Source: Bravery is Learned. “Practice Your Guts.”
This blog posting is spot on. When George Morris says even he has to practice his guts, you know that it applies to every level rider.
I got similar advice many years ago after I had broken my hand in a jumping accident. I had started riding again but was afraid to jump. She said, “start small — Trot or canter poles on the ground. When that gets boring, make it a cross rail. Do that ten times, a hundred times, or several hundred times. When that gets boring, step up the challenge.”
At the time that happened, I had decided that I would concentrate on dressage. But I got bored. I took her advice.
It took me awhile, but eventually I was jumping again. Not just in a ring, but cross country jumps. I kept practicing and I got braver. Incrementally at first, but it worked.
A few years after that, I started to foxhunt. After I’d broken my hand, it was the last thing I could have imagined doing.
Unfortunately, what I also know is that you must keep practicing those guts because they are easily lost!
wasnt this a great one. my trainer, or friend that helps me, said the same, but I saw that oxer and it had my name all over it. When I rode with Lucinda Green last year in one of 2 clinics, I fell off, she asked me “why do you fall off”, couldn’t answer, but wasn’t afraid even after breaking my shoulder!