Gotta say it. One of my pet peeves about horse training is
the horse that begins walking off, just as the rider starts to step aboard.
Some equines step off as soon as the rider is seated in the
saddle, even before he or she gathers up the reins. Others start their promenade
while the rider is swinging a leg over the horse. And some horses start to go
forward even earlier.
Sure, it may not rattle a lifelong horseman or horsewoman to
mount a moving target. Maybe old-time cowboys didn’t mind playing catch-up
while climbing onto a horse. OK, several particularly game riders have even vaulted aboard
running horses.
Not me, thanks.
Several years ago, I actually took a terrible tumble when my
horse stepped off from the mounting block before I was seated and balanced. I
was riding bareback, even without a Bareback Pad (because it was about 100 degrees that day). As you might imagine, it took little to send me into a gravitational spin,
which sent me to the emergency room.
With that fall, I lost a quarter of an inch of height,
crushing a lumbar vertebra when I bounced off the edge of the mounting block on
the way down. Ouch!
Yes, I used a Mounting Block. My Warmblood Horse was 16.3 hands high,
and I’m somewhat height-challenged.
You know the drill.
Enter Clinton Anderson with a few practical pointers. I
liked this video, and it’s come in quite handy with a young horse I’m working
with right now.
Maybe you’ll find Anderson’s tips helpful too. Yes, it’s
fairly common-sense stuff, but he puts it together in a workable way.
.
.
Hold it, little horse. This time, you’re standing for
mounting!
photo credit: Eduardo
Amorim via photopin
cc
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