Eight tips to soothe your nerves
Many riders are affected by nerves, and in Part 2 of her two-part series, CHRISTINE ARMISHAW offers some great tips on keeping anxiety at bay.
In last month’s issue, we covered the first four of our eight tips, all designed to help you manage your nerves. The last tip was to do with the importance of controlling your breathing – and because breathing is absolutely critical to calming overexcited butterflies in your tummy, here’s another breath related tip:
- Breathe in to slow down: When I’m coaching an anxious student whose horse is speeding up, I’ll ask them what’s the first thing they should do to slow the horse down. The answer is usually something like sit up, or pull on the reins – but no! The first thing to do is take a deep breath, and that’s something people forget really easily.
Every downward transition should start with a big breath. For example, you’re trotting or cantering and your horse is getting faster and faster. But instead of panicking, you breath in, which, if you’re inhaling a full lung-full of air, will take about two to three horse steps. Then you tuck your tailbone under and sit back as you exhale – and because that deep breath has given you the power you need to tense your muscles much more firmly, you’re not just pulling on the reins, you’re using your entire body to slow down. And that preparatory breath has also made your horse aware that something is about to happen, and so they’re much more likely to listen.
By contrast, when a horse is speeding up and the rider grabs at the reins and leans forward, they’re encouraging the horse to go faster – and, in a state of panic, they’ve probably forgotten all about breathing and won’t have the power in their muscles to block the horse and slow down. But here’s the thing, you have to practice this when you’re in a mentally calm place – first at a walk, then a trot, then a canter – so that it becomes your go-to when it’s needed.
- One rein stops: Well before you start doing anything on your horse, you need to know how to do an emergency one rein stop so that if things begin to go pear shaped, you have a way of dealing with it.
If your horse gets a really big fright and is fixated on whatever has spooked them, taking a big breath and pulling on the reins may not be enough, which is where your emergency stop comes in handy. The one rein stop disengages the horse by bending them to one side. To do this, sit up, pull on let’s say the right rein, and bring your right hand far enough back to tuck it behind your right hip so your horse’s neck is bent to the right. At the same time nudge with your right heel so your horse is stepping round in tight circles, and then when you let their head go, they should be more relaxed.
If you’re doing this effectively, your horse won’t be able to buck, bolt or rear, but only if you shut down the spook before it escalates – it won’t work if your horse has already bolted. And if you’re hopping on a horse you don’t know, do a practice one rein stop in both directions. If the horse moves more easily in one direction than the other, that’s the side to use in an emergency.
- Reading your horse: If you understand that your horse’s ears, eyes and head posture tell you so much about what they’re thinking, then you can actually mitigate issues before they arise. If you’re riding along and feeling a bit apprehensive, and you notice your horse is also apprehensive with their ears double pricked towards something in front of them, it’s probably not a really safe situation to be in. The trick here is to regain your horse’s attention by talking to them or jiggling your inside rein until they once again flick their ears back and forth to you.
And you certainly don’t ever want to get on a horse when they’re agitated and you don’t have their attention, because the likelihood of something going wrong is amplified. Having a head carriage where the eye is level with, or lower than the wither (rather than holding the head up high) is a good indication that they’re in a more calm, relaxed space and more focused on you, which is generally a very much safer option.
- Use the round yard: If I’m coaching a rider with a new horse, or one they don’t know that well, or one that they’ve had a fright with, before they even sit on the horse we begin with a session in the round yard, which is useful for two reasons. Firstly, it enables you to assess what mood your horse is in. Naturally, we’d prefer the horse to be calm, relaxed and probably a bit lazy, so when you get on, you know they’re not going to be super reactive, spooky or way too forward. And from the ground, you can easily check this from their head posture, whether their eye is lower than their wither, whether they’re flicking their ears back and forth to you, and so on.
Secondly, if they have excess energy, they can burn it off – but don’t let them run around in one direction only, change their direction after every two laps. You’ll notice that the horse might be quite high and intense to begin with, but they only have so much energy and they will wind down until they’re nice and relaxed so that you will then feel good about getting on instead of nervous.
You don’t need to have a horse on the lunge in a round yard, but if you don’t have access to one, you can always lunge your horse in the arena or paddock, still making sure you change direction every couple of laps. Changing direction is really important. If you let them go around and around in one direction, it’s more likely to wind them up then calm them down.
By getting into the round yard routine, you’ll be able to check in with your horse before you hop on, as well as dialling down that excess energy. It automatically puts you in a position where you’re going to feel so much safer. Before you even put your foot in the stirrup you’ve already assessed your horse’s mood, and you know they’re not feeling full of themselves – and that’s got to be so much better than just getting on and hoping for the best.
Christine Armishaw Equestrian offers a variety of coaching and other equestrian services at her Otford Valley Equestrian Agistment & Training Centre just south of Sydney, NSW.
