Mounting advice and help please!

[Dizzykizzy]

Just called round to see a friend of mine. She has a lovely young mare, 5 this year who she backed and started herself and has been very good up to now. The last few times she has ridden her she has got increasingly difficult to mount.
I watched her today and it took about 15 minutes.
The mare just spins round and round and round. She wouldn't let me hold her, just kept pulling away and doing mini rears. I did manage to block her eventually and friend hopped on but how can she train her to stand still? Once she is on she takes off like an express train as well, she just doesn't do standing still.
Even when she is getting her ready although she is tied up she is dancing round like a mad thing!
She is on Red Cell at the moment on vets advice, could this be making her worse?
Any advice please.

 

[michellev123]

Monty Roberts is fantastic with thinkgs like this I saw him teach an ex racer to stand to mount (something racers never do!) You can watch his horsemanship essentials online at horse and country tv.
But you have to teach them to stand in hand first then to tie then to mount. . . Kelly Marks always says to stop a horse walking straight off when you mount you should mount then take a step or two backwards before going forward

Hope this helps the videos on H&C are well worth a watch, cannot remember which one the standing one is tho sorry. . .

Good luck to your friend.

 

[Dizzykizzy]

Thank you, I use the IHDG so might try on there as well.
More difficult since she isn't mine of course....

 

[Kallibear]

It sounds like either stress or pain related. WAS she fine with it? If so it suggests she's either now sore (saddle no longer fit/sore back etc) or has had a bad experience.

If she's never been fine with it it's more likely to be stress related - she's may have missed out a vital part of her understanding, or she finds being ridden stressful.

The fact she's just as bad being tacked up, and one you're on, suggest it's not the actual mounting part itself thats a problem, but something about the whole thing that botheres her.

What's she like when mounting bareback? I didn't even start to mount with tack on (from the ground or otherwise) until he was entierly happy with me scrabbling on and off from a block, bareback. After that I started to mount from a block with a saddle on and he was fine. A problem arose for us once I started mounting from the ground and he started to fidget. Discovered it was because I was catching his mane as I jumped up and he hated it. Once I'd got a breastplate (and could therefore hold onto that instead) he was perfect. For all the things he can be a right muppet about, he is now perfect to mount in all sitiuations!

 

[JCWHITE]

I think the Red Cell needs to be stopped, there was a post about it last week, good stuff, but can wind them up.
I am training a young mare too.
I walk her up the lane about one quarter of a mile, then find a slope, stand her down ways, and hop on.
Not quite perfected the standing still yet, but has improved a lot.
Hope this helps a bit, also liked the bit about doing 2 steps backwards, will try it.
JC

 

[Dizzykizzy]

Thanks both, I did try to tactfully suggest she should have her back checked.
She has always been an on the go sort and never stands still but it does seem to have got worse since she has been riding her again post bad weather.
I will have alook for the stuff on red cell too.

 

[Passtheshampoo]

One of my older mares is a stressy sensitive sort and she is difficult to mount. I find she does feed off me when I start to get anxious about mounting, especially if I have arranged to hack out with others and they're waiting for me. Perhaps your friend tacks up and mounts for a few days gets the horse to stand and then gets straight back off so there's no riding involved. I have a mounting block and if my mare walks off I simply bring her around to the other side. She does give in after a few circuits. Once on board I just stand and give her a tickle at the base of her withers as praise. May be worth your friend lunging her horse before she gets on to take the edge off.
I'm just in the process of backing my young RID and she has been taught to stand next to the mounting block whilst I mount/dismount. I have a back problem so it's very important for me to be as safe as poss getting in to the saddle.

 

[siennamum]

Is she getting on from the ground.
Although she has to learn to stand still when mounted from the ground, it might be causing her discomfort. I never mount from the ground. I would certainly suspect the mare is objecting due to pain or similar & woudl check tack first.
the Red Cell could be blowing her mind also, which won't help.