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RE: [RC] [RC] Fear when mounting/dismounting - heidiBless the person who trained my new horse. Cody stands stock still, and in fact won't move off without a lot of encouragement, until he gets his treat after I have mounted. I LOVE that. As I am really short, less than 5', and getting older and arthritic and stiff, this is really important. Additionally, when I dismount, I was taught to kick out of both stirrups, kind of lay across the saddle, and slide down. After a long ride, that slide down sometimes takes a while too! HA! My horse stands perfectly still for that also, so he gets another treat. Gotta love a well trained horse! Yep, that's the bottom line! Being short, tubby, and not at all springy anymore (I NEVER was graceful at mounting anyway, even when young), I make sure that ALL of my horses are well-trained to a mounting block. I even take one to rides with me. And when I'm not near the mounting block, I've used anything from car bumpers to rocks to picnic chairs. As far as I'm concerned, learning good manners about mounting and dismounting is fundamental to any riding horse, and in return, I try to minimize the trauma of it by getting on from a height that I DON'T put a lot of sideways pull on their backs. I still chuckle at an incident at Fort Howes a couple of years ago. I was just starting back riding, and we were doing the LD. A windstorm came up, and there were a lot of gazebos, etc. set up in the crewing area that were blowing down, just as we got ready to leave for the second half of our ride. I retrieved one of those white plastic patio chairs from over by the vets' rigs and plunked it down next to my horse in the middle of all this excitement, and proceeded to use it to get on. Ray Randal said to me, "Boy, you're brave!" I retorted, "No, he's broke!" Heidi PS: As far as dismounting, I do leave my left foot in the stirrup briefly as I lift my right leg over the cantle and rump--again, I don't have enough " spring" to do that stirrup-less. But I pivot around and keep my weight centered over the saddle while doing that, so that I end up more or less with my belly in the saddle. At that point, I can leave my left hand on the pommel and bring my right hand around into the seat of the saddle to push off as I kick my left foot free, and then drop to the ground. (Or slither to the ground, as the case may be.) That way, there is never any great weight in one stirrup, either, to cause an upset, but I don't have near the "free fall" of the "spring out of the saddle" sort of dismount. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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