Hi,
There are, of course, many more lessons and details around leading skills that we could look at. The more you work on it, the lighter your horse gets, the more elegant your communication and connection. It will continue to evolve over the (hopefully long) time that you and your horse work together.
But instead of continuing on the finesse around leading, we get to back to our goal of riding. (Unless you want me to continue, I still have tons of stuff).
Last check before we get on the horse’s back
The requirement for riding is that our horse has a good connection with the handler on the ground, understands her cues and trusts the communication.
When we put a rider on the horse’s back, she may feel insecure and unstable but if she trusts the ground person, and knows what to do, she can stay calm and confident while figuring out the balance challenge.
We took the time to build the critical elements before getting on:
- halt
- forward
- backing
- yielding hips (stepping over)
With these elements in place we can now proceed to Alexandra Kurland’s Mounting block lesson.
In this lesson, the rider stands on the mounting block and asks the horse to align to the block so that the rider can easily mount. But it is about more than getting in the saddle.
It’s a safety check before we get on.
Should the horse move away, the rider asks the horse to move forward, yield the hips, shift back a step, come forward, yield the hips, shift back, come forward and align again. All these moves require the elements that we taught before (see the connection?) and are directed from on the mounting block, if possible.
Is the horse not able to yield the hips or stand quietly next to the mounting block, we do not get on. She is either too nervous or doesn’t know the elements.
Here’s a video a Malou doing this lesson for the first time. I am basically just checking how she feels about me being higher up.
Malou is still a little nervous. You can see that she moves her feet a lot, checks the surroundings and there is pile of manure. I have the reins connected to the cavesson ring so I can let her trot around the cones in case she wants to. Typically, I would connect the reins to both sides of the halter, which makes it easier to guide the horse through the lesson.
I also found a clip of Graya doing this lesson. (The video quality reflects the 10 years that have passed since then 😂)
Also Graya is not quite ready yet. Based on my video archive, I did a few more sessions with and without saddle before she was standing confidently next to the mounting block, waiting for me to get on. There is no rush.
If you take your time, your horse will be eager to align to any elevation allowing you to hop on. Even if that means leaving the grass.
Some horses need a Detour
For Blondie, I used a different strategy. She was worried about me standing on the mounting block, so I used a smaller one at first. Since I have taught her to go around a circle of cones, I used my behaviour of stepping on the half mounting block as a cue for her to turn and come to me, which is followed by C/T.
From that detour, I could go back to the full mounting block and the “standard” mounting block lesson without worrying Blondie.
Alex Kurland has an addition to this lesson which she calls “Capture the saddle”. It combines the manoeuvre described above with turning the saddle more relevant to the horse, e.g., by moving it with your hands when the horse is aligned. In the process, the horse learns to deliver the saddle to you.
We have not yet gone through the saddling process with Malou yet, but let me already tell you that it was a non-issue. She was well prepared by her owner and we proceeded very quickly with saddling.
I will go into detail about introducing the saddle in the next email(s) since it was a major concern for Blondie.
But I think it makes sense to share with you here how “capture the saddle” looks like so we can refer to if, when we are ready to actually get on the horse.
Here’s Malou learning to the deliver the saddle to me.
You can see that she is a lot calmer. I am feeding to the offside to simulate where she finds the treat when I am in the saddle.
At this time, I would judge that she is ready to get on.
Happy training,
Michaela
P.S.:
As I went through my archives, I found this clip that I want to share with you, mostly because it’s too cute to ignore. It’s not teaching material, hence in the P.S.
When Graya joined our equine family, we were in a temporary barn until our current place was ready. We had the luxury of a covered arena but, during winter, parts of the fields were muddy, and my horses lived in the covered arena. Whenever I came, I took both horses out at these same time, so they could stretch their legs. It was a little chaotic, but the advantage of this experience is that I can work both Asfaloth and Graya next to each other and they stay calm and polite even when my pockets are filled with carrot slices.
So here’s how I ended up doing the lesson with Graya while Asfaloth seems to be saying “Look at me, girl, this is how it’s done” 😎
This lesson is called: The floor is lava 😂