Standing still for mounting

[Blugal]

I followed a western type method. You are the one in charge of moving their feet. A little round pen work, then sit on the fence and move the horse by tapping with a longer whip. You don’t move. Horse gets pessure released when he moves towards where you’d mount. After a few short sessions the horse will be standing where you need, and you can move him a little forward or back as needed. Then take this to the mounting block. Never move off the block. The horse must move its feet towards where you need them.

I was very happy with this method after years of being annoyed at horses that don’t stand still.

PS learned it from a video on YouTube.

[stb]

Lots of good ideas here. I am also careful not to move off too quickly once I am mounted, and only do so with a definite request for forward movement. I don’t stand there forever, but I want to make it clear that my butt hitting the saddle isn’t a cue to move forward - only leg pressure. I always gives scratches and praise while we are standing for that few seconds or so.

[Sandrine]

Yeap…treat can always be a good tool …whatever the level of training.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6FrosqND4

[drafting_dots]

@gymangel812

i do mostly this to get the horse i ride to stand still. if he moves at all when mounting i immediately get off and make him work, backing up, disengaging hindquarters or just a brisk walk, etc. if i am fully on and he starts to move i make him halt. when he is good about mounting i do lots of patting. it took a few tries the first few times but he caught on pretty quick. sometimes he still moves and needs a refresher. generally i can easily get on after the second time if a refresher is needed. also, do not keep moving the block around. keep it in one place and move the horse back each time.

Not at all saying this won’t work for some, but I think it requires a certain type of horse or perhaps a certain training background in horse and human. That type of thing is exactly what flusters the hell out of my horse and would only heighten the tension and rile him up.

@Come Shine

Wow. A few times with treats and this morning my young fellow lined up to the mounting block and stood like a champ. The dressage instructor suggested this 2 lessons ago and now the problem is fixed.

If I had known how well treats worked and how easy it was, I would have done this a year ago.

Yes! It only took me three months to turn to the treats but it was nearly instant training with no fuss and no anxiety from either of us

[keysfins]

The treat method is successful because you are rewarding the behavior that you want from your horse, with something that the horse finds rewarding (the treat). The more you reward a specific behavior, the chance of the horse offering that behavior increases, and you have more opportunities to reward it. Once the behavior is established and on cue, whether a verbal “stand” or a specific location/orientation to the mounting block, the reward can be random and intermittent.

You can vary vary what type of reward is given (treat, pat, praise); this is the ‘random’ part of the reward schedule. And you can also vary the frequency of when the reward is given; this is the ‘intermittent’ part of the reward schedule. Once the behavior is solid, it isn’t necessary to give a great reward each time, but many people do for mounting, since that is a moment when the horse must be still for the sake of the rider’s safety. Nothing wrong with rewarding that each and every time.

Every now and then it is helpful to give a ‘jackpot’ reward, much more/bigger than the horse may expect, especially if you are working on something the horse finds difficult, and the horse makes an exceptional effort. You, as the rider/handler, decide what behavior or response from the horse is so outstanding that you want to make a huge impression on the horse. Ending the work session, hopping off with praise and pats, and/or giving a handful of treats are things that could be considered as “jackpot” rewards to the horse.

Think of a slot machine in a casino. We don’t “win” every time the arm is pulled, but every now and then there may be a small payoff. And then, rarely, there might be a huge payoff. Humans tend to continue to play (offer the behavior of pulling the arm again) because the next play just might result in a huge payoff (jackpot). We don’t know which pull might reward us with a jackpot, so we tend to continue playing. The horse may not get a treat each time he stands for mounting, but he never knows which time might result in a reward, or which time might result in a huge jackpot reward for standing.