Fear vs. Progress. A Healthy Balance Or A Limiting Hindrance?

We all have experienced fear. It takes many forms and visits us with varied frequency and for different reasons.

Fear is integral in what keeps us alive. It's a primal urge intended to avoid injury, death or circumstances that may cause us pain or reduced prosperity in the future.

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It's also something I'd love to be able to temporarily tone down, if not switch off. I've been thinking of fear over the last few days. I'm accustomed to it and use it to good effect in my career and personal decisions in life. When it comes to fear of physical injury however, it's a different beast to tame, fundamentally I think.

This has recently come about from the great success we've had with our horses on our recent beach camping trip we took with them. One of the horses we are slowly breaking in. She did well with a number of firsts recently including seeing waves on a beach for the first time and cruising through her first tick spray booth experience. She even did well saddled again with no rider on the camp grounds.

The next logical step then is to start mounting her under saddle. I've done most of the risky stuff with her to date including her first bareback mount which I posted a video of at the time. For some reason however I've hit a fear wall. My mind is fixated on the risk of injury and the chance that she'll react physically to the new invasion. I've had falls from horses before and even the most tame fall hurts.

I don't think it's the pain that I fear, it's the chance of breaking or damaging myself in an irreparable way. What if I'll never be able to bicycle or ride a motorbike again, what if I'm unable to make a living with my desk job any more? These palpable scenarios have been limiting my ability to take her training (and consequently my life achievements) to the next level.

Is there some reason for this heightened fear right now? I mean I've always had a healthy done of it. Is this a premonition? Just yesterday I got kitted up to attempt a saddled mount and it started to pour. I had to abandon the plan and I caught myself thinking that the weather (and fate) may have saved me from a life altering injury. I find these kinds of thoughts, especially when they occur frequently, a little odd.

How do you face fear? How do you find that balance between shying away from risk only to live a boring life and throwing caution to the wind only to learn life's lessons the hard way?

I'm of two minds still as to whether we will try something today. Stay tuned I guess and thanks for reading!