ACTHA Monthly | July 2015 | 33
champion! Everyone else had told me to stay on no matter what, and I’ve had some horrible wrecks because of that stupid advice. When a horse is right-brained (lacking confidence), he cannot listen to you; he can’t think. He’s reacting with lightning-quick reflexes, and all he’s concerned with is self-preservation. That instinct is so strong in horses that it’s very dangerous to stay on the horse and try to get through it.
Get on the ground and use your skills to get your horse calm again. He has to look safely rideable before you get on again. Pat has taught me to preserve my confidence by not going there. The moment things don’t feel right, I can get off that horse so quickly, it’s amazing! And Pat’s even better at it. He doesn’t get on until everything is right, and he gets off the moment it’s not. You have to take care of your confidence, because it’s easy to lose.
Change your goals
One of the secrets of not getting frustrated is to change your goal. One of the big problems is the expectation you set, such as, “I’ve got to today” (trot, canter, jump, get through my fear, or . . . or . . . or). If you set yourself up like that, every time you don’t achieve that goal, you feel worse about yourself. So change your goal! Simple as that.
I’ve spoken to hundreds of students around the world—male, female, younger, older—who have thanked me for talking so openly about fear, because in the horse world, it feels like a dirty secret. And the advice I give them is what I’ve written here. Now all you have to do is follow it. Can you imagine how good you’ll feel when you know how to be confident all the time?
Part 4
Get off now!
Don’t ever be too proud to do this. The moment something doesn’t feel right, get off and get off now. Better to be a live chicken than a dead duck, isn’t it? And who cares if someone else thinks you’re stupid? It’s not worth risking loss of confidence or your dream – or your life, for that matter!
I learned to get off from Pat, the former rodeo
Linda