Helping Riders Over Come Thier First Major Fall

At some point all beginner riders have thier first fall. The fear of that fall can inhibit the riders growth for months or years to come. What are somethings that you found works to over come this fear.

I know that it takes ten falls to becoime a rider, as it takes 10 falls to psychologically able to get over it with ease. But I believe we can make this less if we provide the coping tools to young riders.

A few things that I found that work:
1) If the rider is relatively unhurt re-mount the horse and go to a simpler exercise that they have excelled at before
2) have the rider count forrwards and backwards from/to ten while they ride
3) remind them that they have ridden a hundred times before with no falls. Now they are good for another 100 rides.
4)Have them tell what they are going to tell thier friends about the fall...have them embelish the story and make it thier own cool tail they survived. Get them to be as creative as possible and make them feel like a hero for surviving! And how much more curageous they are to be back on in a flash
5) Remind them why they love to ride and have them talk about it. Have them tell it to the horse and talk to the horse out loud about what they fear now and what they would like the horse to do. Re-solidify their bond!

Do you have any other ideas that have worked for you?

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Comment by Milo My Arabian on April 11, 2014 at 3:47pm: Once I was riding with 2 other girls (both about 5-6 years younger than me) and it was winter. Therefore, there was snow on top of the tarp-like roof of the indoor arena. We were working on posting trots, then the snow slid off and made a ginormous scrape-like sound. It caused all horse to spook, and I remember going up in the air, my horse had reared, I was holding on fort my life, my horse had never spooked before (when I say my horse I was taking lessons, and it was a lesson horse.) and I was downright terrified. One of the other horse half-bucked and twisted and the little girl went flying and slammed into the wall of the arena, she was terrified to get back on, but her younger sister(who'd also fallen off) got on the horse with her and they both kept riding. (I also got back on, but i wasn't so hard) I hope my first big fall won't traumatize me. wonderful article

Comment by Jamie McConnell on December 6, 2008 at 9:44pm: I am a student of Karen's and I think that re-mounting and counting really helps when you fall off. I've fallen off three times and Karen has done all the things she suggested above with me and even though three times is not very much, I can get on with no hesitation and continue riding after a lap around the ring at the walk. The last time I fell I was bucked off while warming up for my jumping lesson, and I was not afraid(okay maybe a little afraid because I didn't want my horse to start bucking again, but I got back on right away) to get back on and ended up doing the lesson anyway. I think Karen's (and Geoffrey's, although I've never tried them) ideas are very effective.

Comment by Geoffrey Pannell on November 13, 2008 at 10:50pm: Hi Karen, Kids falling off, well we know it's going to happen sooner or later. Later the better I think. In my expeiance the less said the better, work more on getting the child confident on the horse. With some kids this might mean one on one leading the horse. All my beginers start on the lunge, and I do a lot of fun things that help their balence, vaulting is very good for this. Get them use to jumping off at halt and walk, that seems to take away some of the fear of falling, they see that it is not such a big deal. Of course the best is to have the best school horses and teaching methods to give them the skills to stay on . Everyone will have their methods to give kids the confidance they need. Some kids will just bounce back on , and some need more of your time one on one. I think as Coach's we need to remember little kids [ and not so little kids] can be quite intimitated by the size of the animal , and be prepared to go quite slowly at first, and to let them take a step beck to take a couple forward or visa-versa . cheers Geoffrey