How do you help your horse gain confidence?

Answer 1

Sometimes if you kiss to them or right before the jump barly touch your heels to the horses sides will give the confidence in the rider and in themselves.

If you ride your horse around the arena and past the jumps before you start it may stop your horse from being spooked by unfamiliar objects or sounds. After you have jumped a fence give the horse some time to correct his balance and settle into a suitable gait. If he does the jump incorrectly take him round and do it again until he realises how to do it properly. Treat your horse after jumping by feeding him carrots, apples or a horse lick to praise him so he understands that if he does well he will get rewarded!

This should help give your horse a confidence boost x

Answer 2

If you have been hurt, bucked off, or are just plane scared of horses you have to force yourself to conquer your fears. About 5 years ago I was bucked off a horse at a trot and I lost my confidence in horse-back riding. The best thing to do is get someone who knows horses quite well to help you, find a nice quite, calm horse that you can play with and eventually ride. Start from the ground, play with the horse, brush him, scratch him, get used to him from the ground. Then again get someone to help you, saddle the horse and just sit on him till your nerves are calmed down. You don't want to ride a horse when you are nervous, they can sense that you are afraid. Then get someone who know horses well to lead you around the corral at a slow walk. When you are comfortable with that you can step up the pace... etc. etc. You can slowly work up your confidence with a horse that way but make SURE that you have someone helping you who is not afraid of horses and is experienced with them.

Answer 3

There are several things you can do. First and foremost, make sure that you are not 'out-horsed'. If your horse is a little bit too strong for you as a rider it is hard to gain confidense in yourself and your riding. If you feel that you and the horse are a good match we'll move on.

If you can afford it, find a good trainer and take some lessons. Tell her/him what you would like to work on and then focus on those things.

A useful tool to improve your riding skills is to have someone take a video while you ride. Then you can see for yourself more clearly what you would like to fix and focus on that. Another way is mirrors. If you can afford it put up a couple of non-breakable mirros in your arena. I use both of these tools to improve my skills and catch bad habits before they are committed to memory.

And the last suggestion is the simplest yet for some people the hardest. Practice, practice and then practice some more. There is absolutely no substitute for time in the saddle.

Answer 4

Each horse has a different level of confidence and the rider / owner must learn to teach to that horses style. That being said most horses learn not to fear things through repetition and eventually getting closer and closer to the scary object. The best way to do this is with an experienced trainer or friend and possibly an older calmer horse nearby to help demonstrate or guide the more skittish horse through the training. It will take a while to get a horses confidence up, so be patient.