Another Horse Problem, can you help?

[JuniorxMyxLove]

Okay, here it is.

I love Obie, he's such a gentleman and is so gentle. He's our gentle giant. IO...well..she's a hot horse, I rode her once and she spooked at her own shadow 3 times...anyways, I love Obie, but he's not so nice once you actually get on him. He's really lazy at the trot, and soo spastic at the canter. he'll be all excited about cantering up to a jump just to stop, put his head down, and buck. I haven't fallen off yet, but I suspect someday I won't be able to stop myself from losing it. I love him so much, but the truth is I'm really scared when I see Obie next to my name, because I know I'll have a really hard lesson. Not just hard, but I get to where I'm holding my breath when I trot up to ajump or canter up to it, becaue i know he might decide not to go over it. And there's nothing I can do. A 1200(maybe more?) pound horse againt a 92 pound girl? Obie would sooo win.

Other then asking my instructor to let me ride another horse, what can I do? (she'd tell me to suck it up and ride him, basically)

How can I regain my confidence on Obie? I've had 3 almost falls, all of which I saved myself by grabbing onto something and hauling myself up. Everytime I ride him, I'm afraid I'll actually fall off this time. What's worse, on my second to last lesson, I saw someone fall off of Doc(an adorable little pony) and land on the jump...they were like screaming. I'm so scared that'll happen to me, I know it sounds really stupid. I have 21 days before my next riding lesson, 21 days to igure out what to do, becaue I'll almost definitely be riding him on the lesson. HELP!!!

[areias]

Just a few questions for you...how old are you, how long have you been riding, and how often do you ride?

IMHO, you need a new riding instructor, or you need to have a sit down talk with your instructor and talk to her about Obie-she is the one that needs to help you with him. Part of the learning experience, though, is to ride increasingly difficult horses. Perhaps your instructor thinks you're ready for more than plodding around on Ol'Faithful. BUT on the other side of that, if you are too afraid of what the horse is doing and not able to concentrate on your riding, it's time to move back to a horse you are comfortable on. As long as your instructor is competant (there ARE some that aren't...) make sure you're listening to what she says when Obie acts up, and don't be too whiney when talking about him.

Remember, 80% of horse 'problems' are the fault of the rider. He has other people than you ride him-he may be expecting a kid to jolt him in the mouth, or come down on his back, and thus why he stops. Make sure YOU aren't doing this yourself.

If your instructor won't listen to you-you need another barn. I was with a barn for a year and a half, taking lessons, and it was the worst thing EVER for my confidence, I look back and ask why I didn't leave-I was so afraid of my instructor. She always wanted me to ride off the track TBs, and they would bolt on me and I wasn't strong enough (i was like...11/12 yrs old)-one day she put me on a new one she had just gotten in and wanted me to canter him-I said NO. So she grabbed a lunge whip and snapped it and the horse exploded-I fell off, it was horrible. That was a huge breaking point-I realized I was going to get seriously injured if I stayed there. So, please, take my advice.

[buttercup132]

he's such a gentleman

I rode her once and she spooked at her own shadow

I'm so confused you kept changing saying it's a boy and then a girl?? Which is it???

You don't seem very old I'm thinking you should wait till you are a better rider to ride "it". If your trainer says no then get your mom or someone to talk to them. Your paying THEM to get lessons and they have no right to tell you suck it up if you can't handle a horse.

[Kalei]

Wow that just sucks! I say its not you at all, its the instructor. You're there to learn how to ride, not to learn how to fall off, and the instructor sees how Obie is. She shouldn't allow training riders on the horse until its fully rideable and doesn't try to throw riders off.

I say talk to your instructor, whoever it is doesn't sound all too responsible to me. Good luck, I hope you can get a horse that won't try and make you fall. Cause riding can be soo amazing if you have the right horse

[JuniorxMyxLove]

buttercup132 - sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I was talking about another horse spooking at her own shadow, haha.

Obie is used for beginner riders and more advanced riders. It might be that he's afraid of someone catching him in the mouth..I've only done that once or twice when he took off for the jump a stride early...:[ It's not that he's a bad horse, I have a video of me riding him, but I don't know how to get it on the computer..

areias - I'm almost 13, I've been riding since I was 9, and I ride once a week (we can't afford more..). I love my instructor, she's awesome, but she doesn't let her riders get off easy, I guess. If I told her I was really scared, she'd let me ride someone else for a few weeks, but I'd always go back to riding Obie. When I first started riding, I had a horrible lesson with this pony named King(a mouth of steel, only a 50% chance of turning him..) and she let me change mounts when I was scheduled to ride him. She understands, and I would have ridden King eventually, but he died before I could... I do listen to her when he acts up, and most of the time it helps. I guess she thinks I'm ready for harder things, I like her much better then my old instructor. She had me learning to jump on a horse that didn'tknow how to jump. Lily(the horse) didn't know what to do with herself over jumps, and it was so bad something that I was tempted to just not jump. I love my instructor, and I love my barn There is one other barn I know I could go to(3 actually but you have to lease or own to go to 2 of them) and my friend goes there, but I've seen pictures and the place isn't well kept or anything. I don't want to switch barns. There are 2 other instructors I could have, one I had when I started riding who is less sympathetic then my teacher now, and the other who owns the barn is really strict.

Kalei - I guess we all have to fall off eventually... :] Obie is ridable, he just gets so excited when we canter or head towards a jump. He's soo calm compared to Junior, who'll take me out of the arena if the door is open, but I love him.

Dont read my post the wrong way, Obie is not some off-the-track crazy TB (he is part TB though), he's really calm and almost bomb proof (something that made Joey bolt on me merely made Obie swish his tail) but gets a little over-excited. I have a video of him, if anyone knows how to get videos on the computer, tell me please?
Thanks for the advice, and if I getthe chance, I'll talk to my instructor. I know I really need to regain my trust in Obie..

[buttercup132]

Do you mean get the video uploaded onto a site so you can post it on here?
Or you have it video taped with a video camera instead of a digital camera?