>>> Does your horse stand at the mounting block, on a loose rein, waiting for you to get on? Is there any fidgeting? Does he walk off or move before you're on, and you have to re-align him to the block?
Yes...MOST of the time. A few unnamed riders here (one big one in particular...) aren't so careful about paying attention to this, so walking off or fidgeting can be a rider-influenced habit/problem if you don't watch out. I was surprised to find that Skjoni didn't want to stand for me to mount when I rode him last weekend, but kept moving to the side - of course, I won't name the sometimes-oblivious person who usually rides him. I'll be digging into that issue, to see if he has a new problem, or it's just a habit he's gotten into. His normal rider has been mounting from the ground, so my mounting from the block might have caught him off-guard. That's no excuse though... >>> Do you have to have tension on the rein (to hold him from moving)? Even for a fidgety horse, which we GENERALLY don't have, I don't like tension in the rein for mounting. I think that "trapped" feeling tends to make things worse. >>> Does he stand after you get on, waiting for the next request? I think we're batting 1000 on that one - at the moment. It's certainly a priority of ours, but a careless rider can quickly ruin a nicely-trained horse. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
