This.
Same for sure. The idea of one foot stepping off a hot or green horse feels like an accident waiting to happen and genuinely scary. I wouldn’t want the only option for a non-disaster to be swinging myself back into the saddle of a spooking horse or kicking out a second foot with a horse trying to spin away from me.
With every horse as I gently slide my right leg over I’m using that motion to carry my whole body over and back so that I land about two feet from the left side. I bend my knees as I land so it is a fairly soft and quiet landing. If they jump or get squirrely I’m squarely on two both feet and positioned to react. 12h up to 17.3h I haven’t had a situation where it has led me astray.
OMG yes, the past few years I have not felt nearly as graceful dismounting. I injured my knee so had to learn to land a little softer but it’s not easy.
Ditto on the getting off. Drop both stirrups, swing and push/vault off, land on feet. No sliding. And no shimmying off the babies, I’ll often get back to belly down and run hands all over and drag a foot over the rump on purpose before the actual dismount. You don’t want that first mistake to come up unprepared.
I don’t put feet in the stirrups really on the babies the first few rides either. Getting on goes from one stirrup quickly (I’m short, there is no mounting block tall enough) to belly with no stirrups, push up onto knees, then down into the saddle.
My personal horse walks over to the mounting block for me to get off, to save my back for all these other endeavors. I occasionally switch sides so he’s ready for when I bust an ankle.
All the lesson horses can do the same and basically all our older clients step off onto a mounting block. Most are physically unable to get the leg over without leaving the left foot in the stirrup, but most are also in their 70’s to 80’s and a few pick up their cane at the mounting block too, so they all get a pass.
I dismount by taking both feet out of the stirrups and swinging my right leg in front of me over the horse’s neck and then I can either slide down or jump off a little farther away.
Go ahead, flame me
I’ll just offer admiration, give that after all the above for starting things I thought I was pretty limber at horse acrobatics, until I tried to do around the world with the kids the other day and found it very awkward as an adult.
Maybe I’m weird but I take both legs out, swing the right one behind me, and before I start to slide down I do a sort of hip thrust/belly bump movement that pushes me a few inches away so I don’t rub the saddle.
I thought everyone did this. Now I’m having a small existential crisis.
I dismount out of western saddles with my left foot in the stirrup to help get myself over the horn. Maybe that’s why others do it? That and the horses are smaller, which helps
The dismount with the left foot staying in the stirrup is the military way. It isn’t really possible (well, maybe, but certainly not easy!) to do both feet out and swing over when wearing a metal breastplate and a sword. Also, it probably looks neater when a body of cavalry dismounts all together, on command.
About older and/or less physically able riders.
I USED to vault off. I was able to do that for years, before my car accident and when I finally got back to riding on lesson horses.
Then one day, riding an Arabian gelding lesson horse, when I vaulted off my right leg just could not clear the cantle. There I was, hanging off the horse’s left side unable to extricate myself, and my riding teacher ran to help me off. The horse? He sort of swelled up to tighten the girth and he just stood there until I was safely down.
Nowadays I am usually dismounting from 15-15.1 hand horses onto the top step of my 3 step mounting block with my riding teacher guiding my right leg down to the platform, then I get my left foot out of the stirrup and very gingerly and carefully step down from the mounting block.
Not the safest method by any means, but right now it is the safest way I can dismount.
I did this all the time on my first horse, who I had for 20+ years starting in my mid teens. Drop stirrups, then in one smooth move lean back on my pockets, swing my right leg over, and slide down with a little twitch that pushed me farther away from her side. We knew each other and I never came close to a problem with it.
Definitely understand why it is not recommended, though.
For the comfort of the horse, which was the primary question in the original post, I’d say that if you are agile, athletic, and have healthy joints by all means vault off without using stirrups, and stick your landing without using the horse for support.
As I first failed the agile, athletic, and healthy joints test over forty years ago, I now look for something as high as possible to step off the horse onto. Sometimes a nice high steady mounting block, sometimes a pickup truck tailgate, sometimes a fence, sometimes a horse trailer fender, sometimes a tree stump or log, Because when I jump or drop down I know it is going to hurt like hell.
I remember trying back in my late 20s and wondering how the hell it was so easy when I was 8!
I loved doing around the world when I was a kid, and I think this way of dismounting just captures some of the same feeling.
I’ve dismounted this way with every horse I’ve owned (not that many–four), and never had a problem. I hope I didn’t just jinx myself!
Anyway, I can get off pretty quickly and smoothly without stress on the horse’s back, and I can also push off a bit with my hands if I want to land away from the horse. Or, I can slide down onto the top step of the mounting block.
This. Dropping both stirrups and then jumping off is a big move, which is (a) not advised for those of us not naturally gifted with gracefulness and (b) likely to result in a wreck if you ride very reactive horses. Ask me how I know. Lol.
English or Western, I swing my right leg over, stand in the left stirrup, pull my left foot free, and jump down/back. Takes less time and luck than the “both feet out first” move and is also much safer. If things start to go awry halfway through the dismount, I can either swing back into the saddle or quickly jump free, whichever is more prudent at the time.
Ride to the mounting block, stop, pet horse, remove tag to air vest, grab mane and reins, bring right leg over behind me, and step down on mounting block. I have a friend who taught her horse to move sideways towards the block before mounting by holding her hand in the air and open and shutting hand in a coaxing motion. We are all old!!!
I’ve been dismounting onto a mounting block for years as my neck can’t handle the drop to the ground. I have a retaining wall around part of my ring and use it as a mounting block. It’s high enough that on really bad days, I can kick both feet out of the stirrups, put my left foot on the wall, and then swing my right leg over.
My horses sometimes will suggest it’s time to end our ride by veering over to that spot.
I have to keep my foot in my left sitrrup when dismounting in a western saddle, mostly because of the horn. I have make sure I clear it/maintain distance from it, because my belt or shirt, or whatever can get caught on it if I don’t pay attention.
Riding english, I pop both stirrups out, swing my right leg over and land with my knees slightly bent. I have a 3 year old so I’ve practiced basically vaulting off of him, sliding off of him, and everything in between to get him used to whatever type of dismount. Fortunately, he’s always been cool about it.
I’m always afraid to dismount onto the mounting block. I’m afraid I’ll miss, land on the next step down, roll an ankle, or do something completely uncoordinated. I don’t know if it’s a rational fear.
I don’t think it’s irrational - I have the same concerns! Obviously you can get hurt anywhere and people find the best ways for themselves to stay safe, but I’m uncoordinated af.
If we had a big fancy monstrosity with two staircases and a giant platform, maybe. But we have a single plastic two-step mounting block that we drag around depending on where we are going to ride (lots of gates here, you can’t access everywhere from the same starting spot without releasing horses to the wild ).
I think @2bayboys is the poster that had an injury recently slipping off a block?
Yeah, I boarded at a place that had this large home-built step thing outside. The steps and platform were very wide and generous. That I could do.