This is simply the Coolest Thing Ever! Your horse is fifteen to twenty feet away from you when you step up onto the mounting block. You cluck a couple of times and lo and behold he sidesteps all the way over to the mounting block and stands there patiently waiting for you to climb on.
No way, I said. How in the world would you teach your horse to sidestep to you? From fifteen feet away! It’s just not in the logic pattern of everything we’re told to teach the horse… “give to pressure”… not step into it!
But I saw it with my own eyes and was blown away. I did spend a few minutes attempting to figure out how I would approach teaching this to Cash. Very few minutes because I came up with nothing. So I raced off to Monty Roberts’ Equus Online University (where I spend a lot of dinner times because Kathleen is still in California most of the time and it’s lonely out here in TN). And believe it or not… the concept was incredibly simple… and so logical… and within the grasp of anyone regardless of how long you’ve been working with your horses. Honest!
I was so excited about this that I contacted Monty’s daughter, who pretty much runs his operation, and begged her to figure out how I could give you guys a way to see this lesson without having to sign up for the university. Everybody should know how to do this. Seriously. Because it’ll eliminate all mounting problems whether you’re at the block, or a rock on the trail, or wherever.
You must go see this video lesson. It absolutely will boggle your mind, and it will not cost you a penny. And it is one more example of why we all need to climb outta that box we live in and start thinking outside it :).
I do offer this plug for their online university. I like it better than any of the other learning tools I know of out there because the lessons are not set up in tiered levels (“You must master this before you can move on to that”), and every lesson is a short 7-15 minutes long max. And you can pick and choose the lessons that interest you and will fit into your program, not someone else’s. And watch them over and over as you choose. (I’ve watched this one on the mounting block about twenty times). And the university is inexpensive. $10.00 a month for unlimited access. Less than that if you sign up for a year.
Click on the link below to see the entire lesson. No cost. No signing up. Just click on the second video from the top. Then hit the round pen with your favorite horse.
Here’s the link to the lesson:
http://www.montyroberts.com/university/
If you want to play the game I played, and try to figure out how you would approach teaching this before you watch the entire lesson, click on this YouTube teaser and give it your best shot, then go watch the entire lesson. I was ashamed of myself for not seeing it. The teaser link: http://www.youtube.com/user/MontyChannel#p/u/1/aaEy_xdCfhY
Joe
[…] a look at this horse side stepping up to the mounting block, every time you are working with your equine you are training them to do something. Try to have a […]
[…] a look at this horse side stepping up to the mounting block, every time you are working with your equine you are training them to do something. Try to have a […]