Do nervous riders make nervous horses?
This is a belief which is commonly advocated for. It is a belief which I have previously held. It is a belief which I have not previously examined. It is a belief that when I consider it now I am not sure it is true.
I certainly know very hubris filled riders who have exceptionally nervous horses - and the horse goes along with whatever the rider says, but without a militant structure around that horse the horse quickly falls apart.
I also know exceptionally nervous riders with exceptionally confident horses - either because the rider wisely purchased a horse who already had a large degree of experience, wisdom and self confidence, or because the rider very slowly, progressively and diligently brought the horse along and the horse developed self confidence through that process.
I also know nervous riders on nervous horses (although, not often for long...) and confident riders on confident horses 😃 😃
I think I might need to start differentiating in my language between confidence/hubris and nervous/cautious in riders.
Confidence being riders who know their bodies, know their horses and know everything will probably be ok - and if its not ok, they know how they will handle it.
Hubris being riders who are so convinced of their own invulnerability and their horses duty of subservience that they can kick their way through any situation and git it dun.
Nervous being riders trapped in what if cycles and 'busy brain' ways of being with horses with hillsides on fire and THAR BE DRAGONS where actually thar are just geckos.
Cautious being riders who want to avoid problems and who know their limits, so proceed slowly, with lots of testing, before increasing the difficulty level.
Maybe these things could be some kind of 3D spectrum, and different people in different moments on different horses land on different places on this spectrum at different times.