Too afraid to jump ... and how I got over my fear 

Hi everyone, my name's Dawn and I'm 14 years old. I've been riding ponies since I was 8, when I began competing on my first pony, Tom Thumb. Tommy was a very quiet and safe beginners pony, and before long I outgrew him, needing something with more ability.

My next pony was a little chestnut pony called Takarau Copper Flash. He was a beautiful looking pony, but a difficult ride. A very bold jumper, Sprite used to gallop around a course, jumping everything in his path, with me sitting on top struggling to stay on. It was inevitable that he would soon tire of this, and he started refusing. The trouble was, he still galloped into the jumps, and when he stopped, I would fly off over his head. I lost so much confidence that I soon became afraid to jump at all. Sprite just got worse and worse until he started refusing even the lowest jumps. I had lessons to get him jumping again, but he had full control of me by now and wouldn't do anything I told him to. He began bolting, rearing and bucking me off. Needless to say, by this stage I had to be practically forced to get onto him. My mother insisted that I keep going with him, but finally an instructor made her see the light and Sprite was sold.

My new instructor, Kristen, helped me to find the perfect pony for me. After a long search, we finally found Dreamcatcher. Dreamy was six when we bought her, and she recently turned eight. She has a very sweet temperament and we began competing successfully at shows. Except over jumps.

After Sprite, I was too scared to jump again. But Kristen helped me get over my fear. We began slowly, teaching Dreamy at the same time as getting my confidence back. Kristen never pushed me too far, never forced me to jump anything I thought was too high, and was always willing to bring the heights down if I asked her to. Because Dreamy is only young, it doesn't to her any harm to jump low fences for a while. Gradually I began jumping her in shows, and she did well, placing in all of her jumping starts.

I had one scare with Dreamy, when we were jumping a Cross Country course and she slipped in front of a jump and fell over, throwing me off. Luckily we were both fine, and we went back to basics for a while to get both of our courage back up.

Now Dreamy and I are competing at Open level and doing very well. She's been a great pony, but I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without Kristen's help. I still have lessons every week, and Dreamy continues to improve. I won the Most Improved Rider AND the Most Improved Pony awards last year the Pony Club prizegiving. This season I have been aiming for the Acheivement Trophy. Kristen said that we really deserve it, and I think so too.

If you have a fear of jumping, the best thing you can do is to work at it. Get an instructor and a mount that you can trust, and work right from the beginning. Never be afraid to admit that something is beyond you, or you may have a nasty accident.

But remember: if you don't try, you'll never succeed. As Kristen is always telling me: If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't., you're right.

Dawn Moreland, 14
NEW ZEALAND

Email ponies101@hotmail.com