How to Train Your Horse to Stand Still While Mounting

FACT: You can’t ride if you can’t get on. If you can’t get on, maybe going for a ride isn’t the best idea anyway. Riders tend to worry about the ride itself and things like having the right tack, while something as basic as properly climbing on gets overlooked. It certainly can be a challenge unto itself. Whether the horse is nervous, afraid, green or just being a pain, it’s up to the rider to correctly identify and address the issue. Like most things horse training, there’s more than one way to go about reaching the goal…

For renowned horse trainer Emma Massingale it’s all about ground basics. First, she teaches the horse to move away with their hindquarters before training them to bring their hindquarters towards her at the mounting block. Why go searching for the party when the party can come to you?

Not everyone uses a mounting block, of course, so let’s see how horseman Warwick Schiller goes about teaching a youngster to quietly comply while he legs up from the ground. Schiller poses an important question: “Are you sure it’s the horse that has the problem, and not you?” (Hint: It’s almost always you…)

“Set the horse up to get the right thing,” says CRK Training’s Callie King, who demonstrates how a strategically placed jump helps prevent horses from swinging their hind away from the block. It’s a nifty tactic for sure, but King’s approach to mounting goes far beyond physical tools. For King, it’s about breaking down the process into small steps, breaking up the routine and positive reinforcement.