Practise creates confidence and confidence empowers you!

I've recently been talking to several friends about the importance of confidence and positivity when you are around your horses and when riding, and it's inspired me to go on a bit of a positivity rant about this. This is a topic that is VERY close to my heart as I have been through a big learning curve during my time owning and riding Vallu and I wanted to spread a little bit of a confident/optimistic vibe out into the internet horsey land.

We all have weaknesses as riders and horse owners - I'm an over worrier and a perfectionist which you can quite easily see in my original riding style. I don't want to over do the horses in case they hurt their legs so I give them lots of walk breaks (some would argue too many walk breaks!) but then on the flip side I over ride with my hand, seat and leg aids and try to over compensate in my quest to become the most perfect rider. It has taken several years (and tbh I am still working on this and more than likely always will be) to start to zone and block out everything when I'm riding, to be a lot more quiet as a rider and focus on just the horse and I, nothing else. No 'normal' rider, e.g. an amateur like me, is going to be perfect so never judge yourself against professionals or those who seem to be perfect. I can guarantee that they will be struggling with something too.

Also, remember to keep away those who try to belittle your dreams and ambitions. DO NOT let yourself be surrounded by negative people, you have to get away from them and work on creating a good circle of support and friends who will encourage to push forwards. Even if pushing forwards is 'just' going for a hack, or 'just' cantering around the arena or 'just' going to ride at a new place, those good friends will help you and celebrate with you when you succeed. I cannot stand to hear about or even worse to actually see people getting bullied about their hopes and dreams when they are just trying to become better riders and horse owners. I am lucky in that I have a wonderful group of friends (real world and blogger world) who are always 100% behind me and ready to support me in no matter what I do, but I have seen some horsey friends be surrounded by such toxicity that they have been in tears and ready to give up riding until they moved to a new yard. Surround yourself with people who are willing to help you tackle whatever you want as this allows you to conquer your dreams and ambitions! Whether it is someone trying to protect you from failure or someone who trying to just rain on your parade, remember who sets the bar for your life and your goals.

If anyone reading this needs to have a chat or a confidence boost, email me and I promise to help, to get my pompoms out and cheer for you! Always remember that practise creates confidence and confidence empowers you ❤️