YOUR HORSE’S TRAINING CONFIDENCE | EQUIPILATES
FROM WHERE DOES knocked confidence originate? The rider? The horse? Probably from both. “I’ve never come across a partnership where I’ve thought that 100% of the problem was caused by the horse or 100% by the rider,” says Equipilates instructor Emma Stamenkovic. “Usually, the issue is that communication between the two isn’t very good.”
Riding is a partnership, just like any other team sport, but unlike other disciplines the lines of communication in equestrianism are between two different species. It is therefore no wonder that we can sometimes struggle and our confidence can be knocked.
A loss of confidence can also be traced back to a weakness: for the rider it could be a weak core or a reliance on the reins for balance; for the horse it could be that he carries too much weight on his forehand, or that he isn’t supple around bends or circles.
In this series we have already looked at the rider’s side of the relationship ( Spring to August issues).
