This month I can hardly blog about anything except mounting problems since I have seen so many of them! Still its quite nice to focus on one specific issue and recognise the number of different approaches necessary in order to meet each horse and owners needs.

So, firstly this month we had Chester, 15.1 bright chestnut cobby type of chap who had come from Ireland and was a little worried about life. His lovely 15 years old owner was a little worried by him, and so he was worried that she was worried, and the worrying was all coming to a head during mounting, where they both thoroughly freaked each other out by being so aware of the others nervousness. There was nothing about the specific process of mounting that really concerned Chester, he didn't mind things going in and out of the blind spot behind his head, or a toe tickling his elbow, or the feeling of the weight moving, so the challenge was to find a way to help them both relax. We worked from leg ups to start with, in order to just break the pattern with the mounting block ,and I got up and down and on and off both sides and built up towards flailing around on top of Chester as if there was a pony club prize for mounted yoga. Once Chester had resigned himself fully to life as a yoga mat and nodded off to sleep, I got his owner involved again, clambering on and off from on angles and, since she was up for a bit of a laugh, mounting in the style of various celebrities – Marilyn Monroe, Silvester Stallone, Graham Norton. We then set up some groundwork exercises, involving backing through L shapes, weaving round cones and stepping with one foot over a pole, and the mounting block was one of these exercises, where the owner needed to mount on one side and dismount off the other before continuing with the obstacle course. The groundwork severed a few purposes – firstly it was a distraction from the dreaded mounting, but more importantly, it required Chester's owner to step up to the bar and become a leader, she was able to find that confident, in control place before thinking of getting on, rather than psyching herself out.

Next was Josh, and a whole different kettle of fish. Josh belonged to a point to point yard, and had won at his only run last year. He had also injured his jockey multiple times, mainly throwing him off during, or just after mounting. Now, coming back into work after a summer off, he didn't want to be mounted at all, and would throw himself up into the air, rearing bucking or broncing as soon as the rider hit the saddle. The yard had already tried working from a leg up or block, and could stand and rub him all over from a block with no problem, so were stuck with where to go next. This was a really tricky task, since the yard had been able to persevere and put up with behaviour that amateurs would have needed to get help with, it meant that the mounting problem had become very ingrained in deed, and was extreme to say the least. I am always trying to find that 'Maybe' from the horse- when they are coping and not reacting negatively but are being stretched, that’s the place to put your work in, rather than trying to deal with the 'No' reaction – especially when it is this severe. The more ingrained a problem behaviour, the smaller that Maybe zone is, the horse seems to pop straight from 'Yes' to 'No Way' giving you very little chance to work on anything productively. This was very much where Josh seemed to be, as he would stand still by the block and allow you to put your foot in the stirrup, then immediately react explosively as you mounted. It certainly took some careful observation and very incremental progression to find Josh' maybe, but once we found it, and spent a little time there showing him he didn’t need to react explosively, he came around very quickly. In all I did two sessions with Josh, and for the second one I took Jim Goddard with me because he gives the best leg ups in the world and I know he can always keep the adrenaline of the situation down. Again Josh didn’t really have too much of a problem with any of the individual elements of mounting, the height, weight or movement of the rider, but it was the whole process itself that had become habitually stressful. My feeling is that he wasn't started correctly, and had been scared the first tome he was mounted and that fear was never dealt with but just grew and grew- with jockeys mounting quicker and quicker as his behaviour became more and more explosive, I don’t think anyone had ever slowed the process down to give him time to absorb what was happening to him. At first the maybe zone was standing ready to mount, once we had turned that to a Yes, the maybe zone was legging two inches off the ground, then it was leaning over, then moving his feet while I was leaned over, then moving myself about, then swinging a leg over and back again, and finally mounting and staying up. It sounds obvious to build it up in this way, but the knack is in finding the specific techniques that allow you to sho0w him each stage is OK rather than just move through the steps systematically without teaching him anything. For instance, its important to walk the horse off at the right angle, too straight and you invite an explosion, too sharp and they cannot move – so it was great to have Jim to work with me for such a potentially dangerous horse, and all went well. I decided it wasn’t really apt to ask the professional point to point jockey to mount in the style of Graham Norton (!!) I have had updates since to say he is mounting very well since the sessions, but also that a back lady did find a physical problem, which is now being treated so it may be that this was at the route of all of his behaviour in the first place.

Next we have Speily, a warmblood mare in Derbyshire. Actually, I thought she was in Derbyshire, and it turned out she was in a town of the same name in Nottinghamshire, which meant an extra 90 minutes on the driving time! I started off with a longlining lesson for the owner, who had been lunging up until this point, but wanted to learn to longline to help relax and get control of Speily who would often whizz off on the lunge in canter. Then onto the mounting: Speily had become stressed and dangerous at the whole mounting process, her rider had come off many times and was at a point that if the problem couldn’t be resolved Speily would be retired. I found that the trigger was the feeling of moving with weight on her back, therefore we could work on this problem with the rider leant over initially. She quickly became very relaxed about the legging up process, we used fake legs for a few repetitions first since she seemed so tense, but very quickly getting up there was not the problem, moving with weight on top was. Speily gave plenty of 'Maybe' signs, she was trying very hard, her stress level had reduced significantly, she really was not in a state of fear, but still, when she moved her feet, her back rounded right up like a cats, to quite an extraordinary degree. To help get her used to moving with weight, we did plenty of moving her head and neck around with the weight on her back, so that her back muscles moved and flexed under the saddle and her neck relaxed. We also used a technique of walking her in tight circles without the weight, and pausing only briefly to leg a rider up (to lean over) and down and then continuing the circle. You repeat this a good few time before getting somewhat sloppy with your timing so that the rider comes down a bit late – after the horse has started to move. You try to really keep them moving and not stop for too long at all so that moving off is not such a big deal. We used plenty of walking over raised poles in between mounting repetitions to try to get her to soften her back.

All these things helped, and by the end of the session I was able to mount without a reaction, but still, Speilys back was rounding up on movement, and having palpated her back and found and sensitive areas (back of saddle and elbow – so so so often sensitive or sore with mounting problems), I suspect there is something physical going on underneath. Her owner expressed some concern about finding a back person who you can trust and who wont miss anything (she had already had her back checked) and I have to agree, it is so difficult to know who to turn to. The only thing I can recommend is getting a second opinion and trusting what the horse is telling you. Although this was a successful session, I was concerned that what we were successful in was teaching the horse how to cope with discomfort.

Next we were in Cambridgeshire and had a clinic of 4 horses, three of whom had mounting problems!! The first was the most extreme, Fleurs mounting problems had resulted in her owner having a very nasty fall and loosing a lot of confidence, and I quickly realised that for Fleur it all focussed around seeing something go in and out of the blind spot on top; she was particularly worried about movement near her offside hind quarter. I began to work on this with the movement of a single longline on and off her body, which at first caused an explosive reaction, and then with the fake legs. Again the same areas of back of saddle and top of girth/elbow were sensitive to touch. Fleur had undergone every psychical check going, even thermography checks, so perhaps these areas were just more sensitive to touch rather than sore – but it certainly is becoming a pattern in mounting horses that these places are not relaxed when touched. We worked from leg ups and from the block, and ended up with the owner mounting and dismounting several times with Fleur totally relaxed, something she has not been able to do before. There is, however, a lot of work left to fo with Fleur. I'd really like her owner to continue working on getting her used to things moving in and out of that blind spot particularly on the off side, and teaching Fleur that if she can just stand still and relax it will go away and not hurt her. I have had an update from her owner who is working hard in the right direction and finding plenty of areas she can improve. I felt for her owner who had pretty much been told NOT to be scared and just to get on with it. Fleur was missing some major stages of training that she needed in order to be relaxed and safe, and her owners nerves were actually a very sensible reaction to being told to mount a horse who was not properly prepared.

Then there was Angel, a lovely young bay Arab mare. Angel was not as scared as the other horses I have mentioned here, but found mounting a bit uncomfortable and had worked out exactly how to avoid it. Some people would call her naughty or cheeky, but really, learning how to avoid uncomfortable stimulus is a great attribute to a ridden horse, since that is how all of our training works, so I think she was just pretty clever and sensible. I worked in two ways, firstly, to take a little more control of Angels feet with some groundwork in the Dually, and then to use that control to stand with her while her owner mounted and make sure that Angle found stillness was the most comfortable, easy option, by backing her up if she moved. Secondly, I really worked hard to help her owner (who had arthritis down one side of her body) to mount more smoothly since the process really wasn’t very comfortable for Angel. Since Angle is young and we want to set her up for success, I have suggested having someone stand with her for many many times mounting before mounting on her own. Sure, we would like her to be good to mount on her own, but you also need to be realistic about what is going to work and what isn’t, and since her owner cant mount very smoothly or quickly, it makes the most sense to make things easy for both of them for a while.

Finally, we have Hague, a lovely big warm blood mare, in a similar position to Angel, she had just learned that if she moved her hind end away, she avoided the mounting process altogether. Backing up doesn’t work quite so well for these hind leg swingers, and her owner really did need to be able to mount on her own so I went down the route of circling the block instead. In this technique, you circle very tightly round and round the block and then, when it feels right, provide the horse with an opportunity to stand by straightening their head. Most horses go 'thank goodness I can stand' which is perfect! ! You can then build up the steps towards mounting very slowly and incrementally, often stopping (before mounting) to go back to circling. In this way you set up a situation where standing for mounting is the easy choice, if the horse swings his hind legs away at any point, you simply circle pretty tightly and pretty quickly. It also helps to stroke the offside hip before mounting, to pick up your reins (loosely) and find your stirrup in a different order from that which your horse is expecting, to mount as smoothly as possible, to approach from the tail side of the block not the head side, and to get straight off the offside once your on a few times. All these things come together to help the horse just chill out and stand still and allow you on and off. I also recommended that the owner finish each session with several times mounting and dismounting, repetition of good behaviour is the key to breaking very old habits.

So its all been about getting on! Of course there have been other things going on to, its my first week back at uni and as always the course is fascinating. Even more exciting news, Han and I are planning some travelling for when I finish uni next Autumn. So watch this space as our plans develop...we will be looking for ideas and floor space I'm sure!