless. Ruthlessly banish any thoughts of your fall. Each and every time you start thinking about it, get rid of the thought in any way you like and replace it with something nice. You will find that the more you do this, the less and less powerful these thoughts are. No matter how many times you have to do it - do it. The thoughts will quickly become less powerful and less frequent. If you're seeing a picture in your head, make the picture small and move it further away from you. Take yourself out of the picture and drain colour, movement and sound out of it. Then imagine shrinking the picture to a tiny dot and getting rid of it by firing it over the horizon. With a little practise, you'll find this easy. If you're continuing to jump your horse, you can use mental rehearsal to plan exactly how you want to approach each jump (remembering what you learned when you reviewed the one that went wrong). Practising it in your head will make it second nature when you do it for real. Finally, put this into perspective. How many times have you jumped in the last year? How many times did you fall off? How many of those times did you hurt yourself? How likely is this really to happen again? For instance, when my horse bucked me off and I landed on my head and hurt my shoulder (not funny at my age!), one of the things I did was to remember that I have had her three years and I ride 4-5 times a week. I have fallen off her twice in that time. She has bucked me off once. So although it could happen again, it's not very likely. So I just don't think about it - therefore I got back on her and rode without fear. When you control your mind, you control your feelings. Good luck. Kind regards, Caroline
http://www.enjoyriding.com

At 01:24:37 on 11.10.10, Horsesarelife1001 wrote:
CarolineP: That was awesome. That is how all riders should think! that was really helpful to me too! Thanks SOO much!