Most horses know exactly what is expected of them at the mounting block and if they’re choosing to move away we should think about why instead of just trying to fix it as a meaningless behaviour. When we simplify it to pressure on until the horse complies, and pressure off only when he complies we are ignoring the horse’s attempt to communicate to us that something about you getting on is worrying them.
The most obvious thing to think about is pain from the body or from tack fit. The next thing I think about is their associations with being ridden, do they find being ridden stressful? Do they have a good foundation of relaxed understanding on the ground? If a horse isn’t able to relax and stand quietly on the ground, he’s not going to be able to do it at the mounting block.
I learnt a big lesson about this from a horse years ago when I was still training with the more “natural horsemanship” type techniques. This lovely sweet horse was very obedient and quiet when ridden but he would shift backwards at the mounting block. I worked through each step by moving his feet until he lined up and got him to the point he would stand perfectly still up until I put my weight into the stirrup. I still persisted for several sessions but he would go right back to shifting every time at the start of each session, he was so polite about it but he was trying to tell me so hard that he was hurting and I just wasn’t listening. I was too busy trying to “fix” the behaviour. I eventually realised something wasn’t right and he was investigated and found to have significant kissing spine and stomach ulcers. This poor, sweet horse had been schooling and hacking and allowing people on his back while he was in pain. You absolutely can train a horse through pain if you hassle them enough.
Being mounted/ridden should not be something that is causing your horse stress, something has gone wrong in the training if this is the case, yet it has been normalised to see horses showing high stress behaviour in their daily life, it is written off as personality or “excitement”. He’s so excited to be ridden that he won’t let me get on…. It is baffling to me that someone’s horse can be giving every signal they’re unhappy, to the point we’re pinning them against walls, flexing their head round and getting people to hold onto them tightly, but we say “he’s fine once I’m on”, is he? What we really mean is he’s compliant once I’m on.
The only time my horse Dan has been a bit weird about me getting on it turned out his saddle had become slightly too narrow, all he did was brace his head up as my weight went into the saddle and again as I leaned forward to get off, he didn’t move, he didn’t swing away, that was enough for me to know something wasn’t right. It saddens me how many horses are just hassled until they give up when they are communicating very clearly. Unfortunately many training practises, whether they’re aware of it or not, are about shutting down the horse’s communication and just getting them to comply regardless of how they feel about it.
If the horse stands quietly and is triggered to move by signs of you getting on that is pretty clear communication that they don’t want you to get on. I suppose this is where people struggle emotionally as the industry is so steeped in “well I want him to do this so he has to”, but if we’re trying to move towards more ethical horsemanship this is where our thought process needs to change. 🐴
Photo of mounting practice off a gate with my horse Dan so we are prepared if I need to get back on him out hacking
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