Riding Dummy's - good or bad ??

[Highlander2]

Merlin the Haflinger and his new partner Ruary the Headless Horseman !!
Who else uses dummy's to ride their horses ? I have never done it before but saw a guy called Monty Roberts doing it and decided to give it a try. Merlin needed a bit of desensitising and I am too heavy and did not want to risk any of the girls coming off.
Made it in 5 mins and it seems OK, This is the Mark 1 version !

So who else uses them and what do you think. They really flap about on bungy chords so certainly stop the horse from doing lots of silly spooks later.

 

[BobbyMondeo]

Very usefull in getting young horses used to having something ontop its not daunting when they have a person ontop also as you said gets them used to spooky things....lovely pony

 

[Toffee44]

Not sure how I feel about them because horse not stupid and knows whats a person and what is a sack of straw. However I did use one for project pony for mounting. I used it to bang her sides and bum while pretending to 'mount' as she just kept jumping and my sister had enough of bouncing on her bum. I had weighted trousers with wellies, did help actually. It did eventually work however and although she was a bit fidgety to mount she accepted my sister a lot better.

 

[BBP]

I've used one very successfully with a horse who was fine until she caught sight of a human in the corner of her eye, then she would bronch. Bob the dummy rode very well, she was able to get used to the sight of him without having a person on her back interfering.

However, i tried one last year on my own horse but rushed it and neither he nor the saddle were properly secured. The result was a disaster, as soon as pony had a buck, it slipped, piny went beserk and saddle and dummy ended up under his belly. Dummy was torn to shreds (nearest arm landed 25m away!) and pony was terrified. I had to start rebacking him all over again. So they have their uses, but only if you aren't stupid like I was. Thankfully my boy forgave me and I went back to doing it with me getting on instead of a dummy but it could easily have been an extremely nasty incident that could have ruined his backing experience.

 

[xwp]

Ive seen jeans filled with sand used before to get them used to the weight and think they have their place with a horse that is nervy of weight/something on their back but i think in normal cirumstances if they have been done properly, ie ,long reined, lunged, leaned over until comfortable with it, sat on but crouched low, then gently sat up etc then there isnt much need for them.