Confidence and personality types – part one

I’ve been trying to come up with the words to explain the situation I’m in with Dolly, but it is hard to explain it all. I wanted to start by talking a bit about confidence and what it means to different people, because “confidence” as a concept is what I am trying to deal with.  Please bear with me as I ramble on about this...!  ;-)

Chuck Norris



The Cowardly Lion

I’m not the most confident person – not just while riding, but in my day-to-day life as well. I’m not a “cower in the corner” type either, but I don’t have endless confidence in my abilities. People close to me tell me that I am too hard on myself, which may be partly true... I have met people that are the thrill-seeking, fearless Type As (like Chuck Norris! lol) and then some that are afraid of their own shadows (<--like our friend the Cowardly Lion). I am no Chuck Norris (ha, ha!) , but I am also not completely lacking of confidence either. The basic fact here is that people have different personalities and different confidence levels, and so do horses. I also think that with good experiences and hard work it is possible to increase your confidence in different areas.

Obviously there are endless combinations of horse traits and human personalities and sometimes it is obvious about the horse’s traits – an alpha mare for example - but sometimes it takes more time to uncover what is driving the little horse pea brain that you are responsible for. And, as well all know, some human personality types just don’t work well with certain types of horses.

Dolly is much more horse than Rusty was – not that either horse has/had a problem, but Rusty was a very laid-back, calm sort of guy. Dolly is much more sensitive and requires a different approach. I was a bit nervous riding Dolly for the first few weeks when I first bought her in the summer. It wasn’t terrible fear, but just a nervous flutter in my stomach. I was able to work through that and we rode all over the farm and even over to the neighbouring stable. There were a few situations where she was hesitant – near the tacky, plastic flower covered pony jump field, for example – and we would be able to work through it without much trouble.

As the fall progressed, we started having a bit of trouble going down the long laneway. Dolly would do a little 180 pirouette and stop. I would be able to just one rein her around and keep going, or go around the trouble spot and take a different route. A couple of times, I had someone else get on Dolly and either she wouldn’t try a spin, or she would do one, the rider would correct her and they would keep going without any more troubles. I knew that 99% of the problem was with me – my nerves were getting in the way. My confidence had plummeted and I didn’t really know what to do.

It was right around that time that a new trainer started coming out to the barn once a month. I was frustrated with myself, so I thought that a few sessions with a trainer would do wonders for me.

To be continued...