Using a mounting block

What do you do?

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I always try and use something to help me, but it's not always possible. When I fell off Ned a few months back, I literally had NOTHING for miles around. Not even a slightly raised bit of ground. I had to hop back on from the ground, but had someone hold my stirrup so the saddle didn't pull.
I would like to learn to vault on though!
 
Always from either a block or a wall or a tree stump. Even a high kerb will just about do it :D. I'm 5'10 and he is 15hh so in theory it should be fine but I am too old and stiff :(.

He is very good though and he moves into position as soon as I clamber up whatever I plan to use to get on from :D
 
i tend to use a mounting block on my horse for the sake of her back- but i think getting on from the ground seems to be a dying art- was teaching a fun ride at pony club and asked the 12 year olds to get off and on again as part of a race. They all looked at me like i was an alien and said they couldnt get on without leg ups (onto their 13 hand ponys). Needless to say the DC and I made them learn!
 
If I can help it I'll use the block, however I can get on my 16.2hh TB from the floor if needs be (I'm 5'4). I can also mount/dismount equally well from either side.
 
I mount from a block practically all the time, unless it's missing...then I find something else to use. I can mount from the ground if absolutely necessary, but try to avoid it even then.
 
99% of the time with a mounting block or something similar! We have them in both schools and one on the yard. Mainly because we have an 18.2 WB on the yard... Always interesting getting a leg up when riding him on a hack! I hate leg ups as it is but that was an experience lol
 
I always use something to get me a bit nearer the saddle - for the sake of the horse's back. In an emergency, I can clamber on using stirrups, but it's not pretty and I don't like the strain it clearly places on the horse to brace to take my weight.

I ride bareback quite a lot too, and there's absolutely no chance at all of mounting a 17hh horse bareback when you're my age and height (unless you're a retired Olympic gymnast ;)).

When I say I use something - I'm not on a yard so don't have a mounting block. Mainly I use a pile of paving stones that are handy for the field gate - I can use the gate itself too, or a highish grass verge. I have a small kitchen step by the other gates to the field just in case. Bareback I usually alternate sides as well, but I am a bit hardwired to mount from the left with a saddle (really need to get out of that... I had to mount from the wrong side at a Le Trec a few weeks back, and my brain was floundering for a moment as to which foot went where :D).
 
I always try and use a mounting block however we have only got a small one and i still feel like im putting his back under strane so i currently use the picnic table we have on the yard :D
I do miss the mounting block at my last yard, it was more a ramp that then flatten out at the top. It was high enough you didnt even have to put your foot in the stirrup unless your horse was over 17hh, so for my little 14.3 all i had to do was walk her along side it and pop my leg over. :D
 
I have to mount using a block. My horse is big and I am small, mind you, I am nowhere near as flexible as I used to be so would probably need a mounting block even to mount a Shetland these days :rolleyes:
 
rhino said:
Have put 'always' but am more than capable of mounting from the floor if absolutely necessary - e.g. for BHS Trec you have to be able to mount from the off side from the floor :) It's rare that I can't find a tree stump/bank/wall to hop on from out hacking and always use the mounting block at the yard/school.

So it's a very-nearly always for me, just to be difficult :p
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^^^This - although not sure I could get on Will from the ground - he's just to blooming big!
 
it varies depending on where i am... most of the time i am by myself, and although we have a portable mounting block, our steadding is on a fairly steep hill... so its pretty useless, not to mention it would be lying out on the track to be pinched or just plain in the way for other countryside users! :p

when i get on to set off on the ride i just do so from the ground, although i stand my horse across the track so that i am up-hill from her and this makes it easier on her back. when out hacking if i have to get off for any reason i usually find something to lessen my haul... :p
 
OP, you need to learn to vault up there. When they say get on from the ground that's probably what they mean. It certainly did on the racing yard I was on!

I've said always off something. But I can get on from the floor and I do take legups if they're offered. so nearly always.
 
I'm intregued, why do they want you to mount from the ground ad or use a mounting block?

I normally use a block, horses are both over 16hh but can get on from the ground when opening gates out hacking.
 
ive got on mine once from the ground so i knew i could if i ever had to. but normally i get on from a large mountain block or if fallen out and not near mountaint block anything about 20cm high if enough but the bigger the better.

she 16hh and im 5,6 and not skinny. i dont think its good to pull on their backs. if you can jump on from the floor fair enough but if it pull dont do it. my brother can just jump on her without stirrups but he rock climbs and mountain bikes and is very bouncy.
 
74% always mount from something, which I think is great. However, I do think it is important that you can mount your horse from the ground if you have to, and from either side.

Same when mounting from a block or fence, I try to make a point of mounting from either side.
 
Hi I always use a mounting block to get on and off. Its the first thing a horse is taught when it comes in the yard!
 
By choice I would always get on from a mounting block, lorry steps/ramp, stump, gate, get legged up etc.

Only time I have got on from the floor is when I've been chucked off onto it and there was nothing around to use to climb on, at that point I think it serves my horse right for ejecting me in the first place!!!!
 
OP in answer to your question, I would get on from the ground if they are looking but use a mountain block if not. It is true, it will not be doing their backs any good mounting from the ground, but at the same time, they are your employer's horses, so what she says, goes.

I answered 'always use something' because I always try to if at all possible, but if out hacking and I have to get off, then I will mount from the ground (even the 17.2hh).
 
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