If you are serious about riding a horse, one of the very best things you can do is use obstacles in nature or build challenging situations for your horse. Guiding him/her through difficult situations successfully increases not only their confidence but makes them trust the rider more.
I personally continually look for new challenges even when doing a simple trail ride or going out to the pasture. It really helps.
Kelli Paulson has taken this to a new level with an entire program about how to do this – it’s called “Training with Trail Obstacles”. Her website is https://kellihorsemanship.co/, and of course, she has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KelliHorsemanship/
She has written two books, has suggestions about building obstacle courses, training ideas, and much more. Highly Recommended!