If you prefer a little boost when mounting, why not get your horse to help you? A mounting block is fine, but there's not always one handy. If you teach your horse to align himself with the fence at your cue, you've always got an easy way to step aboard.
The method I'm going to show you is also excellent for preparing a young horse to be mounted for the first time. You can desensitize him to having a human above his eye level and pressure on his back, all while you're securely perched on the fence.
To begin, you'll stand on the fence and send your horse back and forth in front of you. Then, you'll encourage him to stop and face you, perpendicular to the fence. By bumping upward on the lead until he begins to swing his hindquarters, you'll teach him to align himself parallel to the fence. Once he's standing next to the fence, you'll be able to slip aboard--or begin desensitizing a young horse to being mounted.
| 1. After you've warmed up with some basic longeing for respect, lead your horse to the fence. Climb up to a height that would enable you to swing your leg easily over your horse's back. From that spot, send your horse back and forth in front of you. Drawing on your longeing-for-respect skills, point in the direction you want your horse to go. |  |
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2. After your horse has made about a dozen passes in front of you, draw gently on the lead to encourage him to stop and stand facing you, perpendicular to the fence. Rub his face and speak to him approvingly to inspire his confidence. |
| 3. Now, to encourage him to swing his hindquarters over to the fence, pull up on the lead rope in a series of rhythmic tugs. Make your tugs hard enough to get his attention, but not so hard as to make him resentful. If he tries to step away from you, let him, but then draw him back and continue. Keep bumping his face in this manner, with rhythm and persistence, until he takes even the tiniest sideways step with his hindquarters. The instant he does, stop bumping and rub his face. |  |
To Get the Most from this Lesson
- Outfit your horse in a rope halter with a lead that's at least 14 feet long. I prefer my own halters, which have extra knots on the noseband for improved responsiveness, but any of the stiffer rope halters will do. You'll also need a training stick or a dressage whip. (In these photos, I'm demonstrating how to teach this lesson to an unbroke horse. If you're working with a trained horse, you can go ahead and saddle him and put his bridle on under the halter.)
- Prepare your pupil with my "longeing for respect" (Practice Pen, Horse & Rider, April-June 2004) to get him settled and focused on you.
- Ideally, use a board or pipe fence that's about six feet high (a shorter fence, such as the one in these photos, provides less support and requires more balance on your part).
If you want him to go to your left, hold the lead in your left hand and point with that hand, while holding your stick or whip in the other hand. To go the other way, switch hands. Inset: If need be, use your stick or dressage whip to encourage your horse to move back and forth promptly, as I am here.
(Because the bumping has been continuous to this point, your horse will understand that the cessation of it means it's a reward for having done the right thing--stepping over with his hind end.) If your timing is accurate, he'll quickly learn to recognize the upward bumping as a request to move his hindquarters over towards the fence.
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4. Here my filly has taken a few baby steps with her hindquarters, and after praising her for that, I'm continuing my requests for more steps: bump, bump, bump. If your arm gets tired, switch arms, or use both arms to bump, watching carefully for each step so you can immediately stop, rub, and praise. As I continue bumping, my filly eventually brings her hindquarters... |
| 5. ...all the way over to the fence, so that she's parallel to it. At this point, I stop bumping and rub her vigorously all over, to let her know this is exactly what I want. Inset: Then, as she continues to stand, I rub her all over with the stick, desensitizing her to someone working up above her like this. |  |
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6. Once she's relaxed and standing quietly, I rub her with one knee, while keeping my other leg securely on the fence. If you're working with a young horse and he tries to depart at this point, simply bring your foot back to the fence and resume the bumping until your horse is again parallel to the fence. Then do even more desensitizing with the stick, then try your knee again. Given time and repetition, even a youngster will stand quietly for this. |
| 7. When your horse is quiet with one knee on his back, you can slip that leg all the way over and sit quietly, keeping your other leg on the fence in the event your horse startles. Once your horse stands calmly with you aboard, go back to the beginning and start over. With repetition, he'll come to understand clearly what you want. Eventually, all you'll have to do is step up on the fence and lift your hand, and he'll sidestep right over so you can mount." |  |
--Photos by Darrell Dodds
Clinton Anderson, the undefeated champion of the Road to the Horse colt-starting challenge, is the host of Downunder Horsemanship, a popular weekly training program on RFD-TV. He lives in Belle Center, Ohio. Clinton regularly travels around the country, presenting horsemanship clinics and headlining at horse expos.
This article originally appeared in the September 2005 issue of Horse & Rider magazine.
