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Leg Up

4K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Cruiser 
#1 ·
I try not to lean on the person to much and get up quickly. Sadly though not everyone can give a leg up nor know how to use one. I was trying out saddles, and had my friend sit in them while I checked them out. She wouldn't swing right up, but hang there letting me take all the weight.

I guess the question is how do you explain it to someone, I hate it when people expect you to let them stand on you hand or something. Or the throw you up and over or drop you. That isn't fun.

There was an instructor that he would just take my ankle and that was it, another it was your ankle and behind your knee. I guess it depends on your own strength or personal preference.

So how do you teach someone to take a leg up or give one? Pictures or descriptions would be nice.
 
#2 ·
hahah when i do it with my sister if she leaves all her weight on me i tell her once if she does it again or leaves her weight on me i drop her :roll: but then again not always a good thing to do depending but it does bring a good laugh to us. plus she is my sister so obvisously we are going to play pranks like this on each other. :?

and i give my hand to be stepped on if i know they are lighter than me. if they are my weight or heavier i just bend my leg and let them use that as there leg up :)
 
#3 ·
My Mom has to give me a leg up on Rebel when I'm english, because he's tall, I'm short, and I'm vertically challenged in the sense that I am completely incapable of springing up on my own. xD

What she does, is she puts a hand under my boot and then on my ankle and boosts me up. I grab the mane and reins in my left hand and the right side of the pommel with my other to help myself.

Not sure how you prefer it, but I would just tell them straight out how you want to be boosted up, or tell them to hurry up and get their butts in the saddle if you're the one boosting! :D
 
#4 ·
I am tall enough to get on by myself just don't like pulling the saddle and the horses back around if I can't get up the first time.

Most people don't get it, they just stand there me thinking hurry up and get off my hands. I don't know maybe even when they mount with a stirrup they might hang off the side of the horse, which I cant image is a good thing.

The problem I don't know how to explain to someone like my dad how to give me a leg up, last time he thought I was up and he let go and hit myself on the way down, another time I went over the saddle.
 
#7 ·
:lol::lol:

Many years ago getting, or giving a leg up was just part of everyone's normal day where I rode, so I've never really thought about trying to explain it, it wasn't until I thought about explaining it, that it became hard, and when I found the following description it got even harder :lol:

Lesson 3: Leading, Mounting and Dismounting, and Basic Position

Getting a leg up

Every rider should know how to get and how to give a leg up. IT is a useful tactic for times when you must mount without a block but do have another rider around who is not riding and could help. And sometimes, it would take too long to find a mounting block, for example, when a show is moving faster than expected and you are suddenly the next horse and rider expected in the arena. If your instructor or another student can give you a leg up right at the gate, you will avoid being late and annoying the judge and spectators.
To get a leg up, stand facing the horse, with your hands placed as for mounting from a block. Get very close to your horse, even brushing the saddle with the front of your shirt or jacket. Bend your left leg at the knee and stick it out behind you. The person giving the leg up will grasp it to thrust you up. You must keep it very stiff and strong from hip joint to knee joint. On a count of three (preferably yours and your helper’s together), you will bounce off your right leg as when using a block and spring into the air as your helper lifts your left leg up. As for mounting with a block, you will twist in the air so you can sit facing front after your leg clears the horse’s croup. Since you do not have one foot in a stirrup to soften your landing on the horse’s back, do that as much as you can by bringing your right hand around to the pommel as you sit to let yourself down as easily as possible.
The person giving the leg up has got the harder job, and should take care to left with the thighs rather than the back, and also not to volunteer to lift someone absolutely too heavy for you should the rider not have much ‘bounce’ to help with.
If you are ready, willing and able to give a leg up, here’s how it’s done. When the rider is in position, stand next to his or her left leg, facing the horse’s rear end. Reach down and grip the lower part of her leg at the calf and just above the ankle with both hands, letting one hand come around from the rear of the leg, the other from the front. Crouch slightly so that you can use your thigh muscles to accomplish the lift. On a mutual count of three, with hands firmly grasping the rider’s leg as explained, rise up, taking the rider’s leg with you. You do not have to turn; the rider will do that and as she or he twists, you will realize it is time to let go of the leg.
Getting and giving a leg up are both fairly difficult tasks, in fact. Not rocket science, as they say, but demanding of the rider’s and helper’s attention, fellow feeling, strength, athleticism and ability to sense when enough is enough in terms of muscle. But it is a useful skill to have around horses, for both rider and helpers, and worth learning. But be warned, you may both look a bit like fools the first few times, and the rider may literally be scrambling onto the horse’s back if either misjudges distance and muscle required and so on. But that’s why there are school horses, unflappable guys that let us practice these things without the horse getting upset and nervous. So don’t you get upset and nervous either; just realize it’s all part of learning the sport.
 
#8 ·
Thanks golden horse, it is what I needed, I guess, it is complicated to explain to someone, because like I said when I was riding English the instructor would take my ankle and I jumping and I was on. At one school they didn't want to see any one mount from the ground only mounting blocks or with help, so you learned to do and help others quickly, apparently not everyone learns that.

Never really thought on how to explain it, just did. Now years later almost everyone I give a leg up too don't try to "bounce" up they think I'm suppose to lift them by their leg?
 
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