Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – Tales of An Anxious Amateur and Hearing Loss


Welcome to You Got This Equestrian Confidence Series by Hayley at Red Bear Equestrian.

This week I am joined for part two by Nadia from Tales of an Anxious Amateur.

Join us while we talk equestrian and rider confidence alongside hearing loss and the impact this has.

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.

Confident rider, confident horse.

Hayley x

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.

Confident rider, confident horse.

Watch Nadias first You Got This Equestrian Video .

Watch the first episode and see where You Got This Equestrian started.

Check out the You Got This Equestrian Clothing Range Here

Website

Instagram

Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – Your One Task This Weekend. Building your horses confidence.

Happy Friday.

This one is a short one, but one I would love you to take action on this weekend.

We concentrate a lot on our confidence and how to build it, but what about our horses confidence?

So before you ride, after you ride, instead of or even while you are riding, take some time to work on your horses confidence.

Set up some scary obstacles, tarpaulins, umbrellas, halloween or christmas decorations, balloons, wood to walk over, footballs, radios playing music, whistles, mirrors, flags, let your imagination run wild.

You do not need anything special, just get creative.

Then allow time, you cannot rush your horse with this. They need to be allowed to explore and be reassured to build true confidence.

Supporting our horses to build their confidence helps us to build our confidence.

When we believe our horses wont spook, worry or similar we ride with a different attitude, that attitude breeds even more confidence in our horses which in turn effects us more.

Making this part of your routine, just five minutes three times a week, makes such a difference.

I would love to see some pictures of what you and your horses get up to, please share on social media and tag us @redbearequestrian

To find out where the You Got This Equestrian Series started click here.

Hayley x

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.

Confident rider, confident horse.

Check out the You Got This Equestrian Clothing Range Here

Website

Instagram

Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – 10 Top Tips for Equestrian and Rider Confidence

I am so excited to be compiling some of the top tips that our followers shared with us as well as the tips that we use ourselves.

  1. Think of your confidence like a muscle. When you first start a new sport or take up exercise, your muscles are still, sore, they ache. However with small steps it improves and gets easier. Some days are better than others, some days you will over do it. Your confidence is the same. It requires small steps, time, patience and the acceptance that there will be good days and not so good days.
  2. Keep a diary. We often do not see our own success and progress. Simply as we focus on the negative. Keeping a note of our rides means you can look back and see how far you have come, celebrate the wins, no matter how small. When we see progress we are spurred on to do more.
  3. Keeping on the topic of seeing progress, so many of those featured in the You Got This series so far have talked about the power of video. Filming your rides and lessons means you can watch them back and not only learn from them but see what went well. Again we often focus on the negative, rather than all the positives, when you watch it back often you see it wasn’t as bad as you thought, and again celebrate that, celebrate your wins.
  4. Take the pressure away. Sometimes a week off either riding, in hand work, hacking, schooling, whatever it might be is just what you both need to reset. Then restart slowly. There is nothing wrong with a week of grooming and bond building.
  5. Breath! Honestly its the first thing to go wrong when you are worried or panicked. Practice taking slow deep breaths, when you regulate your breathing it also has a calming effect on your horse. If you find this really hard, try singing or talking or telling your horse a story. This forces you to regulate your breathing. It really does work. i have many times been seen riding around singing away or talking about what has happened in my day (yes to my horse).
  6. Phone a friend. Is there someone who could walk out with you, just be there, be on the end of a lunge line? Often just the reassurance of someone there (the right kind of person) helps us calm and also gives us someone to talk to, regulating our breathing.
  7. Remember the sayings you always heard when you first started. “Heels Down”, “Back Straight”, Boobs Out”, Don’t Look Down”, “Shoulders” “Point your hips where you are turning”…. all of those and more. Position does help. Easier said than done sometimes, but the right position helps us feel more in control and our horses to feel calmer.
  8. Try some ground work. It is a great way to build a bond, learn new skills, try out seeing scary things and teach you to relax. We wrote a blog on this previously here.
  9. Rides or any work with your horses do not have to last an hour! They can be 10 mins. Small, tiny steps, break it down and take it slowly. Ending each time on a high for you both. If that means riding to the end of the road and back, once around the arena and working up from there. Do it. There are no rules.
  10. Don’t rule out additional support. No matter if that is an instructor (and try a few until you connect with the right one), a trainer or a course that specialise in confidence building, hypnotherapy, mindset work, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). There are so many options out there. Asking for help is not a weakness it is a strength.

To find out where the You Got This Equestrian Series started click here.

Hayley x

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.

Confident rider, confident horse.

Check out the You Got This Equestrian Clothing Range Here

Website

Instagram

Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – Anxious and Excited Horses

Sometimes as an equestrian we put our emotions onto our horses and how we feel impacts on them, although it can work the other way. We can think our horses feel a certain way and this impacts on us.

In this situation how we react is key.

For example, we were out for a hack this week, my daughter was on my fell pony, who decided a particular tree may spring to life and attack him ( as they do ) had she panicked, it would all have escalated quickly, however this time she noted how he felt, reassured him and allowed him to pass the very scary tree in trot to get past it quicker as walk was just making him worse. We passed it and within a minute he was fine and the ride was amazing.

So how can you calm your horse? I want to share my top 5 tips for you to try next time your four legged friend decided life is either very scary or very exciting.

1 – Allow them to get rid of their energy in a safe controlled way. This may be by a canter down a track or in the school, or it might be a trot down the road. Allowing them to place their energy in another place (movement) can shift their mindset as well as getting rid of that initial energy which is causing the reaction. (only do this in a safe space where you are in control)

2 – Ask your horse to lower its head, this automatically cues them to relax. I have walked alongside riders with a lunge line on to encourage their horses to lower their heads at times. If you can teach your horse a cue to do this it is a great skill to have.

3 – Set boundaries. Horses are not like some other animals who will do what you ask because they love you, yes your bond helps as they trust you, but they will do as you ask because they know you have set boundaries in which they are safe. If you have boundaries they are more likely to respond when they are anxious or excited to what you ask.

4 – Let them look, sniff, touch. We are very good as riders at asking our horse to go past scary things or to think they will react in a certain way. By allowing them to explore they build up a reassurance and a knowledge that all is ok and they can remain in a calmer state next time in the same situation.

5 – Consider a dismount. This very much depends on your horses and its personality. Sometimes getting off and leading until they are no longer so anxious or excited works really well, for others this makes it worse. I know for one of mine this makes him worse, so I long rein him when I know he will be going past something scary as he finds this reassuring ( I will chat more about the benefits of this another time)

All horses at times react in ways which we would prefer them not to, no horse is bombproof, however it is our job as equestrians to understand how to support them and build their trust in themselves and in us.

Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – Groundwork, Trust and Bond Building.

We all know ground work is one of the key elements to building a bond and total trust with your horse or pony, but it is one of those things that we either love or hate. Plus for many of us either us or our horses have to be in the mood for it, then we have to have the ideas of what we will do, so often riding is easier as it takes less brainpower beforehand and less stuff to set up sometimes.

The last few times we have shared groundwork ideas they have proved super popular so I thought I would share a few more to inspire you for over the next couple of months.

Plus not all groundwork has to be done by adults, with the right instruction and supervision many of these can be done by children to build their bond with their ponies too.

1.Cross a bridge – Exactly as it says you just need to build a bridge, this can be from wood (although make sure its strong enough to hold you and your horse), it could be a tarpaulin, stones, bark chips, matting. Anything that is unfamiliar. This is great for trust building. However the key is to allow time and not rush. You need to allow your horse to explore, to take their confidence from you, your actions and your ques. If you can also add in a vocal aid you can then translate this confidence giving vocal aid into your riding to give confidence in those scary situations. As we all have those.

2. Go for a walk. Yes take them somewhere different in hand. Spend time allowing them to graze, sniff and see new things, to have new experiences. This is not only a good relaxation technique for you and your horse to just be together, it also creates that bond without any pressure. You can use this time to introduce them to new objects or situations. While grazing and relaxed, having a positive experience means what they are being introduced to will be more positive.

3. Water for play – find any water and just allow your horse to see what it does, try it, play in it. It could be a stream, lake, paddling pool, hose pipe. Whatever you have access to. Often they love for you to play in it to and make this into a shared experience. Water fights between my kids, horses and a hose pipe are a firm favourite here as much as it sounds crazy they all love it.

4. Worming or sedating practise – We have all been there trying to get that syringe into our horses mouth, angle it the right way, push the plunger……and our horse throws it all over us! Now is a good time to practise this. Fill an old (clean) syringe with something yummy (ours love homemade apple sauce) and show them it isn’t really so bad, or try putting it in the middle of a carrot or apple to get them used to opening their mouths .Then work on reducing whats around it or in it and adding in a vocal command until you can put the syringe in easily without any aids. Always make sure you reward their efforts.

5 Learn your horses normal vital signs – their pulse, temperature, breathing, etc and teach them that it is OK to have this checked. Often this is only checked when there is something wrong and our horses then associate it with them being hurt or unwell. Making this into a normal fun thing to do, again rewarding their efforts will make life so much easier if they do get hurt or become unwell.

6. Teach them a trick just for fun – Our horses are meant to be fun, otherwise why do we have them. There are so many tricks you can teach them all with varying difficulty, get on YouTube and find something to try out. One of ours, Tom pulls funny faces on command! A totally useless trick but very funny when the kids have friends round. We have also recently started learning about liberty and how we can use that alongside natural horsemanship, so I will keep you updated on that.

I would love to hear some of your top groundwork tips too so head to our instagram page and drop me a message, I cannot wait to hear from you.

Hayley x

Posted on

Nadia from Tales of an Anxious Amateur talks with Hayley on You Got This Equestrian

Welcome to You Got This Equestrian Confidence Series by Hayley at Red Bear Equestrian.

This week we welcome Nadia from Tales of an Anxious Amateur.

Join us while we talk equestrian and rider confidence and our journeys.

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me every week for more inspirational stories, hints and tips to support your equestrian confidence journey.

Confident rider, confident horse.

Check out the You Got This Equestrian Clothing Range Here

Instagram

Website

Posted on

We all blow it up

you got this equestrian episode 6

One thing I have learnt over my time recording interviews and chatting with a variety of equestrians for this video/blog series is we are all at the mercy of our own mindset and our own perception is usually different to the reality.

Take my daughter for instance, last weekend my (very naughty) fell pony decided that he was so excited at going in the big fields (where he had been daily all easter holidays!) that the only way to deal with it was to bounce and semi rear down one side of the field.

Being on the ground my reaction was to tell her to ride through it as he was just excited and would soon calm.

Her reaction being on his back was that she would ride him but felt he was doing huge rears and was very bouncy.

Luckily we had his excitable moment on video.

Both our perceptions were different to the video.

Videoing lessons is something I used to do a lot so I could reflect but not something I do often now.

I tried it in my riding this week. I turned my video on and headed out.

In my mind he was on edge but I couldn’t understand why. Once I watched the video back I could see why.

It was the same point on every circle he tensed up, why?

It was excitement as that’s where my daughter usually lets him canter. Its funny how they come to expect a set routine even in their ridden work.

If I didn’t have the video, I would probably have blown it up in my own mind.

We do that with so much stuff, create our own version of reality, thinking our ride was awful, hitting that pole was caused by a huge error, the buck was massive, we rode terribly.

We create our own narrative. Video combats that as it shows us the reality.

So….now I am busy looking at Pivo’s. Does anyone have one? What do you think? Do you have an alternative?

As I find that my video on my phone only captures half my ride and even then I need to zoom in.

We can be our best and worst critics but we can also be our best teachers if we just allow ourselves to change the story we tell ourselves about the rider we are.

So I challenge you this weekend, get your camera out, film your riding and see how much potential you and your horse really have and how far you have both come.

Happy Bank Holiday x

Check out the you got this hoodie and t-shirt.

Posted on

Laura from Ginger and Tonic Equestrian talks on You Got This Equestrian Confidence

You Got This Equestrian is back. Our equestrian confidence series.

Join me as I chat with Laura from Ginger and Tonic Equestrian.

Join us while we talk equestrian and rider confidence, what works for us and rider mental health..

We need to learn to train and work on ourselves the same as we do with our horses. Confident rider, confident horse.

Horse rider confidence and equestrian confidence needs to be spoken about more, I am excited to bring you, You Got This Equestrian where we discuss real topics and give real tips that work for real riders.

Join me as every week I share blogs and videos, hint and tips.

Plus chat with some inspirational people about their stories and make my way through an equestrian journey.

#equestrianconfidence #riderconfidence #horseridingconfidence

Posted on

You Got This Equestrian – With Eden Markel

You got this equestrian with eden

You Got This Equestrian is back. Our equestrian confidence series.

Join me as I chat with Eden from Heels Down and Kick On

Join us while we talk, horses, riding, rider confidence, rider wear, our equestrian niggles and more.

We need to learn to train and work on ourselves the same as we do with our horses. Confident rider, confident horse.

Join me as every week I share blogs and videos, hint and tips.

Plus chat with some inspirational people about their stories and make my way through an equestrian journey.

#equestrianconfidence #riderconfidence #horseridingconfidence

Posted on

Body Protector – Love them or Hate them?

Girl riding a white pony

You have probably seen that our new equestrian confidence series has now arrived. If you want to know more you can check out episode one here.

Each week we are releasing either a blog or interview/video around an aspect of being an equestrian and especially around equestrian confidence.

This week I wanted to share something that is one of those subjects that everyone has an opinion on.

Body protectors.

Currently they are only mandatory in FEI Eventing. They have carried a stigma for years.

I have spoken to so many riders creating this series and they all have opinions, I also found lots of gaps within generations of riders where you can see how body protectors have been perceived.

I don’t think I ever wore one growing up, I had non horsey parents so they didn’t know and one one ever said.

It was only as I became an adult that I started to think about the pros and cons. Up until recently they were never the comfiest item. So yes I had one, no I never really wore it.

Yet as a parent, my kids had body protectors and wore them.

Hypocritical I know.

However in 2012 my opinion changed.

I was trialing a horse we were looking at buying, I shared the story in video one (click here to watch) of this series.

As soon as I got on the horse it was a bad idea but I brushed it off. Before I rode though something made me go back the car and get my body protector, despite that I rarely wore and had only taken to pacify my husband, I felt I should wear it.

Little did I know the impact that decision would make.

My body protector is the reason that I am not in a wheelchair. I would have been paralised without it.

That was when I realised the importantce.

No they don’t stop every injury but they decrease the chance of sever injury.

We have all heard that you are not a real rider until you fall off 7 times, 10 times, 15 times….we all know its nonsense but riding is risky so why wouldn’t you protect yourself. A study carried out by the British Medial Journal showed that using a body protector decreased the risk of injury during cross country by 56% regardless of the riders experience! 56%!

Body Protectors are now at the top of my shopping list, I spend money on getting properly fitted and ensuring they meet safety standards. I champion others wearing them, and am first to say when someone isn’t wearing one. We all love our horses but we shouldn’t be in a culture where we risk our safety for our hobby.

They are the marmite of the equestrian world. Everyone has an opinion.

One of those things that you don’t see the value and benefit from until its too late.

We put our safety into the hooves of half a tonne of flight animal on a regular basis, a body protector might seem irritating and not look great but you cannot predict how your horse will react on each ride as they are flight animals. You wouldn’t go jumping or hack out with no helmet to protect your head, so shouldn’t you be protecting your back, pelvis and vital organs in the same way?

My kids have recently discovered Champion titanium body protectors and love them, and that is the next one I am going for.

I would love to know what you think, do you love them or hate them?

Hayley x

Disclaimer

When purchasing always make sure you take advice on the safety regulations and fit from a qualified professional.