Ive been riding for 15 years and jumping for a significant part of that. But somewhere along the line I had a nasty fall coming off a rail and now I struggle to even get myself over something bigger than 2’3. which is really frustrating because 1) my horse is a beautiful jumper and made to jump. and 2) i love to jump and used to be awesome at it! Now I get the momentum and confidence to jump and then at the last second i bail. and its super not cool to do to my mare but I end up like having an anxiety attack. there have been a few times where ive just done it but now she has an injury and we havent ridden in 2 months and now im worried were never gonna jump again. what now?
First off, take a deep breath. It’ll be ok. Lots of riders go through this at some point in their career. Having taken months off jumping to get my greenies going correctly on the flat, I had this problem quite recently. I jumped a 3’6 oxer on one of my babies last night and I really thought I was going to die. Guess what? I breathed and rode to it correctly and it was seriously the easiest thing ever (easier than the smaller stuff because he was paying attention).
So, here’s my thoughts on how to move past this:
You said you mare had an injury - this is the perfect time to lesson on some steady-eddie confidence builders. Get comfortable at 2’, to start. Over time have your coach move the fences up; this can be hard but you have to trust your trainer and your horse to not put you in an unsafe situation. I find it’s best to put the fences up in a gymnastic first, so you don’t have to think about it much. Even if you’re scared as you work on yourself, you need a horse that will just “get you over it” so that you can see that the bigger fences aren’t really all that scary. Fears respond best to exposure to the scary thing; the more you’re exposed and see it’s ok, the less frightening they become.
I find it helps to think about setting myself up for success; I think about getting a good pace and correct motion on the approach, and then sink into my heels and think about “going with” at takeoff. This really helps because it keeps your brain engaged on what you can do to make things successful instead of feeling powerless and frightened. It also gives you something to do other than pull your horse up.
In short, you need to ride some other horses and develop the physical strength and the mental skillset to deal with the anxiety when you’re frightened/worried about a jump. Once you do that, things get much easier. I also find that being really, really fit and tight in the tack makes everything feel a lot less intimidating.
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Go slow and only do what YOU are comfortable with. Your horse doesn’t care if she is jumping even if she is a fabulous jumper. If you can only do some ground poles start there. Ready to go to cavaletti? Do it. Ready to raise it? You can WALK over the jumps. When I had a bad experience and was frazzled this is what my trainer and I had me do for a couple lessons. Horses can literally step over 2’-2’3 jumps so if cantering at them causes the nerves then just walk or trot. Gaining back confidence will take lots of good positive rides and time. It may take weeks or it may take years, but if you push yourself faster than you are ready for then you can end up making yourself worry more. You WILL be able to jump again if it is something you want to do… but you won’t feel good about it until you are starting to have fun riding again.
Now, as for the pulling your mare out of the line that needs to stop before she learns that is what she should be doing and develops a nasty habit. If you have someone with more confidence that can ride her every now and then over some jumps to keep her confidence up definitely look into that while you are working on yourself.
[ETA] Since she has an injury right now, if you have the ability to ride a friends horse or take some lessons on a school horse to work on yourself that would be beneficial.
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I had a similar issue though at a lower height. I was rocking the 2’ hunters last year, was schooling 2’6 at home. Then I almost came off in a grid that had a 2’9 jump in it. Then a few other “almosts” happened.
I was literally shaking, sobbing at the thought of cantering a cross rail. It made no sense since I hadn’t even hurt myself.
I actually ended up doing 2 sessions with a sports psychologist that helped TREMENDOUSLY.
This breakdown was 4 months ago. I am now schooling 3’.
Some key messages I learned is:
- self talk is big. tell yourself you’re scared and you will be.
- adrenaline is a flight or fight response. if you start feeling nervous and acknowledge it as “fear” itll create flight. tell yourself its just adrenaline and that you love adrenaline.
- when you feel triggered, recognise it and don’t let you proceed forward.
those were my big things. yours might be different. the moral of the story is. I was on the verge of quitting. I didn’t understand why I was having panic attacks and they were debilitating and embaressing. It seemed nearly hopeless but I found help and am schooling higher than I ever thought I’d be able to.
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I can’t echo this enough- I used to get so nervous that I would literally puke at shows, and have managed to work through so much of that fear through the above. That mental training plus finding a horse that I would trust to take me through fire has made all the difference in the world. Really really great tips.
I will also add that sometimes mental blocks are the hardest learning to push through as riders but once you push through them you usually grow exponentially.
I feel for you. Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve been through this as well, just as the above-posters. I had two falls off a green mare I had and not only did I fear jumping, I feared cantering period. The mare bucked at the canter and off I came. So I really, really had to take a step back. We ended up selling that mare, and I bought a really cool, mellow Quarter Horse. That horse saved my riding. He wasn’t a jumper, but we learned to just RIDE again, and enjoy it. Maybe taking jumping totally out of the picture for a while will take a lot of stress off you. If you know you’re going to ride but not be “allowed” to jump, riding might become fun again, or at least not stressful. Then when you’re ready, you can jump. When flat is boring. After my QH, another horse fell into my hands. We started jumping again, and after maybe a year and a half or so, I was doing 3’6" no problems. The key for me was TRUST. I trusted this horse completely. Even when we screwed something up, I knew he was not naughty and I could power through. Good luck!
This is such a hard place to be and I feel your pain. After a series of back-to-back riding injuries, I was petrified to trot to a crossrail. I knew it was a mind of matter game, so I worked on my mind. A great book to help with overcoming fear is an oldie but goodie, Jane Savoie’s “It’s not just about the ribbons…” It’s a quick and easy read and filled with recommendations of how to better visualize your ride to set you up for success.
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Just-About-Ribbons/dp/1570764018
I was so desperate to get past this that I also downloaded a showjumping hypnosis MP3 and listened to it every night before bed. It did help!
https://www.hypnoticworld.com/downloads/sports-improvement/show-jumping-confidence
Eventually, I was able to move forward and even jumped my horse around a 1.10m course by telling myself “you’ve got this!” over and over again until I believed it. I agree with the poster above that you have to have trust - you need to trust your horse BUT you also need to put that trust in yourself! You can do this!
Step back and set smart goals that are building blocks of your larger goal to have fun jumping bigger jumps. Specific, attainable and realistic. “I will build the strength and stamina to do 3 laps of the ring posting without stirrups or I will master cantering 2 poles in 5, 6 and 7 strides to build my horses adjustability”. Put all the skills together and you are there before you know it.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one with jumping fears. My pony is an awesome jumper and usually pretty honest, but I still get nervous jumping anything around 2’. Every time I see jumps sent up for lessons, I start getting anxiety. I usually feel better once we start jumping, but the nerves start again once my trainer starts making verticals or raising the jumps.
I think I just need more jumping experience and more confidence with myself. A friend even suggested I jump outside of lessons (with a buddy around of course) to get more experience and just have fun with jumping rather than doing the exercises during the lessons.
