Here's her message:
"My daughter who is 10 is shy and has a hard time when people she doesn't know is watching her.
She has gotten better lately do to some great horse people around her. We rode with some people on here and they really helped by being nice and also ignoring her. LOL. Meaning just riding and talking so she could get comfortable.
She takes roping and other cow work with Byron. For the first couple of months she could not practice if other people were around. Byron was great with her and got her to do it and not care if others were around. She actually learned, thanks to great people at the barn that they loved watching "that little girl who is better than them". LOL. She's 10 and tiny.
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Now what I'm posting about. LOL
She's in 4-H this year. I'm afraid she will get to fair and "shut down". She did shows from 5-7 yrs old and did fine.
I told her to pretend it was Byron in the arena that was the judge even if there was more than one. To pretend it is the people from his barn watching and the people who was at our house to ride that is sitting in the arena watching. She really liked that.
What other things would you recommend for a shy child when it comes to doing something big like the fair?
Summer Donily please feel free to blog about this. You can get advice from the people who following your blog. :)"
She has gotten better lately do to some great horse people around her. We rode with some people on here and they really helped by being nice and also ignoring her. LOL. Meaning just riding and talking so she could get comfortable.
She takes roping and other cow work with Byron. For the first couple of months she could not practice if other people were around. Byron was great with her and got her to do it and not care if others were around. She actually learned, thanks to great people at the barn that they loved watching "that little girl who is better than them". LOL. She's 10 and tiny.
...
Now what I'm posting about. LOL
She's in 4-H this year. I'm afraid she will get to fair and "shut down". She did shows from 5-7 yrs old and did fine.
I told her to pretend it was Byron in the arena that was the judge even if there was more than one. To pretend it is the people from his barn watching and the people who was at our house to ride that is sitting in the arena watching. She really liked that.
What other things would you recommend for a shy child when it comes to doing something big like the fair?
Summer Donily please feel free to blog about this. You can get advice from the people who following your blog. :)"
I have a Granddaughter who was in the same position and still is sometimes. The only thing I can suggest is, only put her in situations where she not just suceeds but excells, when people are watching. Your advise is excellent but make sure she knows that strangers think she is good at what she does.
ReplyDeleteFrom one of my facebook readers:
ReplyDelete"Get Byron and lots of her barn friends to go with her the first time, put lots of safe friendly faces where she can see them so she has them to focus on. I was that same person she is, except I did my first show at 42. I still have days where I dont want to do lessons in front of other people, but somehow in the show ring it is me and my horse and the rest melts away. It was easier to forget they were all there than I expected. Having friendly faces there that first time or two really helped though"