I had been riding horses for more than 20 years. About 15 years ago, I had a series of incidents where I was thrown from a horse and injured. Eventually, self-preservation fear developed and I started being apprehensive and choosy about which horses I was willing to ride. It progressed to where I would only ride my own horse who was super safe and who I knew would keep me safe while in the saddle.
When she died, my desire to ride died with her. My lack of desire to ride progressed to being fearful to ride at all. Since I had no desire to ride, I didn’t miss riding at that point.
However, I work in equine ministry and we recently needed the horses to be ridden to prepare them for the children. As a seasoned horse rider, that responsibility fell to me and I needed to ride for my job. Yet the very thought of riding caused me to feel panic.
I had gotten a new horse and had tried riding him before my session with Heidi. Even though I knew he was safe and gentle, I still felt panic inside. My heart was beating super fast. I couldn’t do more than one lap around the arena and I had to get off of him.
Coming to see Heidi completely changed that.
Two days after my session with Heidi, I had a riding lesson with my new horse. I came in and got on him with no fear. My heart was calm.
I walked. I trotted. I cantered. I even did a little jump!
I hadn’t done most of those things in probably 15 years. I was completely at peace and at ease.
An unintended, but awesome side effect of clearing the riding anxiety was that my anxiety about riding in a car with my teenager driving was also cleared!
Ever since then, the fear has not returned. He’s jumped bigger than I wanted and I might feel nervousness, but it doesn’t cause fear.
I have regained my joy of riding. I can work with all the horses now. I was even able to ride a horse out in the open pasture recently and I’m still in disbelief that I was doing so free of fear.
The change in my mindset was transformative, not just from a personal level, but from a professional level. I was able to do the job that I needed to do to help the children in our ministry connect with these beautiful animals.
An unintended, but awesome side effect of clearing the riding anxiety was that my anxiety about riding in a car with my teenager driving was also cleared! Honestly, I was terrified of riding with my 17-year-old daughter. She was a fine driver, but for some reason I was just terrified to let her drive. The last time she drove with me, I even made her pull over and I got back in the driver’s seat. Poor girl. We laughed about it, but it wasn’t okay.
Five days after seeing Heidi, I looked at my daughter, handed her the keys, and said “Hey, why don’t you drive us home?” We both looked at each other shocked. She drove us home and I was calm and relaxed with no feelings of fear or anxiety.
I realized later that my feelings about both riding horses and my daughter driving were exactly the same! I’m amazed that clearing one fear cleared the other as well. I’m so incredibly thankful for Heidi’s work. It is life changing!
