Overcoming the Fear of Riding

Rating:
Summary: A Book For Riders of All Levels
Review: I orignially saw this book & planned to buy it for a friend who has the fear of physical injury when she rides. As I glanced through the book I began to recognize that I had performance fears & that my fears were normal for competitive riders. The authors discuss the "mental" issues that all riders face & encourage riders to embrace their nervousness, focus it & use it to enhance performance. I plan to read this book at least 2 more times!!!

Rating:
Summary: A lucid, realistic, and helpful book.
Review: It has been a long time since reading a book actually made me wish that I had not. I ordered this book and read it in hopes that my entire family might learn something to help us enjoy our horse more fully. Instead, I must now approach the stable with horrific mental images of equine disasters described in this book. The authors make excessive use of inset quotations from several well respected equine professionals; but, to what end? Testimonials from those who feel fortunate to only have broken ribs and not punctured lungs as the result of a fall hardly helps the reader overcome anything except the desire to ride a horse. "After all," the reader may ask, "if this is what happens to professionals and olympic champions what will happen when I get into an accident?" Distilled into its most basic message, this book suggests that horseback riding is dangerous, if you do it long enough you will have an accident, so you might as well face reality (through REBT) and get over it. I hardly feel like placing my daughter or son on a horse after that sage advice. I would like to have learned some techniques to make riding safer or less intimidating. Instead I found this Adlerian term paper on performance anxiety among equine professionals. To end this lackluster treatise, the authors append a straight-out-of-grad-school role play dialogue -- presumably a paradigm readers can use to accept (or reject) their plight as equestrians. In my view, this approach is much like consulting one's horoscope. Shame on you! The old and tired cowboy philosophy of "get on, get bucked off, get back on" is much more succinct and nearly as helpful, in my opinion. Consider another title like "What the Pros Have to Say About Surviving Horse Wrecks." In short, I want my money back.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, mistitled, and potentially dangerous.
Review: It has been a long time since reading a book actually made me wish that I had not. I ordered this book and read it in hopes that my entire family might learn something to help us enjoy our horse more fully. Instead, I must now approach the stable with horrific mental images of equine disasters described in this book. The authors make excessive use of inset quotations from several well respected equine professionals; but, to what end? Testimonials from those who feel fortunate to only have broken ribs and not punctured lungs as the result of a fall hardly helps the reader overcome anything except the desire to ride a horse. "After all," the reader may ask, "if this is what happens to professionals and olympic champions what will happen when I get into an accident?" Distilled into its most basic message, this book suggests that horseback riding is dangerous, if you do it long enough you will have an accident, so you might as well face reality (through REBT) and get over it. I hardly feel like placing my daughter or son on a horse after that sage advice. I would like to have learned some techniques to make riding safer or less intimidating. Instead I found this Adlerian term paper on performance anxiety among equine professionals. To end this lackluster treatise, the authors append a straight-out-of-grad-school role play dialogue -- presumably a paradigm readers can use to accept (or reject) their plight as equestrians. In my view, this approach is much like consulting one's horoscope. Shame on you! The old and tired cowboy philosophy of "get on, get bucked off, get back on" is much more succinct and nearly as helpful, in my opinion. Consider another title like "What the Pros Have to Say About Surviving Horse Wrecks." In short, I want my money back.

Rating:
Summary: A lucid, realistic, and helpful book.
Review: Life is full of risks, isn't it? Sports can be part of life, if you want them to be. Therefore, sports involve risk.

Many five-year olds know that one can fall off a bike and take a blow to the head. In learning to ski, one can lurch uncontrollably downhill and into a thorn bush. In learning to fly, one can be 90 degrees or even 180 degrees off course. In parachuting, one can forget to put on one's parachute. Even in learning to play pool, one can be struck in the head by a wayward cue ball. Therefore, learning how to ride horses has risks.

What are we to do with the risks? Here are three strategies: 1) pretend they do not exist, 2) pay attention to them but do not bother about changing one's behavior, 3) pay attention to them and change one's behavior by learning to do the sport more safely.

To those who choose the first strategy - pretense - not much can be said except "See you around." Or will we? To those who choose the second strategy, all we can say is "See you on the trail!" and "Let us know how it works out."

For those who choose the path of clear-headed encounter with this sport, a number of things will come up: the skills needed to do the sport, the exhilaration of a sport well done and, yes, one's fears.

What are we to do with the fear? For horseback riders, Jordan and De Michele have provided a very useful book for dealing with the thoughts and emotions surrounding a sport. Proceeding in some detail, they explore most aspects of these issues, including fostering your own dream of riding, knowing your current skill level, gaining experience, anticipating unexpected events, managing one's thoughts and emotions, and ultimately achieving that exhilaration of a sport well done.

As a not very experienced rider, with fears of my own, I highly recommend this lucid, realistic, and helpful book.

Rating:
Summary: Provides good insight into managing existing fears
Review: The gentleman looking for ways to prevent accidents missed the point - this book is for people who have had the accidents or the bad experiences already. He needs a good instructor for his family to learn good basic safety techniques, which is outside the scope of this excellent book.

I found myself in this book - I suffer from adrenaline rushes and associate them with previous bad experiences. The book did not provide instant relief, but did give me ways to deal with the adrenaline. It also provided a method for analyzing whether my new horse is too much for me or not. (He's not). I am riding with much more confidence, which of course leads to better experiences on the horse, which leads to more confidence, you get the drift!

Thanks Theresa and Peter!!

Rating:
Summary: Ideal for a rider who has lost faith in their abilities.
Review: This book is great for those who tend to be overly hard on themselves or have developed unrealistic expectations which cause them to doubt if riding is something they can do any more. Some great names in riding, people with a world of experience, share these experiences and the wisdom they've gleaned from them, reassuring the reader that it's okay to have doubts, that difficult horses do exist (which is not always the rider's fault), and that the main point of riding is to enjoy the ride! A great aid for those who have high expectations but face difficult horses, or long layoffs from the saddle, or for those who are just starting out and are frustrated with the fact that they aren't perfect yet.

Rating:
Summary: I'm not alone with my fears!
Review: This was a great book. If you ride buy it now because you either have had a fall or may eventually have one and you will need to know how to get back on your horse and continue to enjoy the experience of riding. This books discusses the fear that I've experienced while the horse I was riding was enjoying itself by just being a horse. It gives very useful techniques on how to deal with the natural fears and concerns of being on top of an animal that at times has its own mind. The interviews with professional riders were very helpful and inspiring. The lessons learned can be applied to life in general. This book is not for those who pretend they don't get nervous at a full gallop but is definitely for those whose adreline surges during the excitement.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book for a much-ignored riding population!
Review: Topics include: understanding and using nervous energy, risk management, defeating irrational thinking, the importance of goal-setting, cultivating trust and minimizing fear, riding safety tips, ending with 18 personal case studies of different level riders with different types of fears as well as mental exercises to defeat those fears. The author's goal seems to be for anxious riders to trade their fear in for excitement and meet their riding goals with confidence. This book also features interviews with 12 top riders and how they positively use nervous energy as well as tips you can use. Whether you fear injury, embarrassment, and/or failure while riding, this book will give you the tools you need to conquer your fears and make your riding dreams come true!

Rating:
Summary: Wish I hadn't wasted money on it.
Review: Wow! I really wish I had listened to the one reviewer that gave this book one star. It is definitely not as the title suggests. The entire book is about 200 pages that could be summed up in about 5. The author repeats herself so many times I was about to scream. Even the quotations by famous riders (which makes up about 80% of the book) were repeated many times. The book doesn't give you any good rational reason not to fear riding. And I agree with the other reviewer when they said that the book made them more afraid. It makes horses out to be super dangerous horrible beasts that we may have to use in order to achieve our goals. I got no sense of love for horses in this book. The main idea was that if our goal is to become a famous dressage rider then we have to use a horse to get there. And if one horse isn't good enough, "dump it" (exact term from the book), and get a new one. I can tell you right here the whole summary of the book without costing you a penny. Defeating negative thinking, imagining the best case scenario, and determining your goals. That's it. Don't waste your money on this book now because I just told you all there is to it in one sentence!

Rating:
Summary: Wish I hadn't wasted money on it.
Review: Wow! I really wish I had listened to the one reviewer that gave this book one star. It is definitely not as the title suggests. The entire book is about 200 pages that could be summed up in about 5. The author repeats herself so many times I was about to scream. Even the quotations by famous riders (which makes up about 80% of the book) were repeated many times. The book doesn't give you any good rational reason not to fear riding. And I agree with the other reviewer when they said that the book made them more afraid. It makes horses out to be super dangerous horrible beasts that we may have to use in order to achieve our goals. I got no sense of love for horses in this book. The main idea was that if our goal is to become a famous dressage rider then we have to use a horse to get there. And if one horse isn't good enough, "dump it" (exact term from the book), and get a new one. I can tell you right here the whole summary of the book without costing you a penny. Defeating negative thinking, imagining the best case scenario, and determining your goals. That's it. Don't waste your money on this book now because I just told you all there is to it in one sentence!