(upbeat music)
- (Joan) Welcome.
Today I'm going to be talking about
how to mount your horse safely and correctly.
We mount our horses every day that we ride
and we want to be doing it in a way
that's safe for us and easy for them.
So, I'm going to be using a mounting block
throughout this session
because it's the healthiest for my horse's back,
but stay tuned to the end of this video
and I'm going to give you a tip for mounting
your horse from the ground.
(acoustic guitar music)
So there's three areas that I'm going to be covering
as we go to mount our horse.
And I'm lined up to my block here.
The first one is holding your rein and mane.
So, how I like to do this is I take my rein like this,
I take my pointer finger,
run it down and just hold on to the mane
just like this with my fist facing up.
Now, a couple common mistakes that I see
with people getting on their horse in this area
is that they can have one rein
really long like this and if you're horse
would go to walk forward he could step in that
and end up in an accident.
And the other common mistake I see
is that the rein is just completely slack
and if you go to get on your horse like this
he can, if he does decide to leave,
it's going to take you a long time to gather that rein.
You could end up falling off or having an injury.
So, you want to make sure that you've got your rein
organized and you're holding that rein and mane.
So the second area is where to stand to get on.
And I like to be able to stay nice and close
to my horse.
So, I'm taking my left foot.
I'm going to put my toe facing my horse's nose,
keep my hip close to him.
And this way if he goes to move
or too quickly, I can just easily slip my foot out
and set it back down again.
The common mistake that I see in this is that I've seen
people go to mount like this with their knee
facing the saddle and if the horse were to go to move here
you could end up being, falling backward.
So, you're much more stable in this position.
So number three is getting on.
Now, to get on the horse you want to be setting
the middle of your hand, your palm,
right in the middle of your saddle
and you're going to be pushing up like this,
and swinging your leg over.
So you're bearing some weight down with your right hand.
The common mistake that I see with this is that
I've seen people go to pull themselves up in the saddle,
so grabbing the back of the cantle like this
and pulling up to swing that leg over.
You can see that's a little harder for me
to get my leg over.
And I'm also putting a lot of pressure
on the horse's back.
So, instead I want to think about just pressing down
and swinging over in one smooth, soft motion
that's easy on my horse's back.
Now that we know how to mount our horse
using a mounting block,
let's talk about how to mount from the ground.
This is a great skill to have if you're out on trail
and there's no mounting block around
and you need to be able to get on your horse.
So, the first tip is this does take more strength
than getting on from a block.
So, you want to make sure that you have the strength
to be able to do it.
If not, you can practice being able,
even just taking your mounting block
and stepping up and down on it.
Murphy's a little bored here with me.
Just stepping up and down like that on the block
is a really good way to start strengthening up
your leg for doing this.
So, to do this we're going to do it in the same way
that we did with the mounting block.
Another tip for you,
if you're riding in an English saddle
and you're having trouble getting your foot
up into the stirrup,
you can drop your stirrups down like that.
When I go to get on him,
I'm going to hold on to my mane here,
I'm going to be using my left hand to help
pull me up a little bit.
So I'm going to hop up,
push up like that.
And then if Murphy goes to leave
I'm just going to walk him up and stop him.
Good boy.
All right, and then once you're up there
you can adjust your leather.
So I hoped this helps you.
If you are just starting to be able to mount
your horse.
And I hope these tips make it easier
and safer for you.
I hope you keep enjoying your horses over this next week
and I'll see you in the next video.