‘The past year has been about building my confidence’
“I returned to riding at the start of 2019 after a break and have been having lessons at my local riding school each week since,” says Sharon Howe. “I started riding when I was 14, but early into lessons I was bucked off. I’ve carried this with me.
“Over the years, I’ve returned to having lessons for a period of time, but then life gets in the way and I stop — only to return as a nervous rider all over again. The past year has been all about building my confidence and it’s a continual process as I progress to the next stage. I have a very supportive instructor who makes me ride different horses and pushes me when needed.
“I’ve also been working on my mindset, as in the early stages I was only focusing on the things I wasn’t doing correctly in my lesson and was ignoring all the positive aspects. I now make an effort to come away from each lesson with three positives, always keeping in mind what needs to be improved too. When I started jumping a couple of months ago I was really nervous, so I switched my lesson from 11am to 9am so that I didn’t spend all morning worrying about it. That helped. “I’ve always wanted my own horse and have just bought my first, Riley, although he isn’t the ‘been there, done that’ horse that I always thought I would buy. It’s early days yet, but so far so good.
“I’ve found it useful to write about my return to riding (themulberrytree.co.uk/ returning-to-riding) and I hope it might inspire others too. If I can do it, you can!”