“Am I going to die?”
That’s the question I asked the paramedic at least a hundred times on the hour-long drive to the hospital. A 17.3-hand horse had flipped onto me—no helmet, the saddle horn in my gut, pinned against a tree. I felt crushed from head to toe; certain I wouldn’t make it.
Physically, I was lucky. My body healed quickly.
Emotionally? Not so lucky. That accident hijacked my confidence.
Emotionally? Not so lucky. That accident hijacked my confidence.
A few seconds was all it took to bury my courage so deep it felt like I’d never find it again. What should have been months of healing turned into 20 years of battling fear, avoiding rides, and trying to figure out what went wrong.
Here’s the truth: your confidence can be stolen in a moment. But it doesn’t have to stay gone.
The good news: you can take it back.
The bad news: it takes work.
The better news: there’s a faster way forward than the decades it took me.
The bad news: it takes work.
The better news: there’s a faster way forward than the decades it took me.
After 20 years of trial and error, I discovered the three areas every rider must work on to reclaim confidence:
1. The conscious mind.
This is the “loud voice” in your head—the part that keeps replaying fear and feeding doubt. Left unchecked, it buries confidence in the shadows. The good news? There are tools to flip that script. My favorite is Courage Pennies—a simple practice of noticing where you already show confidence in daily life and letting those wins add up. (If you don’t have my Ultimate Guide to Courage Pennies eBook yet, grab it here!)
This is the “loud voice” in your head—the part that keeps replaying fear and feeding doubt. Left unchecked, it buries confidence in the shadows. The good news? There are tools to flip that script. My favorite is Courage Pennies—a simple practice of noticing where you already show confidence in daily life and letting those wins add up. (If you don’t have my Ultimate Guide to Courage Pennies eBook yet, grab it here!)
2. The subconscious mind.
Your subconscious has one mission: keep you safe. But it often confuses “safe” with “stuck.” Old beliefs and fears can dig in hard. I used to try and slowly reprogram this by working only at the conscious level—it worked, but it was painfully slow. That’s why now I pair conscious tools with deeper methods like NLP and hypnotherapy to help riders shift their subconscious faster.
Your subconscious has one mission: keep you safe. But it often confuses “safe” with “stuck.” Old beliefs and fears can dig in hard. I used to try and slowly reprogram this by working only at the conscious level—it worked, but it was painfully slow. That’s why now I pair conscious tools with deeper methods like NLP and hypnotherapy to help riders shift their subconscious faster.
3. The body.
When I wasn’t riding much, my body wasn’t in riding shape. And every ounce of stiffness, weakness, or imbalance just amplified my fear. The great news is that physical strength and health are the easiest to change—when you make them a priority, your body supports your confidence instead of undermining it. (I’m 61 and honestly feel better now than I did at 20!)
Confidence can be hijacked in a heartbeat, but it doesn’t have to stay missing. You can reclaim it—by training your conscious mind, rewiring your subconscious, and caring for your body so it supports your courage.
So let me ask you:
👉 What’s one step you can take this week to start freeing your confidence again?
👉 What’s one step you can take this week to start freeing your confidence again?
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