hi there i think i'm live it's uh tuesday and uh
if you are you feeling anxious about getting back
in the saddle um after having an injury or having a fall or maybe just from
having an extended time off well i'm going to be giving you some
tips on how to deal with that fear and rebuild your
trust in yourself and your horse while you get
back in the saddle so if this is your first time joining me
I'm Anne Gage, The Horse Riding Confidence Coach and I
help anxious horse riders get back in the saddle with confidence and joy.
And I'm the author of Confident Rider Confident Horse
so if you're watching live then just pop in the comments
say hi let me know you're here let me know where you're watching from
and if you have any questions or comments pop them in there as we go
along and click on the like tag a friend
who might benefit from this information so my first tip for dealing with the
fear that often happens after an injury
or a long time off or a fall from your horse
is to start slowly and gradually build up in small increments in each
session so what that means for you is very
individual for me when i first lost my confidence very gradually meant
i was starting with groundwork to reconnect with the horse to make sure
that i was comfortable with the horse and how the horse was
behaving from the ground before i got in the saddle
um for you that might be putting your foot in the stirrup
sitting on the horse without going anywhere it might mean walking around
for 10 minutes it's very individual what that small
increment is or that starting small and building
up is what you want to do is be careful
that you don't do too much that you don't push yourself to go too
fast because if you do that will push you put you further back
potentially you could scare yourself and be in a worse place so
take your time for example just get on your horse and go for a nice quiet
ride for a few minutes and then congratulate yourself for taking that
step so whatever small step this is this is tip number two whatever small steps
you do take be sure to congratulate yourself look
for the positive in every single ride
use positive tip number three use positive
self-talk so we're really quick to put ourselves down to tell ourselves
we're not good enough hi suzanne um to talk to ourselves in a negative
way and be our own worst enemies when you're rebuilding your conf I mean
we should not be doing that to ourselves in the first place we need to build
ourselves up and to give ourselves credit where
credit is due hi rose so you want to focus on self-talk
or positive self-talk so when you catch yourself
thinking negatively or speaking negatively about yourself
do a pattern interrupt and a pattern interrupt is just
something like imagining a if you if you're a visual person imagining a
big stop sign going up saying stop stop doing that it might be a voice in
your head use mine if you like saying stop stop it
just stop speaking negative negatively to yourself
and look for the positive in i mean if you're dealing with anxiety
and you sit on the horse then you need to celebrate that
and congratulate yourself for that look for the positive in every experience
and my fourth tip is to question the negative
what if types of thoughts that you get and ask yourself
is it true very often those what ifs you know
it can spiral out of control what if my horse does this what if my horse does
that and the reality is that your horse maybe
has no prior behavior of doing what you're
anticipating the other benefit of asking yourself is
it true is that if it is something that might happen you can
then come up with a plan for dealing with that do you have the
capabilities to handle it do you have the competence to
handle it what can you do to prevent it from happening
so the my tips for you if you're coming back
after an injury after a fall after a long time away
from writing and you're feeling a little anxious
or even more than a little anxious that you
tip one was start slowly and take small increments in each session so do
not overwhelm yourself do not push yourself
too hard and and scare yourself into overwhelm
focus on positive talk self-talk with tip number two
and question those what-if thoughts by asking
is it true those are my three quick tips for today hi robbie
to help you feel when you're feeling anxious
um so if you have any questions or comments then just pop them in
and it does take a few seconds for me to see them if
uh your type once you put them in takes a few seconds for them to pop up on my
screen so you can hit the like button or the
happy the happy face or the the heart or
whatever so i know you're still there and you're gonna type something in
um and while i'm waiting i'll just remind you about
the focused and fit to ride program that Seonaidh Jamieson and I
are putting together that starts the week of June 22nd
four week online program that will get you physically
and mentally fit and focused for riding in the saddle obviously riding in
the saddle for getting back to riding and getting
yourself back in the saddle so there's going to be off horse
exercises for improving your core strength
and improving your hip mobility and your stability in the saddle and there's
going to be mindset for your motivation for your
confidence and for achieving your goals because
very often we set goals but for some reason we don't
actually achieve them there'll be a private facebook group
for support there will be the trainings are
live via zoom with a Q and A portion and you have lifelong access to the
course materials so there's an early bird price that you can
pay in your favorite currency pounds us dollars
or canadian dollars and this early bird special ends on
Sunday at 7 p.m eastern time I'm just gonna
pop the link for the focused and fit
to ride program in here where you will get more
information and can get that early bird price
and I don't see any comments coming in
if you if you did watch the replay um type
in replay as you're watching oh there's a comment from
Rose - I've been picturing in my mind our best ride the one where my horse and i
felt as one i do this before every ride and it
helped build my confidence tremendously that's fantastic Rose
that is a great technique and yeah that's part of doing the positive
thinking because I said in one of my earlier Lives that
you know we have that negativity bias in our brains
that's innate and we remember negative experiences much more quickly
and much more strongly than positive ones so we have to
consciously replay those those pictures and picking uh one of
your happiest rides your best rides one where
you felt really zoned in the zone connected whatever
that was for you and replaying it before you ride
when you're driving your car whatever uh playing it as often as you can
really does get it into your unconscious mind and
get it in your brain that riding is a fun thing and something you enjoy doing
so that's fabulous good work rose i'm just gonna have a sip of coffee
while i wait and see if anything else pops up
and if there's no more questions or comments coming in i'll say thank you
for watching i'll see you on my next live which will
be tomorrow actually Wednesday 2 p.m Eastern 7 p.m UK
what is that 11 a.m in Pacific? I'll be doing my joint
live with Seonaidh tomorrow and we'll be giving you some
more tips Seonaidh will be helping with some fitness
and I will be doing another mindset tip to help you with your riding i will see
you hopefully there