Getting your Horse Coming Over for Saddling - Unsaddling

If I'm in an arena throwing loops or otherwise dismounting and having to mount again and again, I'll often just get on the fence and have my horse side up to me so I can mount easily and with less stress to the horse. I've had many people ask me  "How did you get your horse to do that?"

What I tell them is that in the beginning most horses will want to face you up if you are on a platform. In other words they will stand perpendicular to the platform or fence. And, if you lead a horse to a platform, most will stand until you get up on the platform, then they move their back end away to see you, which takes them away from you and makes it harder, if not impossible to mount. This comes mainly from the horse's discomfort with seeing something or someone above them and in the beginning not understanding what you are asking of them.

Then I'll continue explaining, that I'll start with halter and lead line, and while I'm sitting on a fence rail, or even standing on a platform like a mounting block, I'll rhythmically bump on the lead rope giving a verbal cue such as "come over" and just when the horse begins to move his feet, I'll stop the bumping. I'll pause for 5-10 seconds then begin again. Doesn't matter if the horse moves one way then the other,...... with a little patience the horse will eventually side up to you so you can mount. Pet on him first.

I believe I heard in an interview with Margaret Dorrance, wife of the late Tom Dorrance, that Tom was teaching her horse, or teaching Margaret to teach horse, to come over to the trailer step or mounting block so she could more easily put a saddle on the horse's back and also mount from the platform. Margaret asked "why do I need to do be able to do that" and Tom replied to the effect that "you'll need this when you get older". That stuck with me over the years. And if you are the one in a thousand who have not heard of Tom Dorrance you should be going to this site.

Anyway, when I ask a horse to come over and get parallel with me while I am on a platform, some horse's will like to put their left side to you and some their right side. So remembering the interview one day when I was in my trailer, I asked my horse tied to the trailer to come over to me so I could take his saddle off and he did lickity split. It was the same side he always presented to me to mount and he did it right away. 

On another horse, the horse in the video below, I wanted to try the same thing, asking him to come over giving me his right side, when he always gave me his left side as I asked him to come over to mount. I wanted to see how easily he could discern what I was asking him and why. So from the trailer tack room, I ask him to come over to unsaddle and I could see he was not understanding what I was asking. So I used a flag and tapped on his off side, the left side, as I asked him to come over. As soon as he moved his feet. I stopped tapping and paused for 5-10 seconds then started again. Within a minute he understood and sided up to me so I could reach the saddle from the platform of the trailer tack room.

Now I'd like to think that I really won't be needing to use a platform to saddle or unsaddle for the next decade or two, but I'm just a couple of years away from 60 and have seen many of my friends go to lighter saddles or not ride as much due to the toll of cumulative injuries or just plain aging physically. But getting the horse to think and learn is always a good thing. Safe Journey.