How to Mount a Horse

If your horse won’t stand still to allow you to mount, beware. If you swing up onto his back anyway, it’s a bit like running down a pier to jump onto a sinking ship. Problems are likely to lie ahead.

There are a couple reasons that a horse might not want you on his back. The horse may be afraid of being ridden or maybe he just doesn’t like to be.

In order to figure out how to mount a horse without problems or danger, you need to be able to determine if the horse is responding from fear or nervousness or if he just has a negative opinion of the process.

According to the Parelli Horse Training method of understanding a horse’s personality, one of these reactions is a “Right-Brain” reaction based on the instincts of a prey animal, and the other is a “Left-Brain” reaction which does not involve any fear on the part of the horse. Our Horsenality™ DVD covers the different types of horse personalities and helps you to know the best strategies and approaches for each.

In brief:

A fearful horse needs to learn how to trust you, so your strategies have to be about not giving him a reason to fear you. This can take some time, but the natural horsemanship approach means taking the time it takes so that a good relationship between you and your horse is developed. Don’t be in a hurry to ride until your horse gives you the green light. What does a green light look like when you’re trying to figure out how to mount a horse? Here’s your “go” signal: Wait until he stands still so you can get on. Much of what you need to know about a fear-based, “Right-Brain” horse is revealed in our Horsenality™ DVD. Once you understand your horse’s personality, our Safe Ride DVD will give you direction for getting your horse ‘in the mood,’ calm and ready to ride.

When it comes to tips for how to mount a horse who just doesn’t like being ridden, this problem can often be traced to how you ride. Parelli Natural Horsemanship advocates – no big surprise – a natural approach to mounting and riding horses based on becoming more in tune with your horse. For that learning journey we recommend the Natural Rider DVD. Sure, you could try to discipline your reluctant horse, but things will not get better. He already doesn’t like being ridden; the last thing you want to do is have him dislike you even more!

We wish we could give you one simple answer about how to mount a horse that won’t stand still to let you on his back, but one technique doesn’t work for every horse. You must learn to understand your horse as an individual and develop strategies that will work for his particular personality. That’s the natural horsemanship way.