There are many ways to work to rebuild your confidence.  

Imagery - Learn how to develop your imagery skills to relax and reduce tension, sharpen your focus and improve concentration. The use of imagery is widely used in Europe, but is only begun to be tapped in the US.  As surely as imagining a bright yellow, sour lemon in your mouth right now  can make you salivate, so too, visualization can control your emotions.

Self-Hypnosis - If you have a phobia of hypnosis, rest assured it is completely unfounded.  During self-hypnosis, you are fully aware of the world around  you and able to attend to any matters that you may need to.  You can learn to prepare your body and mind respond the way YOU want .  About a week after starting self-hypnosis, I began to feel a more relaxed state of well being, not only while working with my horse, but in day-to-day life.

NLP - Neuro-lingual programming is a new, exciting technology.   Also known as sports psychology, many professional athletes already know the limitless benefits. If imagery or self-hypnosis is appealing to you, you may want to go a step further and study NLP.  To sum it up, NLP is the ability to run your brain to achieve ANY result you desire.  This is truely a life changing technology.

Clicker Training - Is a positive method of training your horse.  By using a "Yes" answer signal when he does something good, followed by a reward, your horse is strongly encouraged to repeat that good behavior.  Clicker training makes use of the intelligence of the horse and the trainer to build a very powerful communication tool.  Clicker training creates a well-behaved, relaxed horse who is waiting at the gate, eager to begin his next training session. 

Desensitization - Maybe your horse is very spooky and side steps or even bolts back to the barn when he sees something unfamiliar. This is often a cause of fear in riders.  Desensitization or spook-proofing exercises can greatly reduce the likelihood and severity of these reactions and improve your confidence.

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