…my mare isn’t big at 15.2, but I’m not as flexible, or strong as I used to be. Will learning to mount from the ground be necessary? Because I’m telling you right now, there’s no way with arthritis in the hips and sacrum!
I almost had a panic attack when this occurred to me today (slight exaggeration but it still freaked me out). So, what do I do?
I can’t remember the last time I mounted from the ground. It’s been so long…probably since I was a teenager? So 2 or 3 years ago? 
Okay, okay, 20-ish years ago. If I don’t have a mounting block handy (and I almost always do), I’m not above using a fence, truck bumper, planter, or literally anything I can get myself at least partly balanced on.
I was proud of myself for getting up on my small pony (12.2h) to ride him in from the back of his pasture the other day with no assistance. But my 17h horses…yeah, I’m too old for that, and I’m pretty sure I’d end up hanging hopelessly from the stirrup about 3" off of the ground if I tried!
I can’t remember the last time I mounted from the ground. It’s been so long…probably since I was a teenager? So 2 or 3 years ago? Okay, okay, 20-ish years ago. If I don’t have a mounting block handy (and I almost always do), I’m not above using a fence, truck bumper, planter, or literally anything I can get myself at least partly balanced on.
I was proud of myself for getting up on my small pony (12.2h) to ride him in from the back of his pasture the other day with no assistance. But my 17h horses…yeah, I’m too old for that, and I’m pretty sure I’d end up hanging hopelessly from the stirrup about 3" off of the ground if I tried!
Oh good heavens, I don’t mount from the ground either.
Bumpers, guardrails, tree stumps, big rocks, a nice hill, putting my horse in the ditch, fallen tree, tailgates, buckets, you name it, my horse will stand next to it and I’ll mount from it.
I tell people that for me, seeing a nice rock or tree stump on a ride brings out a Pavlov-like response in me – makes me have to pe since I have a handy mounting block right there to get back on.
What!?? TMI?
Mounting from the ground is something you should be able to do (within reason) if necessary, but as a matter of course, you’re better off using a mounting block, fence rail, wall, rock, stump, truck bumper, log, hillock, or whatever. Mounting from the ground is tough on your horse’s back, your flocking (if you have an English saddle) and your saddle tree.
My first re riding trainer told me about dropping a stirrup. Just what it says, pull down the buckle and let it out about six inches and make sure to hop three times so you don’t yank the whole saddle over. Keep track how many holes because you have to put the stirrup back. Keep your foot in the stirrup, pull up till you can buckle it on the right hole. Grab ahold of the under strap and step down to put the buckle back under your thigh.
I’ve been working on teaching the pony to be mounted off odd objects like bumpers and he’s not exactly 100% yet. I plan to take a spare English leather and stirrup and drape it around the horn of my Western saddle and see if that will work if I’m ever in dire straits. I’ll let you all know after I get out of the hospital (JOKE!)
I’m too short to get on most average horses from the ground, I have taught all of mine from day 1 to stand by a mounting block to be mounted, I think some of them wouldn’t know what to do if I tried to get on from the ground!
The EZ Mount. I. love. this. thing.
http://www.horsetackco.com/e-z-mount-english.html?gclid=CKrPvOGnsrYCFY9DMgodBi8A0Q#.UV4gCd7D_IU
It even comes with a pouch to snap to your saddle so you can carry it on the trail. I always carry it with me because I can never find a stump when I need it.
The EZ Mount. I. love. this. thing.
http://www.horsetackco.com/e-z-mount-english.html?gclid=CKrPvOGnsrYCFY9DMgodBi8A0Q#.UV4gCd7D_IU
It even comes with a pouch to snap to your saddle so you can carry it on the trail. I always carry it with me because I can never find a stump when I need it.
Required of you by whom??
I learn the most amazing things on these Forums! Both suggestions are NOTHING I ever would have thought up myself!!
So far I don’t need them, but great to have them available as options.
I think I would do some practice before needing to use to use the Slick Stap, since a pull on the foreleg is NOT a common feel to most equines. Amazing creativity!!
Whew! I’m so relieved!!
I loved the suggestions too, gh. And dropping the stirrup a few holes…I feel stupid for not having thought of that!
[QUOTE=katarine;6924469]
Required of you by whom??[/QUOTE]
Katarine, I’m new to endurance and I’m going to do my first LD in July - I have no clue what goes on at a ride, so yeah, I wondered if there is some “rule” that a rider must mount the horse from the ground…lol. It was just a fleeting fear and I haven’t adjusted to the conspicuous lack of formality in the endurance world!
ETA, while I love the idea of the bareback buddy, I just ordered the EZ Mount (thank you lucky bunny!)…can’t beat that price!
Even with your stirrup extender, my advice is to be strategic in using terrain or objects – even a road rut of a few inches reduces the torque on your saddle and your horse’s back.
I can get on from the ground, or so I claim, but almost never do.
The trick is to get your horse’s help - teaching them to be an active participant in lining up (and standing still while you are in progress) can take a lot of the stress out of remounting, especially when standing on the slippery moss that coats just about every stump or log in the Pacific Northwest. If on the trail you reinforce this with treat after you are in place in the saddle it will help you out at a ride, where adrenaline might otherwise override your horse’s normal cooperative attitude.
The only distance sport sanctioning organization that I can think of that might have a judged mount is NATRC, which sanctions CTRs around the country.
I’ve ridden a couple of NATRC rides, including on my big draft cross mare a million years ago, and I got bonus points for the judged mounts for “using the terrain” (which as I recall, was the tailgate of a truck).
Our horses’ chiropractor frowns on mounting from the ground, even if one can.
It is remarkable how quickly you can teach a horse to stand next to nearly anything by bribing with peppermints. 
I haven’t mounted from the ground in about 20 years either! :lol:
God bless my Mounting Platform, especially when I get on the 17.3 Percheron. I use it dismount too, since my hips & knees don’t appreciate the hard landing.
If I’m out there and have an unplanned dismount, any “up” object will do. :winkgrin:
I don’t like mounting from the ground even on my 14.2 guy. I’m 54 and a re-rider - my mount from the ground is always awkward as heck. I am actually going to buy my own mounting block to take to shows.
HAHAHA - made me think of what happened last July at the first show I took the boy to - attempted a mount from the ground right outside the show ring and the saddle slipped off, taking me with it. New girth, hadn’t tightened it enough. Embarrassing? Oh yeah.
[QUOTE=oliverreed;6924971]
I’m 54 and a re-rider - my mount from the ground is always awkward as heck.[/QUOTE]
Me too, on all counts. I think we were separated at birth. I somehow managed to mount my 15.2 mare from the ground the other day, but I’m lucky I lived to tell the tale. It was seriously touch-and-go there for a minute.
I am in awe of my teenaged self, always vaulting onto my mare over her rump, scrambling up railroad trestles bareback, pole-bending blindfolded, etc. I’d give my left eye, my right ear, and my favorite dog to be that wild kid again.
I’ll start working on mounting then, from odd objects. I can only think of one time since I’ve needed to remount, it was after a new baby pad slipped completely out from under my saddle so I got down to take it off. Fortunately there was a nice slope nearby and I didn’t think anything of how lucky I was :).
[QUOTE=The Crone of Cottonmouth County;6925026]
Me too, on all counts. I think we were separated at birth. I somehow managed to mount my 15.2 mare from the ground the other day, but I’m lucky I lived to tell the tale. It was seriously touch-and-go there for a minute.
I am in awe of my teenaged self, always vaulting onto my mare over her rump, scrambling up railroad trestles bareback, pole-bending blindfolded, etc. I’d give my left eye, my right ear, and my favorite dog to be that wild kid again.[/QUOTE]
:)…I wish we had a visual of that mounting! When I was a teenager I had a 13-14hh little Mustang and didn’t even own a saddle. I would just stand there, bounce a couple times then I was across her back, swinging my legs over. I look at my Haflinger who is just about 14hh and imagine doing that again…not in this life, ever again. Not even the bouncing part, let alone the leaping up onto my belly.
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