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Survey

Mounting

By:

mariahsinclair

Date:

2011-Feb-06 at 03:27AM

MY horse will willing come to the mounting block and stand yet the moment I move towards the stirrup he begins to slowly step back. I used Monty's advise to bring his back end in yet I have not yet found a way to have him not back up. I want to be able to mount from anything if required. Idea and suggestions welcome. With gratitude, Mariah

Miriam (Holland&Germany) 2011-Feb-06 at 11:18AM

Hi Mariah,
For training reasons I think you should not really try to mount yet. First your horse should find value in standing still. So as soon as you move to put your foot into the stirrup and he moves backward, you ask him to come forward with the left rein. When he does, let him feel the reward and rest. Don't mount, just let him take that step back and invite him towards that place of reward. Maybe you have to do this a couple of days, in different locations, as you said you want to be able to mount everywhere. This way you generalize the learning.
What you'll be doing is "shaping", cutting the lesson into smaller parts, later you can put the parts together. Take your time and you'll have solved the problem for the rest of your riding days with this horse.
Miriam

mariahsinclair 2011-Apr-22 at 06:45AM

Thanks so much Miriam, I was finally able to recover this suggestion. I have no idea where this message went. I was feeling quite saddened because I had no ideas to correct the stepping back of my horse. He is very smart and I have a hard time keeping up with him. I will give your suggestion a try. He is well train but likes to pretend he is in-charge of the ways we ride.

peace,
Mariah

mimi 2011-Jul-27 at 08:54PM

Often the horse is bothered not by the mounting. First try, just lifting your foot up, with out putting it in the stirrup. If he stands still, reward him. if he backs up, let him back, but when he tries to stop, don't let him. Once you successfully mount, (it might take several days) reward him, get right back off and do it again. After you are satisfied, tell him he's a good boy, and put him away.

Good luck

Dennis 2011-Jul-27 at 09:52PM

This is a great question. What do you do to teak a horses behavior. IF the horse will stand at the mounting block with out a problem but decides to move away when you try to mount the saddle tells me that he does not want you to ride for what ever reason. I would start with the saddle and make sure the cinch is not binding him or pinching his back. After cinching the saddle lift his front leg and pul towards you to free up the skin under the cinch.

As mimi suggested stand on the mounting block and just start to put your foot in the stirup. I would also leave a halter on him with a lead rope. Should he start to move back step off the mounting block and back him with the halter rapidly but calmly then walk him around once and bring him back to the mounting block. Doing this is telling your horse that he is not to move when you are mounting and that you mean it.

Once your horse understands the rules mount the saddle and just let the horse stand for a few minutes. He will start to relax then you can walk him out to begun your riding.

Horses will test you from time to time just to see if they can get away with it. The other thing that you can do is have someone at his head and they can steady the horse and school them if need be. On the ranch our trainer always stands holding the horse even through my horse will just stand still for hours. It is just a safety thing we do in case something frightens the horse just as you are mounting.

Cheers