How to help my confidence?

After yesterday, I realized that my horse is fine, it's me that's the issue. I have good equitation, and my horse has good form. But my confidence is at zero.
I have no idea what I'm so afraid of, but I have so little confidence that I can hardly jump 18 inches without getting nervous (I have jumped 3' before...).

Anything you guys suggest? I'm fine on the flat, and going over ground poles and cavalettis. It's just jumping that's the problem.

If you're not confident neither will your horse. Start with small jumps and when you are comfy with that slowly build your way higher.

You also need to trust your horse. If you can't trust your horse your horse can never trust you. A positive attitude can make huge difference too.

If you're too scared to jump little jumps you shouldn't be doing 3'... At least in my opinion. Maye you're afraid of falling off? Wear protective gear if you don't. I think you need to figure out what's making you so nervous first and once you do that you'll have a better chance to succeed.

You say you have "jumped 3' before" - was that before your current fear/lack of confidence issues set in or during?

Before!

Okay.....so think back to the last time you remember feeling comfortable and confident - now think about what happened after that and see if you can pinpoint the cause for your change. It doesn't have to be anything major, not a big fall or anything, and it may take some serious thought to start sussing it out. It will be much easier to figure out how to move through it once you know what "it" is

There is something missing in this puzzle.

You went from jumping 3' without issue to fear over crossrails.

That change usually does not happen all by itself, without some stimulus.

Can you think of ANY incident over fences that scared you and marked the point where you lost confidence?

Without that understanding, you will have a hard time fixing this. And make no mistake, in the end it is only you who can push past the fear barrier.

I used to have that problem. What I did was take a deep breath a few strides out from the jump then as I was heading to it I would just look up not at the jump and Say in my brain, "I have jump this high before so 'No Fear'" then I would go into my "Riding zone" and fly over the jump.

Do breath as you go up to the jump. Don't think of anything bad that could happen, then the horse will do that. Trust your horse that he knows what he is doing and he will take care of you. Think of back when you had no

This may not be helpful but maybe put the jumps up? I don't want to misguide you BUT I know someone who is nervous on small jumps and as they go bigger she gets better and more confident. Small jumps are kinda funny because horses don't really jump them and it can be dangerous jumping them if your horse is lazy and trips falls and so on. Maybe I'm no help but is it the actual jumping or the size? There's a huge difference in if you want to do it but are scared or you don't want to do it but what to do it * maybe it's bed time, I hope that makes sense

What aren't you confident about?
If it is your position over jumps, or the fact that you are left behind, you should practice on simple exercises, like riding bareback or without stirrups.
If you aren't sure of your horse and your nervous when jumping, how you feel will reflect on your horse. If you are scared, your horse might also become uneasy, and end up tripping over the jumps. You should place poles infront of the jump you are going over to even out your horse's stride so that he knows when to take off, especially over very small jumps.
Sometimes horses get lazy, and pretty much just 'hop' over the jumps. Just remember that even the best riders fall off sometimes, so you shouldn't worry so much about that.

I used to do hunters also, then, somehow, as I got older, I lost my confidence. I tried for a few years to get it back over fences, but knowing that my fear translated to the horse and made the horse more likely to stop made my fear worse. So, I finally gave up jumping. My horse I used to jump with is now basically retired, so I got a new one and have gone totally western, and am loving reining, getting my confidence back totally. It seems to happen to some of us as we get older. I guess we realize that we cannot afford to get hurt. To many depend on us from family, work, etc. At least that was me.....