Device/aid for mounting from the ground

[DancingArabian]

Does anyone have experience with those stirrups or stools that you can use to help with mounting from the ground when on the trail?

I am flexible enough to reach, but I am just short, and I ride treeless. So rather than yank my tack and my horse’s back around, I’d like to have something small and portable that I can use. There isn’t always a rock or stump to stand on.

I do NOT have a saddle with a horse, so I cannot use an option that requires a saddle horn. Please feel free to PM if you do not feel like posting publicly.

[Guilherme]

I have one of these made by a different company:

http://www.sstack.com/product/easy-mount-step-stool/

I made this to carry it on the saddle:

http://s784.photobucket.com/user/Smile225/media/Leather%20Projects/GiddUpCarrierEmpty.jpg.html?sort=3&o=22

Fits like this:

http://s784.photobucket.com/user/Smile225/media/Leather%20Projects/GiddyUpSecuredinCarrier.jpg.html?sort=3&o=19

It secures to the off side front corner of the saddle on a pair of D-rings.

You have to train the horse to it’s use as you position the horse, set up the stool, mount, the reel in the stool, fold the legs, and secure it in the holder. Then you’re ready to step off!

G.

[invinoveritas]

Does anyone else remember the good old days of youth (from childhood through my mid 20s) when mounting a bareback horse, much less a saddled one, meant just putting hands on the withers and jumping up and swinging the right leg over without touching the back of the horse? On 15.3 and 16.0 horses? Gradually I moved up from a 2 step mounting block to a 3 step mounting block to get into the saddle. :lol: When trail riding, I always note where there are fallen trees or stumps or anything to get back on if I have to get off. (including those ugly washing machines and occasionally abandoned toilets and all found in the woods. Who dumps all that stuff out there?)

[DancingArabian]

@invinoveritas
I totally remember when I could just vault into the back of the horses I rode, LOL. I have a short horse and I still can’t manage to do it. I’d rather just buy a gadget than even think about trying to learn how to do it again, LOL!

[AshleyandAnnabel]

I would like to get one of these. Looks like it would be easy to put in my pack.
http://www.ridingwarehouse.com/EZ_Mount_Stirrup_Extender_Western/descpage-TEZMSEW.html

I have a 16hh mare and I am 5’5" with short legs. I always have to walk until I find a boulder and I try not to hop off unless I know I can get back on.

[anon38350891]

[QUOTE=AshleyandAnnabel;8714135]
I would like to get one of these. Looks like it would be easy to put in my pack.
http://www.ridingwarehouse.com/EZ_Mount_Stirrup_Extender_Western/descpage-TEZMSEW.html

I have a 16hh mare and I am 5’5" with short legs. I always have to walk until I find a boulder and I try not to hop off unless I know I can get back on.[/QUOTE]

I bought one of those stirrup extenders and it didn’t work for me because it tended to swing away under the horse’s belly when I stepped on it. Maybe it was just me being awkward.

I use the “locate natural object you can stand on before dismounting” technique now. Even putting the horse in a ditch can work.

[Guilherme]

The trouble with “stirrup extenders” is that they are functional “boarding ladders” anchored to the saddle. This is the equivalent of “climbing up the side of the horse” with the full force of the riders weight and motion being born by the saddle, twisting on the horse’s back. If riders who do this alternate their mounting sides then the problem is reduced, but not eliminated.

Being on the shady side of 70 I understand the problem. A “ground based” mounting aid is likely the best for the horse, if more difficult for the rider.

G.

[csaper58]

[QUOTE=Guilherme;8712041]
I have one of these made by a different company:

http://www.sstack.com/product/easy-mount-step-stool/

I made this to carry it on the saddle:

http://s784.photobucket.com/user/Smile225/media/Leather%20Projects/GiddUpCarrierEmpty.jpg.html?sort=3&o=22

Fits like this:

http://s784.photobucket.com/user/Smile225/media/Leather%20Projects/GiddyUpSecuredinCarrier.jpg.html?sort=3&o=19

It secures to the off side front corner of the saddle on a pair of D-rings.

You have to train the horse to it’s use as you position the horse, set up the stool, mount, the reel in the stool, fold the legs, and secure it in the holder. Then you’re ready to step off!

G.[/QUOTE]

You are a genius. you should sell those!!!

[quietann]

Well I am one of those people who could never mount from the ground, unless I was riding a pony < 13.2 or lengthened my stirrup leather way out. Even as a tween/teen! I got teased a lot for it, and bareback? Forget it. Luckily the school horses I rode were forgiving souls.

Fast forward many years, and my first instructor is a woman who “doesn’t believe in” mounting blocks, or rather, since her horses are all Iceys, teaches everyone the “Icelandic way” to mount, which is facing forward, from the ground. She got extremely annoyed when I couldn’t do it, on her 14.2 hand gelding.

After that, I discovered the Mounting Block Way, and was thrilled to observe that almost everywhere I rode, their were mounting blocks, or picnic tables, or boulders (this is New England after all), and mounting from the ground got one a lecture about twisting the saddle tree.

[Simbalism]

I have one of the stools. I have used it a lot in the past. My mare is well trained now to move up to downed trees, rocks,stumps, ditches, creeks, whatever, so I can get on. With a bum left knee, I sometimes have to use some mane and my oh sh*t strap to actually get up on what ever surface I am using, then get into the saddle.

[Bluey]

I have one of those stools and the top fold so it is flat to carry.

It is still too short for very short me.
I need to add some to the legs to be really handy.

I used to do vaulting and resent getting old and having now two bad shoulders that keep me from getting on any other way than with a tall mounting block and a quiet horse.

Really, unless someone is very light, for the horse’s sake, it is better if everyone would get on without pulling on the saddle at all, even if they manage to get on fine that way.

[AshleyandAnnabel]

[QUOTE=thoroughbred21;8715268]
I bought one of those stirrup extenders and it didn’t work for me because it tended to swing away under the horse’s belly when I stepped on it. Maybe it was just me being awkward.

I use the “locate natural object you can stand on before dismounting” technique now. Even putting the horse in a ditch can work.[/QUOTE]

I’m really glad you mentioned that! Now I can save some money!

[Hermein]

I found this little goody on a google search. It is part of a review on the type of aid that hooks to the horn and hangs down lower than the stirrup.

Color: Natural Verified Purchase
I’m 5 feet tall and I was tired of having to use a step stool to reach the stirrup to get on my horse. This solved the problem. I did however run it through the back D ring. That way I could step into the booster stirrup with my right foot, then into the riding stirrup with my left and swing my right leg over. Otherwise you end up having to play twister while hanging off your horse because if you hang it over the horn it puts the booster on the left so your have to cross your feet over each other to get your left foot in the regular stirrup. So it works. But I’d recommend you hang it from the saddle by the back of the saddle rather than the horn.