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.