A lesson horse is your best bet, as these horses were trained specifically to work with shy or fearful riders<\/strong>.<\/p>\nLesson horses are easy to handle. They’re great if you want to learn the basics without fearing that you’ll be punished for getting it wrong a few times. Some people fear horses simply because they don’t know how to control them. They feel helpless, and helplessness leads to fear.<\/p>\n
Lesson horses are easy to control, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t need riding lessons. It’s definitely a good idea to lease a horse like this and just learn how to behave around it. Learn how to ride it and how to control it as well, and then maybe move on to buying your own horse. This way, you’ll have a chance to overcome your fears before making a commitment.<\/p>\n
Improve yourself and become more confident.<\/h3>\n
Sometimes we fear larger animals because we don’t have enough confidence in our own strength. Furthermore, controlling a horse and riding it properly does require a fair amount of strength and stamina. A horse will know if you’re not strong enough for the challenge, and it won’t respect you as much.<\/p>\n
It’s always a good idea to work on your fitness levels as you train to become a better horseman. As far as getting over your fear of horses is concerned, this will help you become more confident, and it will make the animal appear less intimidating. It takes time and patience, true, but we’re in this for the long haul, remember?<\/p>\n
Focus on exercises that improve your core strength and posture. Riding can be tiresome even for experienced equestrians. It requires balance and quick reflexes. Work on bettering yourself and all of your fears will gradually diminish.<\/p>\n
Stay relaxed as you interact with horses.<\/h3>\n
It’s a well-known fact that horses tend to feed off our emotions. They can actually sense when we’re stressed or tense, and this causes them to become tense as well. Ask any experienced equestrian and they’ll tell you that working with horses also involves working on yourself. If you want to get rid of your fear and be able to interact with a horse in a meaningful and rewarding manner, you’ll have to keep your emotions in check.<\/p>\n
The best way to do this is to focus on your breathing and to be mindful of your body language. This will make you appear more approachable to a horse. It will also help you to become more confident, calmer, and just nicer to be around. If you’re riding a horse being tense and stressed, you won’t be able to give proper aids to that horse, and you’ll probably make some mistakes that could have easily been avoided.<\/p>\n
Meditation, breathing exercises, even yoga can help you get closer to achieving inner balance. You might not need to go all the way, but just staying relaxed and calm when interacting with horses can go a long way to helping you achieve your end goals.<\/p>\n
Your friends can help you overcome your fear of horses.<\/h3>\n
Whether we’re talking about old friends or new friends, just having people around that you can confide in will give you a big boost in confidence while alleviating your fears. Friends bring you up when you fall down (maybe not literarily), and they can offer advice and encouragement when you need it the most.<\/p>\n
Trying to tackle this challenge alone can be daunting. Even with a riding instructor, you’ll still need a friend or two to cheer you on as you progress. Making new equestrian friends is not mandatory, but it can definitely help. If they’re more experienced than you, all the better.<\/p>\n
Don’t get discouraged. Think positive thoughts.<\/h3>\n
It may sound like a cliche, but thinking positive can have a tremendous impact on your mood and productivity. Maintaining a positive outlook is even more important as we’re trying to root out fear. Fear can be debilitating – it can make you feel like a failure, and it causes you to focus on the bad instead of the good.<\/p>\n
Tackling fear is difficult and scary in itself. Only a truly brave person would even attempt to get over their fears. The fact that you’re here, reading this, and trying to improve yourself already says a lot about you and your character. Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back when you deserve it.<\/p>\n
Focus on the small steps, on the things that you’re doing right. Don’t hesitate to praise your horse as well when it does something right. He’ll appreciate it even if he doesn’t have the words to say so. By making a habit out of thinking positively, you’ll be able to reach your end goals quicker. Don’t believe me? Just try to alter your way of thinking for a day and tell me how that impacted your productivity and progress.<\/p>\n
What is a fear of horses called?<\/h3>\n
Officially, the psychological fear of\u00a0horses is called Equinophobia<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0hippophobia<\/b>. The first term represents a mix of equus <\/i>(Latin word for horse) and phobia <\/i>(Greek word for fear). The second word has Greek origins exclusively, as it was composed using h\u00edppos <\/i>(Greek word for horses) and phobia <\/i>(Greek word for fear).<\/p>\n
People that suffer from this affliction can exhibit a number of symptoms such as panic, anxiety, trembling, shortness of breath, palpitations, nausea, or crying. These symptoms can be triggered by being in proximity to a horse or simply by thinking about one. It’s not uncommon for people suffering from equinophobia to be fearful of other hoofed animals such as mules or donkeys.<\/p>\n
As for causes, hippophobia can be triggered by traumatic events during childhood such as being attacked by a horse or even falling from one. The phobia can also be caused by a simple fear of the animal. It can start out as a simple fear and gradually evolve into a full-blown phobia.<\/p>\n
Can horses smell fear?<\/h3>\n
We know that horses and other domestic animals such as dogs can pick up on your emotions, but how exactly do they do that? Apparently, it’s all related to their sense of smell. Can horses smell fear, and are they influenced by it when they pick up on it?<\/p>\n
It turns out that horses can smell fear, as people emit a particular chemosignal while experiencing specific emotions. Horses pick up on this chemosignal, interpret it, and then figure out how that person feels based on its composition.<\/strong><\/p>\nBasically, horses can smell human emotions. Apart from fear, horses can also smell happiness. This was all discovered during a special study that involved scary movies, happy movies, and sweat pads. People wore sweat pads as they watched the two types of movies. The pads were then introduced to horses while researchers measured their heart rate and autonomic nervous system.<\/p>\n
Horses pick up on our emotions but not through some unknown sense. They use their sense of smell, which is definitely more acute than that of humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fear of horses is natural. But it can be overcome. Most horses are gentle and well-behaved, but even so, they can look scary for someone who’s not used to being around large animals. I grew up around them and I never got intimidated by them too much, but that’s not the case for most people….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[223,224],"yoast_head":"\n
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