"I have just got back into riding and now have a pony. He is an amazing pony and wouldn't do anything bad or wrong and he wouldn't try to hurt me. I was getting back into my jumping and I was getting really good at it and was getting to jump quite big jumps but then I jumped a little one and he jumped it really big. I fell off and now I have lost my confidence and i am scared to jump the smallest of jumps. What shall I do? HELP! Thank you, Millie."

H&C blogger and equestrian sports psychologist Charlie Unwin replies: "This experience has clearly knocked your jumping confidence a little, but it needn’t be an ongoing problem. Ask yourself how you judge your ability to jump? Many riders will fall into the trap of judging their jumping ability by how high they can jump, which means that the only way of boosting their confidence is by jumping higher! This can make our confidence very fragile, as you will know from you own experience. Our best solution is therefore to find a number of different ways of challenging ourselves without necessarily making the jumps more difficult.

Level 1: Starting with trotting poles and cross-poles, challenge yourself by focussing on nothing other than breathing deeply (from your tummy) as you ride around the arena and ride over the fence/poles. If you struggle to stay 100% focussed on breathing deeply at any point then keep doing it until you can keep your focus throughout.

Level 2: Once you have mastered this, shift your focus to counting your strides aloud as you ride around the arena and jump. Your goal is to keep the volume and pitch of your voice exactly the same throughout.

Level 3: Now you have mastered this, try singing your favourite song! Again, your goal is to maintain the same tone of voice as you go through the poles/jump.

Level 4: Now do all of the above again, but this time jumping the fence/pole at a slight angle, thereby making the challenge slightly more difficult.

Level 5: If you have done all the previous challenges in trot, perform them all again in canter.

Level 6: Now think of your own ways of challenging yourself without making the jumps bigger (i.e. string two or three poles/jumps together).

Level 7: Start to make the jumps a little bigger whilst keeping the focus on conducting the above tasks.

Rules for conducting each session: Decide upon how much you want to do in one session and do it. Once you have achieved your goals then FINISH - even if you feel like you want to do more! This is very important – finishing a session wanting to do more will do wonders for your confidence!

At the beginning, middle and end of each session (maybe whilst on a long rein) take a moment to imagine yourself jumping really well in your mind. Go back to a time when you had a brilliant jumping session or competition and run through it in your head as if you were back there doing it again. What did it feel, sound and look like? This literally gives your brain a reference point to work towards. People who get hung-up on what they can’t do or how bad they feel will often wonder why their problems get worse! If I say to you “Don’t think of a blue horse” your thoughts will undoubtedly move towards it (even though it doesn’t actually exist!). Therefore it does us no good to try and move away from a negative reference point (i.e. being unconfident and vulnerable). Instead, think about moving TOWARDS a positive reference point (i.e. being a strong, confident rider).

Good luck Millie and I would love to hear how you get on."