What are some horse riding confidence exercises?

Confidence doesn’t always come naturally. Sometimes, you have to work for it.

We could all use a little more confidence on horseback. It’s an amazing sport, in part because there’s always room for improvement.

As we like to say here at Horse Rookie, Knowledge is Horsepower™. The more you know and the better your skills, the safer and more confident you’ll be when you ride.

So, if you’re high on equestrian dreams, but somewhat low on confidence, fear not. There are plenty of fun exercises that can help you build confidence in the saddle.

Thanks to Sarah Harris for our feature photo!

A Little Help for What’s Happening Between Your Ears

Sometimes rebuilding confidence starts with changing the conversation happening in your own head. Between the Ears® is a 50-card equestrian affirmation deck created to help horse people find more useful ways to think about confidence, fear, comparison, setbacks, pressure, and the other mental challenges that come with riding.

Pull a card before you ride, keep a favorite in your tack trunk, or display one somewhere you’ll see it regularly. The goal isn’t to pretend fear or difficult feelings don’t exist—it’s to give your brain another perspective to work with.

School your psyche with 50 horse life lessons

Get Between the Ears® at Stable Mind

Try Ground Poles

One of the best ways to increase your balance and learn to use the rhythm of your horse’s gaits is with ground poles. Ground poles are extremely popular as training aides for that reason.

Ground poles are long wooden or plastic poles that lie on the ground and can be walked, trotted, and cantered over for practice.

Once you get them set up (ask your trainer to help if you’re new to ground poles), start by slowly asking your horse to walk over them. Concentrate on keeping a consistent rhythm, then transition to trot and canter when you’re ready.

Source: Emily Harris

Here’s a video that shows some fun and basic pole exercises:

Whether you’re trotting ground poles or cantering cross country fences, an air vest can help if you’re scared to ride your horse.

Stretching Out

It might feel a little silly at first, but learning to stretch and move on horseback is an amazing way to get your muscles working independently and help you learn to balance.

If you’re still pretty new to riding, stretches can be done while your horse is on a lunge line (where they are being controlled by someone else on the end of a long rope).

The great thing about these exercises is that they’re good for any level of riding skill. (That’s right — even your more advanced friends will have fun.)

Here’s a good video showing a typical lunge line stretching lesson.

Plus, visit our Riding Mindset FAQs for more ideas:

Let Your Inner Kid Out

Trying out fun riding games like carrying an egg in a spoon does more than give riders a good laugh. Games use a number of different riding skills to help you develop your coordination and focus.

They also keep you from getting too serious and worried in the saddle. Riding should be fun, after all!

Egg and spoon competitions are a favorite (see video below), but that’s only the beginning.

There are a lot of games you may have played as a kid that can be skill-builders on a horse. Musical Chairs (i.e. use cones to mark off where your horse would stop), “Red Light – Green Light,” and even playing “Tag” using pool noodles can be fun for any age group.

Just be sure the group agrees on some basic rules beforehand (e.g. no faster than a trot).

Want more ideas for building your confidence? Check out 32 things you can do today to calm your riding nerves forever.

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