In May I was dismounting onto the mounting block. I thought it was right under my foot but it wasn’t and I fell. Ambulance ride to the hospital. Nothing broken. Severe contusions, muscle spasms, and small hamstring tear. Twenty PT sessions, 10 weeks of not riding. When I was cleared to ride I did 2 lessons on a rock steady school horse.
I’m still scared of dismounting. I want someone to hold the off stirrup. My mare is very tolerant of me fumbling. I’m working with a personal trainer to relearn the dismounting muscle movement.
But I’m still scared. I won’t ride alone but I can’t expect other riders to stop and hold the stirrup!
Dismounting on to the solid ground is a lot safer than aiming for a mounting block. It might be helpful to try and find a vaulting coach or even a local gymnastics place for a private session or two to specifically practice the muscles of rotating the outside leg over and landing squarely on two feet. I’m sorry you had such a bad accident. Trying to aim for a mounting block has been the cause of several notable injuries to people I know
I agree with @GraceLikeRain. It’s much, much easier to dismount onto the ground. I use a mounting block to get on, but I dismount to the ground. I used to use a picnic table for both mounting and dismounting, and that worked okay because it was large and stable (at the time). One day as I was mounting it literally collapsed just as I was putting a leg over the saddle. I stayed on and bless my gelding’s heart, he just stood there, but that was the end of the picnic table “mounting/dismounting block.” So I went back to a regular mounting block or my little tackbox/stepstool thing for getting on and just sliding to the ground when dismounting. There’s no way in the world I’d be able to dismount onto a target that small without likely toppling over and doing some damage.
I was always taught that for dismounting you always kick both feet free of the stirrups, swing right leg behind (over cantle), and slide down while holding the pommel and/or mane. Never leave the left foot in the stirrup, as most of us who ride decent-sized horses wouldn’t be able to reach the ground with the right foot if the left is still in the stirrup. And even if you can do that, there is the risk of that foot getting hung up and then you’re in real jeopardy if you lose your balance or the horse moves.
I don’t blame you for being cautious about this. Mounting and dismounting are the two most vulnerable times for a rider by far.
If you must dismount onto a mounting block, you need to buy or build one that gives you a gigantic target to hit, and you need to make it high enough that you can just get back on if your right foot doesn’t immediately hit something on stepping over to get off.
I agree with others that it’s a better idea to go to the ground, but I understand that may be difficult for some, physically.
If you ride primarily at home, or in a usual arena at a boarding barn, get a mounting/dismounting platform built. Steps on both ends and a large platform in between. Have the platform just at the height of your stirrups.
I know this does not address your fear issues directly, but as most of us age swinging off and landing on the ground hurts. And stepping on and off the horse is kinder for the horse too.
Now if we were all John Wayne size and riding small quarter horses, we could just step on and off from the ground, like he did in the old black and white cowboy movies.
One thing you might do is, on a day when you do have someone there who is willing to work with you, just spend the entire 30 minutes or whatever mounting and dismounting. Maybe you do it initially with the person holding the off stirrup, and then you move on to dismounting without that assistance, maybe with the person just there to coach, hold the horse, whatever.
Just dismount over and over again, until you find a way to dismount safely and with confidence.
It might take a couple of these sessions, just giving yourself (and your body) enough time to process the experience.
And pat your horse and give your mare lots of treats for helping you get past the fear (or least tamp it down to a level you can live and ride with!).
I totally get this. I am mid 60s ( can’t believe it). I agree that stepping off onto a mounting block is risky though I have done it
I absolutely have had moments of freezing and feeling like I forget how to dismount if I am too tired or have had a break from riding. At the moment my dismounting is Ok which Id attribute to increased fitness, maybe mild weight loss (under ten pounds) and consistent “correct” dismount. But I also seek out soft ground to dismount, either good arena footing or turf, to spare my knees. I also try to have the horse a bit lower than where I will land if there’s any slight uneveness in the surface.
If you had an accident dismounting it’s absolutely going to make your body clench up and I assume if you were already getting off at the mounting block you were already anxious about the dismount drop before the accident.
PT is good, but can you get a sympathetic coach to talk you through the dismount off the horse? And maybe dismount at 15 minutes into the ride before you are tired?
Also stop thinking about the accident. Stop visualizing how it happened. Start visualizing how you will slide off your horse onto soft arena footing like a lithe junior in one flowing motion
Your body is clenching up about any backwards drop, but in fact the possibility of injury sliding off onto soft arena footing is about zero, and the fall you took off the mounting block just can’t happen
It’s also true that if you had leg injuries you will feel protective of them for a long time, I broke a foot years ago and it took me several years to feel confident landing on it again. I expect it really was a bit weaker for a while but also you get used to being super alert about that leg.
95% of the time I dismount onto the ground. I don’t know why I was using the mounting block that day. Trust me, I will never dismount via a mounting block again. My biggest issue is swinging my right leg over the cantle. My personal trainer (also my chiro) gave me exercises to work on that movement. Once my right leg has cleared her butt I’m okay.
I take a weekly lesson and we’ve done a few on a rock steady school horse mounting and dismounting. My trainer has been in the arena the majority of my non lesson rides and she will always take the few minutes to morally support my dismounting. Other people have also helped.
I started a thread several weeks ago about to dismount. I know how to dismount, but now it’s overcoming the fear. I want to ride today (I board) but am afraid wrt the dismount….
Lots of empathy. I think a gymnastic session or two with a beam and a spot could be very helpful. Zero risk of a horse moving and all the time to practice the sensation. I wonder if there may even be something at home that could provide the stability to practice that feeling of keeping the hips relaxed to swing. Fear is very real and can override logic and years of muscle memory so be kind to yourself. You’ll get back but it may take a little creativity and patience.
In European riding centers, we had dummy horses, a barrel with legs.
We used them to start beginners, as a way to save horses from someone hanging on their sides learning to get on and off a horse.
Today they have robot like horses used for so much, including therapy, that could also work, one local riding center has one.
See if you can find some around you to get started mounting and dismounting and address the problem without the horse.
Once you have the technique down flat, see how that works on a horse?
Not so long ago I was checking my old Cushing horse for soundness, just hopped on bareback, walked and trotted a bit and dismounting, my knees were getting so bad, they collapsed on me and I ended up under him in a heap and grabbing a front leg.
Thankfully he just looked at me like “what are we doing now?”
I had to climb up his leg to get back on my feet.
Now I have two bionic knees I am rehabbing.
Some times, dismounting is the hardest we may do, sorry you had such a bad accident from it, understandable that you are hesitant now to let down again.
Maybe a local therapy center could help you, try them.
The absolute most important thing to make swinging your right leg easier is to get your torso on your horse’s neck. Since I’ve had and ridden gigantic ponies, and am getting crunchier with age, I also often lower myself down by using my arms on the neck. For my truly gigantic horse, I actually taught him to lower me to the ground as I hung over his neck
Next, for times of injury when riding “must” happen anyway, I will also use the same lowering myself by my arms thing while reaching with a toe to check the mounting block is where I expect it to be. I don’t put any weight down until I have fully clocked the status of the mounting block with my toe, and even then, I’ll lower down slowly to make sure I can catch myself if anything goes sideways.
I will not talk about mounting. I have twice fallen off blocks. One time a very sturdy 3 step block and the other off a platform high enough to just swing a leg over. That took talent, not the kind of talent I’m proud of, but hey, I can also trip over perfectly flat ground, so …
Now I remember why I was dismounting on a mounting block. The darn cantle caught my leg a few times so I was practicing swinging my leg. I sold that saddle ASAP and bought a Passier with a lower cantle. The fear is still there though.
Years ago a trainer taught me to remove the feet from both stirrups. Then swing the off leg over and land on both feet at the same.
Ever since I learned how to do that, it feels so much safer than trying to dismount while keeping one foot in the stirrup. I refuse to do it any other way. You can do it faster than one foot at a time and you don’t risk getting dragged if the horse spooks in the middle of your dismount.
My other suggestion would be to have a really tall platform built so you’re not stepping down to get off.
I don’t think fear of dismounting is an irrational fear. Both mounting and dismounting you are unbalanced and vulnerable. I had not ridden for decades due to not having a rideable horse and when I got back to it taking lessons on a quiet school horse I still felt a little unnerved mounting and dismounting. And add to that I was having bouts of vertigo so when I held my head sideways I was a little dizzy. Hard to get on and off without holding your head sideways.
So I was dismounting as I used to do - slipping both feet out of the stirrups, pulling my leg over and then sliding down the horse. Basically jumping down at the end. Like I used to. It was cold (but not freezing) and the ground was very hard. There was a loud thud. It was me hitting the ground. Holy Hell - did I break my knee? People there _Wow, you hit the ground hard. My knee hurt for a while but thankfully I did not break it. I decided I needed to descend to a mounting block from now on.
I do have a phobia about coming down ladders or anything for that matter, where I miss the step and fall. I did this as a young kid and hurt myself. Not badly but I still have that fear. But my body just doesn’t have that bounce that it used to. Sucks too! I am fine with a three step block because those are pretty big. If you have a helper - can they get the block in place so you touch down in the middle?
Rewriting the script that we cling to is very very hard, and takes a while, for some of us a long while, to become comfortable again. My accident was 11 years ago, and was when I was mounting, to this day I cannot just put a foot in the stirrup and mount, there is a hesitation. I’l take that, at one time I would be stood on tne block crying because I just couldn’t get on.
Dismounting was also a little scary, and heck, the ride itself nothing like being an addict keeps you trying because the highs are so worth it. After my knee replacement I had to dismount onto the block for a while, and that scared the beejeezus out of me, I detest dismounting onto a block.
I had someone hold my offstirrup for both mounting and dismounting for a long time, and everyone was glad to help out. Everytime you dismount safely, it overwrites some of the fear, the only way to do it, is to do it! With help, and understanding from others. My physiotherapist also did EFT tapping, and showed me how to calm myself down, I found it really useful and used it often to help keep the nerves at bay https://www.thetappingsolution.com/eft-tapping/ I’m also a big fan of Bach’s Rescue Remedy, took the high notes of panic away.
This made me laugh
Oh, if only…
But good visualization
OP:
Firstly: OUCH!
Glad you’re back riding & your situation is perfectly understandable.
When I was in my mid-60s, recovering from a (non-horse-related) sprained ankle & riding a 17’3 WB, my dismount meant losing the right stirrup, leaving just my toe in the left until right leg was over the cantle, then slithering down his oh-so-patient side to the ground.
Tried to land with more weight on the left/unsprained foot.
I had horses at home, so had to do this alone.
TG for saintly WB.
The suggestions of practicing the dismount until you’re comfortable sound good.
Hope you can enlist a willing friend or trainer to assist.
I’m not a PT, but some of your issues sound like a problem with hip mobility and being able to lift your hip high enough for an effective dismount. I would look into yoga or even a general hip flexor warmup via The Google–you might be surprised how much 10-15 minutes of even very basic exercises can make a huge difference.
