Helping Your Horse with Accepting the Mounting Block

Probably due to a combination of short people buying tall horses and older people with declining physical abilities it seems like many people need mounting blocks to get up in the saddle. And before you write me any nasty comments, I'm one of those people I wrote about in the first sentence,...short and aging. But I have fairly short horses, certainly no taller than 15.1 hands high which makes for mounting much easy.

However, it is necessary for many people to be able to bring their horse over to a mounting aid. It's also pretty common for a horse to lead up to the mounting block and when the rider's climbs the block, the horse will drift out to a position that the rider cannot mount from. I have noticed this in trail type competitions and many of the horses resist the rider's attempts to pull him over to the mounting block. This could be because the horse is not used to, or accepting of the rider towering above them,......don't ask me why being in the saddle is different,...... or the horse may simply be not immediately accepting of the mounting block which is a new obstacles for them.

The good news is that getting your horse to close the gap and stand next to a mounting block why you gain the saddle is a pretty easy thing to get your horse comfortable with.

Be sure your horse is comfortable with the mounting block as an obstacle. Lead him up to it, give him the time he needs to accept it,……it may take 2 seconds, it may take 30 seconds, it doesn't matter because your horse is not on your schedule, you're actually on his, but the point is to get him to accept that it's not a threat.

Lead the horse up to the mounting block and position where you can mount. Even if the horse stands for you to mount in this position, the position you put him in, I would still go through the process of cueing him to move his feet until he is parallel to you (siding up to you) so you could mount safely. This will be useful when you go to use a mounting block he is not used to.

So try this,....lead the horse up so he is perpendicular (facing) the mounting mount. Get on the mounting block and bump the lead line in a upwards, rhythmic fashion until the horse moves his feet. As he moves, even on foot or even leans to or looks to be wanting to move a foot, stop bumping - this is the release. Then begin again. Every time the horse moves his feet, give him a release (quit bumping the lead line). It's okay, in my opinion, that the horse moves in the wrong direction initially because he is learning the cue to move his feet. That's all you are really trying to do, get him to move his feet. You can use a verbal cue as well such as "over".

Do this a couple times and you'll most likely have a horse that automatically sides up to you when you climb onto the mounting block. Then you may have the issue of getting him to wait on you to ask him to position up.

Finally, be sure you are following safe mounting procedures from the mounting block,......don't settle for having your horse close enough to make mounting possible,......your horse needs to be close enough to make mounting safe. Have ahold of the reins, shorten the reins on the side you are mounting on just in case your horse moves out or even bolts, you will be prepared to tip his head and disengage his back end to a stop. Sit in the saddle and find your off side stirrup. Having turned stirrups make this much easier so your foot automatically finds the stirrup. Hope this helps.