I’m always a big fan of bribing, but it is hard with the mounting thing…as soon as I would give the bribe for standing still and then move back by the saddle, out would swing the butt.
I’ve only gone through this twice with Mickey. One time was when I had the brilliant idea to ride him bareback and in a halter just to go out grazing. He didn’t get it and would swing that butt away or walk forward every time. I tried each of the different mounting blocks (count: 4), I tried getting on in the aisleway of the barn by standing on tackboxes (yes, I tried in all four sections of the barn), to no avail.
So then I thought “well, it must be the halter - he just doesn’t get it”, because I had ridden him bareback (albeit with a pad) last year and got right on. So I put on his bridle thinking that would solve the problem. Nope. I had many people offering to help. No thank you - I’ll get this on my own. Well, an hour later I still had made no progress so I finally called my friend over to help me, but even then it took some work.
Once I got on, I realized how uncomfortable he is bareback (high, high, long sloping withers) and promptly got off after walking once around the barn.
More recently, he did the same thing with his saddle. Don’t know what got up his bum that day, but he would either walk forward or swing the butt out.
So that time I made it much less appealing for him to do that than to stand still. “Oh, Mickey - I understand - you want to walk around in little circles? Ok, no problem”, and I’d make him circle around and around and around me. “You want to walk forward? Well I think you should walk backwards instead” back, back, back we go. It took about 5 tries before he decided my idea was better than his.
“Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Hey Mickey!”
