Dani is one of the younger people whom I've worked with. She contacted me in September 2006 to deal with her loss of confidence riding but we were also able to work on other confidence issues. TFT can be very helpful for students who are facing exams.

I first heard about TFT from my friend who had suggested it as I had lost so much confidence, not only in riding but also in general. I wasn’t really sure about it as I didn't understand it that much, but I emailed Jo just to ask some questions and she sent me some links to websites about TFT.

After emailing Jo a couple of times, I decided I wanted to give it a go, but as I am only 15 I needed to talk to my mum about it and she was fine with it.

With her agreement I rang Jo after school and told her that I had lost a lot of confidence with jumping, and was very nervous about cantering out on hacks, but I then explained that my horse, Gem, is lame at the moment, so it would be hard to tell her if it had worked or not. We still tapped for the things that were worrying me anyway.

We started by talking about me being nervous about jumping. Jo asked me to pick a number between 1 and 10, 1 being not worried, and 10 being terrified, to describe how thinking about jumping made me feel, I picked 8. Jo then told me to tap various places. After each tapping sequence Jo asked me what number I was at, and it went down each time after tapping. We went through each part of jumping that worried me, stride by stride and we realised that I was most nervous about 3 strides away from the jump where I tend to tense up, stop breathing and stop thinking. So we tapped for that too.

We then talked about how nervous I get when I think about cantering on hacks, and we did the same thing. Jo asked me why I got nervous and I told her that when I think about going into canter is when I get most nervous, as Gem does a funny jump thing into canter which often unseats me and makes me land on her neck and then she goes fast which worried me too. So we tapped for all those things. It was really odd how the numbers went down and I still don’t understand it!!!

We then went on to talking about how shy I am and what makes me shy. I told Jo that I took GCSE dance and I hate having to perform in front of my class as I am so worried I look silly. I also told Jo that as part of my GCSE I have to choreograph a dance, and I hate telling people what to do and was really worried about it, as well as me being nervous about walking into a room/place on my own because people look at me. We tapped for all of these until I was at 0.

This week I have started my choreography, and although I was a little nervous about telling my dancers what to do, I did it, whereas before I would have been awful and not have been able to do it at all. I have also been to a party since, and walked in on my own, and I didn't even realise I was doing it! Since TFT I have been a lot more confident, and although I haven't had the chance to ride Gem yet, I can tell that jumping and cantering don’t worry me so much when I'm thinking about them, so I am sure I will be a lot more relaxed when I get back in the saddle.

Also, after our session Jo sent me some other tapping sequences to try in case I needed them

Thank you Jo, TFT has really helped me. I will update you once I'm back riding.

August 2007

When I emailed Jo last year I told her how I was really nervous to canter out on hacks and had lost confidence with jumping. I also told her I was really shy, especially in front of my dance class (I take GCSE dance and am currently waiting for my results.)

Since speaking to Jo and having TFT I am so much happier with riding, and have improved so much due to feeling more confident. On Sunday, I had my first ever (intentional) gallop on Gem, and it was the most amazing feeling, I was so happy that I felt confident enough to do it. I didn't even think about it before, we just did it!

I have also sat my dance GCSE and was confident enough to perform with my class in front of my whole school at the end of year assembly, whereas before, I was too shy to perform in front of my class of 14 dancers!

Thank you so much Jo, I am so much more confident now :)

Dani
August 2007

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