Fear of Mounting???

[MHSporthorses]

Does anyone have any suggestions or contacts of people who may be able to help me with the above??
My 4 year old has started to develop this "problem" slowly and is now at the point where as soon as I get positioned to be legged up he starts to get stressed. The problem is there at home and I have to be legged on whilst moving but at shows it is obviously worse as he is excited to boot!! But it is definately a fear and not just naughtyness. All obvious things checked and ok...back teeth tack etc. Cant mount by block, leg up or floor?!
As soon as your on he is fine and totally relaxed despite the geting on process being fast furious and not nice for either of us.

Please has anyone experienced this or know of someone who has as this is the only thing holding me back and preventing me from enjoying my horse.

Off to work now but thank you in anticipation of lots of helpfull advice!!

 

[kerilli]

umm, as long as you have checked saddle, back etc and all 100%, so it's definitely not pain-related...
i'd set aside about an hour, and get a good patient helper and a high mounting block (ideally so the top of it where you stand is level with the stirrup, so you can just step across, no pull on saddle at all.)
have v patient helper stand to horse's head and feed him the odd tidbit as a distraction, and just calmly fuss him all over from on top of mounting block, as if doing first backing. if he moves away or gets upset, just calmly bring him back. after about 20-30 times most horses get bored of just about anything and just stand there! ditto with mounting, try putting foot in stirrup, if he moves away, remove foot, calmly bring him back. tons of praise, no punishment, lots of fuss and relaxation basically.
this approach has always worked for me, anyway, and i find that a high mounting block is far safer and easier than a leg up with this sort of horse. as for mounting from the floor - NO NO NO please NO, unless you can vault on from the floor, in which case I take my hat off to you! but mounting with stirrup from the floor is VERY bad for horses' backs.
hope all that helps.

 

[SacramentaZ]

I've experienced this EXACT same problem with my mare, to the point where the spinning and rearing put me off riding her for quite a while! It's definitely worth investing the time in getting it fixed properly with the help of a professional, and then afterwards you'll kick yourself that you didn't get it fixed earlier! I have a guy called Grant Bazin (does all the riding for Monty Roberts) who helps with all sorts of problems like this, he's based near Banbury.

Grant will work to desensitise your horse to start with, using various different techniques (which also work wonders for spookiness etc!) and get him to the point where he will accept a mounting block and rider by his side calmly. Then will use a very simple and straightforward pressure and release system to teach the horse that no harm will come from the mounting. For example, the reward here is to DISMOUNT! I know it sounds really daft, but little by little you build up to an actual mount (start with foot in stirrup, then step away etc), but then spend ages getting straight back off again as this is the release of pressure/reward for standing to mount.

I trust this man and his team with my life, and before leaving he gave me the tools to fix the mounting problem within a week - he's not expensive either! His website is here: http://www.practicalhorsemanship.co.uk

Grant can certainly fix this for you!

xx

 

[oofadoofa]

Ditto what Kerilli says.

I bought a horse (cheaply!) that had had a fright with a previous person coming to try him out and knew that he had real problems being mounted. There was no way he would let anyone give you a leg up and wouldn't stand anywhere near a mounting block. What I found worked really well was to walk him into the corner of the yard (which had a very high fence) so that he couldn't go backwards or sideways away from me. Making sure he was relaxed, I moved the mounting block towards him and got on. Probably took me 5 or 10 minutes the first time, but having the fence there really helped and encouraged him not to try and swing his quarters away from the block. Obviously need to give him lots of praise and pats too and even some treats, as Kerilli says, but this worked really well with mine and after a while I was able to mount normally, even out hacking and hunting.

 

[henryhorn]

Go back to basics, spend literally an hour at a time with him in the stable leaning over him from a solid box.
Give him treats from the off side as you lean over and keep everything calm and peaceful.
Wear a hat and your body protector, and then once you are 100% certain he isn't fussed about you, have someone hold him with his bridle and get on. Don't put your feet in the stirrups, just feed, him, make a fuss and get off.
You need to do this over and over again for several days until he is totally fear free.
Then progress to the same thing in the arena.
This is learned behaviour he's exhibiting, he has sussed that under presssure you don't have the time or patience to start again. Go to a couple of shows and don't compete, just get on and off even if it takes an hour to make him stand.
It will be worth it, as you can fix him now, leave it and he will forever be a sod to mount...
ps, you don't need carrot sticks, cowboy hats or similar to know this works, just plain old experience and common sense...!!

 

[MHSporthorses]

Thank you everyone for your responses.
I have taken him right back and he will allow me to be legged up and mount from a block in the stable (i presume this is due to him feeling safe in there) but outside on the yard or in the arena he just gets stressed and the more i say no stand or put him in a corner etc he will slowly start to try to get away more eg will begin to rear in order to escape. i also unfortunately do not have a huge amount of confident people to help me....problem one!!!

 

[UnaB]

I had this with my recently backed mare, only for a couple of weeks but randomly one day she decided she didnt want me to get on board. Had back/saddle checked and all was fine so went back to basics - long reining, loose schooling, hacking in hand, then leaning over the saddle and then findally got on board with no problems at all. It sounds like it would have taken ages, but it was actually only a couple of weeks. She never got to the point where she was rearing/spinning, but she would just start walking off as soon as i got my foot in the stirrup to mount and i'd have trouble getting her standing again. Someone suggested that she may have been too keen to get out and have her hack which is a possibility, so not exactly what you're going through but it might be worth going back to basics with him. I also have no one on hand to help so was a case of doing everything as calmly and slowly as necessarily

She now stands perfectly while i get on board and hasnt had any problems since!

 

[Elsbells]

My OH fetched me a giant dumper truck tyre from the local quarry and ploked it in the middle of the yard. We put a board on the top and I mounted my mare from there, which meant I could step back. I would put a foot in the stirrup and out again as she moved away. Around and around she went for hours but she couldn't walk away caus a wheel in round ha,ha!.)and eventally, she said OK, hurry up and get on.

The big plus was that I didn't need any helpers and could take it as short or as long as was needed an every day.

We kept the tyre schooling going for quite a while and slowly she got better and better. Now she'll come up alongside a mounting block and will take a step forwards or back if I ask, so I can take my time. However once on, she does tend to wander off while I'm adjusting

Just an idea!