When you have horse riding fears, you feel anxious, nervous and outright scared! You might even have panic attacks.

And, you may have people telling you to just "cowgirl up" and get over it. But, it's really not that simple.

So how do you get over your riding fears? Read on for my 5 step strategy to silence your mind gremlins, switch off your fear and enjoy the ride!

Pushing Through Horse Riding Fears Is Exhausting

You may have heard the statement to “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”. It's become a common phrase thanks to Susan Jeffers's book of the same title (a good book, by the way, that I highly recommend). 

But pushing through your horse riding fear takes a lot of energy. And it steals your enjoyment of riding.

Frankly, it's exhausting and can actually make your anxiety about horse riding worse!

Because every time you ride, you feel uncomfortable.

And that becomes more proof to your unconscious mind that riding a horse is not something you should do. Because the primary purpose of your unconscious mind is your safety.

You may try to overcompensate with overconfidence, appearing to be angry or aggressive (because that's more acceptable than being scared in the horse world) or sabotaging yourself.

To have true confidence and long-term success you need to find a way to eliminate the fear – not just bury it deep down.

If you've read Susan Jeffers' book, you'll know that's what she teaches.

Feeling confident is really not about doing something when you're so scared that you can't think straight!

How does horse riding fear show up for you?

Here are some of the ways it shows up for my clients:

• Procrastination - You give priority to everything other than riding
• Perfectionism - You don't want to do it if you can't do it "perfectly" or you might make a mistake. And you definitely don't want others seeing you make mistakes ... what would they think!
• Excuses – You'd love to go riding today but ... it's too windy ... too cold ... too hot ... your horse is sleeping (you wouldn't want to disturb him) .... she's just finished eating her dinner ... there's snow on the arena roof ... the arena's too busy ... there's nobody else riding .... etc., etc.

The first step to overcoming horse riding fear is to ... recognise and admit that you are scared.

I promise that you're not alone. You're not the only one struggling with horse riding fear.

And the good news is that you can change it and become a confident horse rider.

5 Steps for Overcoming Horse Riding Fear

So now you've admitted that you are scared about horse riding and how it's showing up for you, here are my 5 steps for overcoming it:

1. Overcome Horse Riding Fear By Not Listening to Your Mind Gremlin

Yeah, that unhelpful voice that tells you 

• all the things thatcould go wrong, 
• all the things thathave gone wrong, 
• why you can't trust your horse, 
• that you're not a good enough rider, 
• blah blah blah. 

You know that voice. That's your mind gremlin!

And it's a bully!

The more you run from it or push it down, the more power it has. Next time you recognise that you're feeling scared – STOP and PAY ATTENTION.

When the Procrastination/ Perfectionism/Excuses begin, notice what thoughts are going through your mind.

What is that Mind Gremlin saying?

Write it down in detail. Describe the situation and how you're feeling. Then move on to step #2.

2. Overcome Horse Riding Fear By Asking “Is It Really True?"

Unless your thoughts are hard facts and based on truth, the answer is NO, it's false.

That means that generalisations like “My horse spooks all the time” or “I'm never going to be a good rider” are false. (That's also knows as "black or white" thinking. Watch out for words like always, never, everybody, etc.

Predicting what's going to happen in the future (even 5 minutes from now) or what other people are thinking are also false. (That's called "future thinking" and it's only happening in your imagination.)

You really don't know what's going to happen in the future nor what other people are thinking.

3. Overcome Horse Riding Fear By Finding the Truth

For each false statement you've identified, write the objective truth. This is more than just putting a positive spin on a negative thought.

“My horse spooks all the time” becomes “My horse spooks when ... .”

Fill in the blank with an actual, real situation in which your horse has spooked.

If you know what causes your horse to spook, you can find a solution to that specific problem.

You can do the same with statements like... “I'm never going to be a good rider”.

What's your definition of "good"?

What exactly do you want to achieve? What are your goals?

Be very specific. Once you identify what you want to achieve, you can create a plan for getting there. 

That's putting the focus on the SOLUTION rather than on a problem.

4. Overcome Horse Riding Fears By Knowing What CAN You Do

Now that you've removed the emotionally loaded feelings from those thoughts, you can clearly see where your real challenges are and create a plan to solve them.

For example, if you've identified a training problem with your horse, now you can ask yourself what steps you need to take to change that. You might need to go back to basics or hire a trainer to help you.

But, now that you have a solution, you can take action. And that helps you overcome fear and self-doubt. 

5. Overcome Horse Riding Fear By Taking Small Steps

You've got your plan for solving the problem that's been causing your horse riding fears. Now step up and take action on it.  Take baby steps so that you don't get overwhelmed.

Taking too big a leap or doing too much too soon can knock you back.

Instead, take your time and go slowly.

You'll build your horse riding confidence by having positive experiences no matter how small the step is you take.

Now you have a step by step plan for managing your horse riding fear.

Every time you hear that Mind Gremlin whispering in your ear, pay attention to those thoughts.

Call out the most significant ones, and re-write them. Then choose what to do from your new truth.

The more you do it, the less control the Mind Gremlin will have and the more your horse riding confidence will increase.