Horse backs up when dismounting

[J-Lu]

Not having read all of the posts:

I dismount by kicking both feet out of the saddle and launching myself off. But I’ve also dismounted in the traditional way by weighting the left leg and swinging the right leg over the saddle. It’s the same pressure as when you mount because riders don’t leap on their horses.

If my horse backed up when I dismounted, I’d swing my leg over to dismount but would stay in the saddle and then swing it back and correct the horse if he backed up. Or get right on again if he backed up. Maybe do a little bit of work. I’d do this until the horse understood that backing up in not an option and it is easier for him to stand still and harder in the grand scheme of things for him to back up while you are dismounting (that means more work for him).

If he doesn’t back up when you mount but does when you dismount, given what you posted, I think it’s a behavioral thing.

Make the right thing easy, the wrong thing more difficult. Horses get it.

[MsM]

I dont think most of us attempt to keep the left foot in the stirrup as you step down to the ground with the right. You have to be pretty tall and have a shorter horse to manage that. The only folks I have seen IRL do that are tall guys riding western on short horses!

Instead the divide seems to be 1. People who drop both stirrups before starting to swing the right leg over. 2. People who keep the left in the stirrup (at least somewhat) to swing the right over, then lean over the saddle, drop the left stirrup, and slide to the ground landing on both feet.

[eightpondfarm]

@SuzieQNutter

At pony club we were taught to take our feet out of the stirrups, swing and click your heels over the rump like a German soldier and land at the shoulder facing the rear.

well, with two disks out of my spine and collapsed rotated backbone … i’m not gonna be jumping off anything anymore. I have NO idea how i’m going to dismount the current guy i have in for training once i get aboard him. Pretty sure i’ll be training him to sidle up to rails, fallen trees, tailgates etc from the very beginning.

[SuzieQNutter]

@eightpondfarm

@SuzieQNutter

At pony club we were taught to take our feet out of the stirrups, swing and click your heels over the rump like a German soldier and land at the shoulder facing the rear.

well, with two disks out of my spine and collapsed rotated backbone … i’m not gonna be jumping off anything anymore. I have NO idea how i’m going to dismount the current guy i have in for training once i get aboard him. Pretty sure i’ll be training him to sidle up to rails, fallen trees, tailgates etc from the very beginning.

Or you can teach him to put his head down and slide down his neck.

[J-Lu]

Oh, I meant that I take both feet out of the stirrups, grab my grab strap with my left hand and swing my right leg over the saddle and am airborne the whole time. I rely on the grab strap to keep me from falling on my a$$!

Most people I know will take their right leg out of the stirrup, swing it over while standing in the saddle, then taking the left leg out of the stirrup and either sliding or kind of jumping down. I wasn’t talking about stepping to the ground.

I would take this tactic if my horse backed up while dismounting and even standing there for several seconds. It’s really easy to get back into the saddle to correct the horse this way.

[Arlomine]

I have bad knees, and when injured, developed a habit of dismount that I’ve kept.
Near foot out of stirrup, kick off leg around cantle, and sliiiide down the horse’s shoulder in FRONT of the saddle flap. If the horse moves a bit, I’m right next to their front legs, and my rt hand is on the pommel, so they take me with them.
No more scratches on my saddle from belt buckles as a perk.

[Pennywell_Bay]

I can’t believe I am goign to post this and air my “dirty” laundry but I have a horse that would walk off when mounting and step back dismounting. (I drop both stirrups- it is just habit).

I am older, had several surgeries on my and then broke my arm last year. I’ll leave out the drama and shame around the whole mouting process but my large horse now stands basically like a rock and will allow me to mount and dismount whereever I put him. This is from what my trainer and laugh about as “cookie training”.

My mounting and dismounting isn’t exactly pretty but now he stands like a rock 98% of the time.

Like Arlomine- if I do not have a block to get off of, I literally slide down my horse. He gets his cookie when I roll up his stirrups.

[sascha]

@Pennywell_Bay

This is from what my trainer and laugh about as “cookie training”.

I had one who took cookie before walking off from the mounting block so seriously that I was screwed if I forgot his treat. I could poke with my spurs and tap with my whip, “Nope. No cookie. No workie.” I mean I’m glad the lessons transferred that well, but it’s also hilarious that he laid down the law for No Exceptions and had me calling to his owner to bring me a treat more than once. “We’re stuck at the mounting block. Please bring candy!”

[eightpondfarm]

Cookie training!!! love it. My horses love it too!
My 4yr old Standardbred will not take treats with a bit in his mouth though. So, what i do for him is stand up in the stirrups and lean forward and give him a bunch of vigorous fingernail scratching on his chest and up his neck. Coach says he almost rolls his eyes back into his head in ecstasy. He stands like a stature waiting for that. And during that…
i use Archway Ginger Snaps. What do you guys use?

[Alterration]

I had one that just would not stand until we tried the cookie training. Now he stands, but very quickly starts turning his head from side to side like “where is it, where is it”. Sooooo now we’re going to the intermittent reinforcement step.

I use whatever I can easily shove into a pocket and get back out. I used to use mints but realized that the ttu (time to unwrap) was decidedly longer than his little brain could take.

[blue_heron]

I’ll admit I’m a participant in cookie training too. If it’s not one of mine then someone can hold the horse while I hop on.

My childhood best friend’s mom broke her back while mounting-- she says she doesn’t even remember getting on, or anything up until her husband found her flat on her stomach an hour and a half later. I hurt myself mounting a year and a half ago, and the same horse pulled the same stunt three/four (?) other times before I said enough. The fear really sticks with you. I get that accidents happen but I will not get on a horse I don’t trust to stand still while I do, save a bomb going off or the barn falling down around us.

[sascha]

@eightpondfarm

What do you guys use?

Scotch mints. No unwrapping and until the height of summer humidity they don’t get sticky in pockets.

[sascha]

@Alterration

Now he stands, but very quickly starts turning his head from side to side like “where is it, where is it”

I don’t allow head turning. I lean forward and shove the mint under the snout.

[eightpondfarm]

Yes, the turning head can be absurd when they know they’ve done something right and they think they deserve a treat for it. Yet, i do allow them to turn to take from my hand anyway.
I like the mints too, but they got so expensive all the sudden. So what i bought last time is these peanut butter/coconut things (in bulk). The crinkle sounds the same.

NONE of my mustangs will take candy. Most won’t even take an apple slice. Only carrots. Carrots are the only thing that counts. The most domesticated one will take apple slices and he will take maybe a half a cookie, but not the other half… Not even two quarter pieces if one is presented soon after the first has been. They’re quirky those wild ones. They really don’t want to stray tooooo far into the junkfood world…

[sascha]

@eightpondfarm

They really don’t want to stray tooooo far into the junkfood world…

Mine? She would laugh at them all the way to the bulk candy aisle where she would take 10 of everything and an entire shopping cart filled “for later.”

I did have to convince her that mints were good way back in the very beginning. Then one day I brought a bag of liquorice to the barn for ME. “Gimme gimme gimme” she said with her eyes. “You won’t like it. Here, you can try it and spit it out and maybe next time you’ll listen when I say you won’t like something.” And that quickly spiralled into a group effort to find out what flavours of candy my horse WON’T eat.

[Posting_Trot]

Yes, I’ve used cookie training for standing to mount and dismount. It’s very effective and worth all of the eye rolls I get from those who disdain such tactics.

The only thing my horse won’t eat (because, after all, food is food…) is bananas. My previous horse would, almost literally, kill for a banana. She became an equine heat-seeking (banana-seeking) missile if she thought one was in the vicinity. Bananas had to be deployed very carefully.

[SuzieQNutter]

Sim is highly suspicious of apples.

I want what you are eating.

It is an apple. You won’t want it.

Gimmee Gimmeee Gimmee.

Fine here is a piece but you won’t want it.

Yuck Ptooey …I want what you are eating. Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee.

[Alterration]

Yes, I do too, but he’s a saddlebred so the neck still has to turn in order for me to reach it. I am tall but my arms are short.

[sascha]

Oh that’s strange. My giant horse (18hh) was the first one I used that method on and I didn’t have to allow him to turn his head, but I do lean way forward (about as far as you would for dismounting - like flat on the neck) and stick my arm out straight.

[Alterration]

Nope I definitely cannot reach his nose without him turning his head. He’s a long necker!