This is slightly embarrassing, but here goes.....

I consider myself a pretty good rider, and have plenty of experience, but I've always had trouble with mounting.  I have very bad knees -- bad enough that I cannot hop on my right leg, and have almost no thrust to get me off the ground up and over.  Now add in a young, green horse who's distracted and stressed and fidgeting (she stands well outside the arena, but still a work in progress inside).  That makes it hard to use a mounting block, and the whole process of getting on feels hurried and awkward and semi-out of control.  For the record I have never slammed down onto her back, but it can take me many tries to get aboard.  I know part of this is her inexperience and will get better with time, but it doesn't help the feeling I've always had that I never really knew what I was doing getting on, and that successes were more fluke than anything.  I know the theory of the "correct" way, but it doesn't work out as nicely in real life with my knees as it does on paper.

So I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks to make the process easier from my end at the same time as I'm working on her?  TIA!

 Hey, Squeaks!

Could you go against tradition and get on from the off side?  That way, you could do the hopping with the left leg and possibly get a little more thrust off the ground.  But, would your right knee take that torque?  If that's not possible, how about lowering the left stirrup a little?  Then, of couse, you're left with adjusting the length on your young, fidgeting horse....

A friend has an interesting method that's kind of hard to describe.  Rather than hopping, she takes a step back with her right leg (kind of back and behind her body) while the left foot is in the stirrup and swings up, kind of like a bareback mount.  She can get her left knee into the knee roll, then rotates through her hip to get the rest of her body over and around.  I didn't describe that very well, but it look like it doesn't hurt her knee at all and doesn't require any bouncing on the ground.

Other than more time and training at the mounting block, I'm out of suggestions.  My OTTB would NOT stand by the mounting block - it wasn't in his previous training.  He was used to having the rider "tossed up", then off they would go.  He didn't understand standing still and I need to use a mounting block.  It saves my saddle and his back.  Besides, he was 17 hands and I'm 5'5" with short legs!  So, we did many, many repitions of standing by the mounting block and waiting.  Some riding sessions, that's all we would do.  VERY boring, but he finally got it.

Good luck!

No need to be embarrassed lol! I am a short person and have to use a mounting block. I have also never been as flexible as to pick up my left foot and place it in the stirrup (when mounting from the ground)

When i have to mount from the ground -without the block-, I keep the stirrup leather really long. At a height that I can comfortably reach it. It's probably not as easy as the mounting block but I think that if you try this, it won't strain your kness as much. then shorten the stirrups to riding length once you're in the saddle.

 I also remember seeing an ad a couple years back for a product called 'leg up" its like another stirrup that you attach to the near side of the saddle, so that you kinda have 2 stirrups hanging down the same side - the original and the "leg up". You place your right foot in the leg up first and push yourself up. From that height, it is easier to reach for the original stirrup with your left foot. Once in the saddle, you remove the "leg up".

There's no reason not to get on via the other side. I do that every now and then so my horse is comfy with it. If I'm ever in a tight spot on a trail, I might need (and have needed) to mount from the right side. OR get yourself a taller mounting block or other item that gets you up higher. One barn I was at used barrels cut in half. Which came in handy when I tried getting on a 17+ hand horse! Do what works for you and is good for your body and easy on the horse.

Unfortunately for me, switching sides won't make any difference.  The knee problem is on both sides.  Thanks for the other tips though, and keep them coming.  One of my minor goals this year is to lose the feeling of hanging half way up like a beached seal against her side!

Squeaksmom:

 hanging half way up like a beached seal against her side!

OMG, pictures PLEASE. LOL

 What the heck, build yourself a platform, with steps even. Make the top of the platform close to stirrup height. Just step aboard. Anyone who wants to give you a hard time about it isn't worth your while. My horse is only 14-3 and I use a mounting block all the time.

I'm not sure if you're also having trouble making your horse stand still for mounting, but if you are, there are some good tricks to cure that pretty quickly. My mare used to like to swing her butt out away from the block, until my instructor told me to circle her sharply a few times (enough so that she's almost off balance, maybe even dizzy). After that, standing still became much more interesting to her. Another method is to back her sharply quite a long distance (you're on the ground, waving your arms and yelling at her, swinging a lead rope or whip if you have to, to make her back quickly). If your knees make this kind of movement hard for you, have a second person do it - but the turning her in a sharp circle can be done so that you yourself aren't really moving much at all. These two tricks worked wonders for my girl.

Have you tried putting her in the corner while you used the mounting block? I had to do that with the lesson horse I rode last year.  

Squeaksmom:

This is slightly embarrassing, but here goes.....

I consider myself a pretty good rider, and have plenty of experience, but I've always had trouble with mounting.  I have very bad knees -- bad enough that I cannot hop on my right leg, and have almost no thrust to get me off the ground up and over.  Now add in a young, green horse who's distracted and stressed and fidgeting (she stands well outside the arena, but still a work in progress inside).  That makes it hard to use a mounting block, and the whole process of getting on feels hurried and awkward and semi-out of control.  For the record I have never slammed down onto her back, but it can take me many tries to get aboard.  I know part of this is her inexperience and will get better with time, but it doesn't help the feeling I've always had that I never really knew what I was doing getting on, and that successes were more fluke than anything.  I know the theory of the "correct" way, but it doesn't work out as nicely in real life with my knees as it does on paper.

So I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks to make the process easier from my end at the same time as I'm working on her?  TIA!

The second stirrup thing is what a friend of mine uses in mounted enforcement to get up and down her 18 hand percheron.  Police officers need to mount and dismount rapidly and often, and you don't even notice the extra stirrup much.  You might also incorporate the mounting block in ground training and make it so she has to come up to it, stand and then move off.  Doing that about a hundred times will acclamate her to it and make it boring.  After that having a friend stand on it, go up and down on it, etc, might also help.  Use the whole advance, retreat method to lessen it's novelty.

Here's the link on the stirrup.  Funny it has a deputy badge on it.

http://www.ezupstirrup.com/

Dear Squeaksmom - Boy can I relate to "a pretty good rider but always had trouble with mounting".  Especially since I passed the 60 mark.  I'll try to describe a technique I learned a long time ago and have never seen described anywhere. 

First a word of caution.  If your horse won't stand, while you're working on teaching her to do so, BE SURE to have someone hold her before trying this technique. 

Instead of standing at the shoulder or right opposite the girth, stand somewhat behind it, with the reins in your RIGHT hand on the mane just in front of the pommel of your saddle.  Believe me, this will feel extra wierd at first.  Use your left hand to hold your stirrup as you put your left foot in it, with the knee against the flap.  Then put your left hand on the mane in front of the right one, take your best shot at a hop and climb aboard.  This seems to put less stress on my knee and hip (which was the problem when I first learned to use this mount).  Perhaps it will be easier for you than the conventional way.

Truthfully, though, it would be better for your horse's back, as well as for you, if she was trained to a mounting block or whatever else is available.  There have been quite a few studies, articles, etc. about how hard it is on a horse's back to mount from the ground, instead of from some object.  I say some object, because at my friend's barn, we don't have a block.  She is EXTREMELY fussy about her horse's ground manners, and has taught each of them that the absolutely must not move when she tells them HO.  That includes mounting.  I've gotten on her horses from the lower rung of a pipe corral fence, the tongue of her trailer, the tailgate of my truck, and lots and lots of dirt mounds and small banks when out trail riding.  If I have to, I just walk the horse until a handy rock or bank shows up.  Where we ride, that doesn't take long.  But the key to this is all the time she put in working the horse from the ground until the "stand still no matter what" was thoroughly ingrained.  It takes time, but is worth its weight in gold to me, and to her too since she had a nasty riding accident 6 or 7 years back and can't hop on and off the easy way she used to.  The "natural horsemanship" trainers are a good resource for this kind of thing.  John Lyons, Clinton Anderson and others spend a lot of time working the horse from the ground.  Since I've seen what my friend accomplished using those methods I'm a convert.  I just wish I was a good at it as she is! 

Best of luck

MaryM43