Lauren's Horse Musings

Question: The horse I've been training is awesome about sidepassing over to the step for mounting, but she gets in real close and nearly knocks me off the step! I don't want to discourage her from her willingness to be mounted, but fear she will not distinguish between close and too close. Ideas?

You ask if I have ideas?????

Loaded with them!!!

This is dealt with in Chapter 6 of the book because it happens to ALL horses. So... to give you a 'change the way you think' perspective...

Being precise about the spot isn't going to discourage her willingness. Being imprecise will allow her to do a less than desirable job and means that, to her, you don't care where she steps as long as she's stepping left.

We tend to get all 'Oh, isn't my precious Buttercup wonderful' when really... on top of me, smashing me on the fence or bumping me off the mounting block isn't the spot we're going for let alone wonderful. She cannot learn to be in the right spot if you allow the wrong spot to go uncorrected.

And... if you were on a cliff, I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate her stepping too far to the left. So, don't cause her to not learn EXACTLY where the spot is.

Comments

+1 #2 Lauren Woodard 2011-04-21 06:53

Hey Carolyn, Congratulations on having a 4 year old with one problem

. You've read my stuff, so I think you can take that line!
Oddly, this same issue has come up with several people in the last two weeks. I have a different way of handling this and it works very well. Instead of writing it as a comment addition, I think I'll write a new blog article. Thanks for giving me the 'bump'.

#1 Carolyn Edson 2011-04-03 08:18

Lauren, I have a horse who will be 4 this year. He has one problem. We will be riding and going along fine and he will all of the sudden balk. He will come up in the front and swing himself over to the right. I circle several times and ask him to go forward. Sometimes we have to do this many times before he will quit it. It is his way of saying no. I have been told to circle in the opposite direction, which I have not done yet. Also, I read to back him up a long ways. Make the right thing easy, wrong thing hard etc. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

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