Dismounting whist wearing a body protector

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Gazen

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Is there a technique for dismounting whilst wearing a body protector?
I have just bought one and when I attempted to dismount the protector caught the saddle and I ended up sitting on my backside on the ground. Definitely not very elegant or lady like!
 
I had a similar problem [am rather "busty"] and the protector ended up over my eyes when dismounting in a normal fashion.
I have to say that a lot of people do not dismount by leaning forward and swinging their legs over the back, instead they sort of drag their legs over the croup of the horse.
 
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I had the problem that when I dismounted I caught the bottom of the protector on the pommel which then hit my chin, effectively giving me whiplash!

A friend of mine used to swing her leg over the neck and jump off but I'm not agile enough for that!
 
When wearing my racesafe can't say had an issue but I do tend to dismount with more energy when wearing a BP rather than sliding down in you know what I mean -even on my 17.1 so I choose my landing sites carefully!

Which bit of the BP caught on which bit of the saddle?
 
Stand up in your stirrups and swing your right leg over back whilst kicking out left stirrup at same time and push away slightly from horse. Not BHS method but it works!
 
I sling my leg over the back then push off away from the saddle and jump down as opposed to slide. Must be a difficult maneouever if you are struggling a bit with mobility though. I tried swinging my leg over the front once with a BP on, never again! Somehow as I slid the back of BP caught a bit and I nearly faceplanted, better the other way where if you cock it up you end on your bum!
 
I used to have this problem when I rode, I found if I unzipped it first before getting off, I didnt get a smack in the chin!
 
Lol. Know what you mean. My first attempt at dismounting with mine were a bit awkward. I now twist slightly so I'm facing more forwards push away as I dismount and that seems to work. Also make sure that your BP is done up properly.
 
Jnhuk said:
When wearing my racesafe can't say had an issue but I do tend to dismount with more energy when wearing a BP rather than sliding down in you know what I mean -even on my 17.1 so I choose my landing sites carefully!

Which bit of the BP caught on which bit of the saddle?
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This is exactly what I was going to say :) (racesafe, size of horse and everything)
 
Thank you everyone. I guess I will have to learn to vault off my horse.
I would love to have bought the Racesafe however even the short back length was too long for me, it kept colliding with the saddle cantle.
 
Yes, the BP was professionally fitted and if anything the BP is slightly too short in the back although it does come down below my ribs at the front / side as we had to make a compromise for the short length back as my Wintec GP saddle has a high cantle and the standard length back was colliding with it. I still have all the tags attached so I may yet take it back, however it was the best compromise out of the ones I tried.
 
I have a Racesafe, which was professionally fitted, i have an extra extra short back, which was not an off the shelf BP, they measured me up and then took off the extra length off the back.

I usually unzip mine before i get off tho
 
I have this problem too. I've tried the leg backwards and forwards over the horse to dismount and also tried to leap away from the horse. None of it ended very elegantly :D. Now I just ride up to the mounting block and get off the same way I got on. I do wonder, though, what would happen if the neddie walked away while I was half way through dismounting. I'm gonna try Benson21's suggestion of unzipping the BP next time and see if that helps.
 
Joyous70 said:
I have a Racesafe, which was professionally fitted, i have an extra extra short back, which was not an off the shelf BP, they measured me up and then took off the extra length off the back.

I usually unzip mine before i get off tho
Click to expand...

I was just going to say this, Racesafe will make to measure if needs be.

A lot of people I see dismounting slither down the horses side. In a BP you need to have energy to swing yourself over and then away from the horse.
 
I've learnt to dismount a bit like TrasaM - both feet out of stirrups, lean forward and swing right leg over then immediately twist so am facing frontwards. Never had a problem once I'd perfected the twist (initially had to do this due to cesarian type operation and couldn't wait any longer to get on my ned, stitches or not!).
 
I too went to dismount once and caught my BP on the saddle, swung under my horse's belly and landed on my bum! My horse just looked at me with such a confused expression!
Now I always lean far forward so when I slide down, I slide down his shoulder rather than the saddle. Have always landed on my feet!
 
I dismount the normal way but just jump away from the horse instead of sliding down (if that makes sense). I have never had a problem with getting bashed in the chin dismounting with my bp on
 
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