I bring a bottle that I let sit in the freezer for a while to my lessons, but it's not really enough. It can get up to 90 degrees here in the summer, and no amount of water can really cool me off. So, uh, does anybody know another way to stay cool and not die?
Hey guys! So I've been wanting to get back into some of my old hobbies after feeling my life has become super wash-rinse-repeat with classes, studying for those classes, and volunteering (that is related to my classes and grad school plans). I'm totally free this summer, so I'm starting out by volunteering at the day camps run by my first ever l lesson barn, since I still have the knowledge and the proper apparel and stuff. But lately, it's been making me reminisce to how freeing riding was, and now I'm heavily considering slowly getting back into it.
I started riding when I was 12 after doing some summer camps for a while. I loved it, but after three years I felt that my barn could only do so much for me (its speciality was therapeutic riding and beginner levels - I wanted to advance beyond just walk/trot/canter). So, I switched to a more elite barn, and I did see fast results. I got up to the point where I was doing small crossrails and competing in schooling shows! But then two unfortunate events regressed all my progress - I needed surgery on my abdomen, so all my core strength was gone for several months, and then the fall I fully recovered I had two very bad falls after I got assigned to a new schooling horse, both times I got bucked off after asking for a canter. This was on a 17hh Warmblood who wasn't the most polite and had the biggest damn strides in the whole world, prior to that I was riding between 15hh and 16hh. And it's not that they were all autopilots, either - some were sassy and nippy, some liked to veer off the rail whenever they felt like it, some liked to take off into a canter the minute they felt me sit the trot. None of that bothered me - so it was literally just the height of the Warmblood and feeling the distance of the fall that freaked me out.
Since then, I've been very anxious aboard tall horses; and even when I asked to be on a smaller horse my trainer kept me on taller ones because of my stature (I'm tall for a woman, broad-boned, and yes, do have some chub, but I wouldn't say I'm SO heavy that I'd make a 15-16hh horse go lame). It got to the point where my anxiety was making me slip so far back that I just outright quit at the end of eleventh grade; I knew I wasn't going to keep riding into University anyways as I wouldn't have the time or money for regular lessons.
However, now that I have my own car and am more financially independent, I am heavily considering booking a handful of private lessons with my very first trainer (who still remembers me after all this time!) at my very first barn, the one that focused on the beginner levels. The price is pretty decent, about 55/hour. Honestly I'm not too concerned with getting to the level I used to be at again; I just want to ride for fun, even just walking and trotting all summer doesn't seem so bad.
So, to help keep it fun and not frustrating, I'm looking for any tips people have for overcoming anxiety after being off riding for so long! I will say, horse height is half the battle - being on a mid-sized horse just calms my nerves that much, but I know it's ultimately not my choice what horse I'll be assigned to, so in the event it's 16hh or higher I just want to be ready to overcome my fears. Since they'll be private lessons too, does anyone have any suggestions for exercises I could run by my trainer to help me ease back into things?
Overall I'm really looking forward to getting back into one of my biggest former passions, and I really don't want to let my anxiety ruin things for me like they did in the past. :)
