I dropped my hat... somewhere...

Somewhere between here and there we lose or gain, confidence.

Confidence in our riding, confidence in ourselves.

No place does this come into crystal clear focus then when riding your horse in a situation where you don’t feel in control.

If your horse starts to get nervous…

ie : He is sure that the tree, log, rock or whatever is going to hurt him, and he starts to make plans to check out, and at the same time, you pick up on the horse and you start to remember falling on your ass and getting hoof tracks on your back, you are probably not in the best place to support your horse.

Just get off..

Take a deep breath, pass whatever it is that got your horse going, do some quick ground work to get your horse thinking about something else, then get back on.

Best advice I have ever received.

Then there are times when we get ahead of ourselves.. We think..

“Hell, as long as I don’t ride into the lions den, I am ok”….

Well if you are a good enough hand, I am sure you will be..

I am not.

Though, I will ride within a 100 yards of the lions den. J

Or, I will lock the lions den, so I am sure no lions will get out, then I will ride up to the lions den and keep my horse busy as I do…

Case in point..

Marshal was being a little bucky boy as we worked on the canter transitions..

So fine.

I go the small arena, I lock the arena gate, I check my cinch, I get on, and get a good grip on my saddle and I say…

“YAH!”

Well he was like, sure ok, I will canter.. and then I will throw in the after burners..

Fine.. knock yourself out, but you will canter..

And continue to canter, until you listen back and get off my hands..

Ahh….

It worked..

He is great and I survived..

But I did not try that down in the jumping arena… I picked my lions den..

Set my little guy up for success.. And you know, he does not know the difference..

To him, it’s the same…

Build his confidence and at the same time, build mine.