Struggling to get on

Oh it’s so hard when it is not something obvious isn’t it! Personally, I would probably ring the vet to have a chat, if only to ensure her clinical notes are up to date and you have a clear clinical history if the situation becomes more serious. The vet may well want to see the pony again as a follow-up if the expected outcome hasn’t quite been realised in reality. Good luck!!
 
Flicker said:
Oh it’s so hard when it is not something obvious isn’t it! Personally, I would probably ring the vet to have a chat, if only to ensure her clinical notes are up to date and you have a clear clinical history if the situation becomes more serious. The vet may well want to see the pony again as a follow-up if the expected outcome hasn’t quite been realised in reality. Good luck!!
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Okay thank you. I will give them a call to have a chat with her and in the meantime start with the behavioural side of things. I know it may have sounded like I'm against going to the vet, but I'm 100% not. I think the fact that there's so many reasons as to why it could be - ulcers, ks, SI, arthritis etc etc - just causes me to panic as my brain just goes into overload. Plus, I've seen so many threads about others experiencing the same thing and it being purely behavioural. Coupled with the fact that I know I've not been the strictest and I've been impatient with trying to crack down on it. If it was a bit more pinpointed, I wouldn't have started this thread and she'd already have been seen by the vet!
 
If all ok physically worth looking at the Richard Maxwell method for horses at mounting blocks, I know a few people that have done it with good success.
 
Training to get on is as important (maybe more so) then training the walk trot and canter yet it is so often it is overlooked. Rather than thinking of getting on as a means to an ends, think of it as a discipline in its own right. You can take it as far as you like, from standing still enough, long enough for a young fit rider to leap into the saddle, or like a rock so a pensioner/ pseudo pensioner or para can get on, to the Grand Prix of “getting on” such as self parking by the block (check out Tristan tuckers videos on this) but it’s like all training, some horses are more naturally gifted at it, some need more training and some can’t do it cos they’re in pain. But one things for sure, most don’t learn it by osmosis and like with all training, if you don’t work towards the behaviour you want, you are training in the behaviour you don’t want.
 
When I got my horse, she hadn't been trained to stand at a block for mounting. So sometimes she would and sometimes she wouldn't and then I would need to ask someone to hold her head while I got on.
What I do now is working well. I stand her beside a jump upright, or filler, or anything on her offside to stop her swinging her quarters away. I have already got the mounting block in place for myself and I keep a dressage schooling whip leaning against the block as I stand up onto it ready to mount. As the only way she can move is backwards, if she tries this I calmly lean down and pick up the long whip and gently tap tap on her rear end to get that step forward again into position.
It is worth trying as it has trained her to stand still nearly always now. In time I'm confident she will learn to stand without the 'blocking' items when I need to mount from other places.
 
I used my method of nugget training with my impatient chestnut. When he first came he did have some saddle issues which I sorted but he’s generally an impatient individual and doesn’t like hanging around.

He always gets fed a fibre nugget when I get on he has to bend round to take it from my hand. He now won’t move a muscle until he’s had it. If I try to ride off without giving it he goes ahem I think you’ve forgotten something and won’t easily move. It’s extremely handy as I can get on almost anywhere on our rides and he’s very safe.
 
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