Help! Body language boo-boo

[mrbsmum]

So - I think I may have inadvertantly made myself a rod for my own back.

I've been doing lots of groundwork with my mare recently getting her to move out of my space/turn/back up etc just from where I position my body - we have quite a few tight corridors and gates to get through to get from her field to the yard, so it's been quite useful for negotiating these spaces etc. I was feeling quite pleased with myself until recently, when I realised that now, whenever I turn to mount her before a ride she interprets that as either 'back up' or 'step away' depending on where I stand in relation to her shoulder (in front of the shoulder is 'back up' - next to the shoulder is 'move sideways' generally). Obviously I've made a boo boo somewhere along the lines. I've tried keeping my shoulders soft, and even reversing myself into place next to the saddle so as not to give 'move now' signals, but as soon as I turn to put my food into the stirrup she obligingly shifts her quarters over for me.

How do fix this one? How do I communicate 'I would like to move into your space and expect you to stay exactly where you are' to her so we can avoid the daft dance at mounting time?

(As an aside, teeth recently checked, saddle professionally fitted and physio booked to come and check back soon anyway, just in case there is more to it than my bungled body language, don't worry!)

[marsayy]

Gosh I thought someone would have answered this and I'm no expert. Can you move the mounting block around her and make it quite clear that you are intending to mount? She should stand still when you ask her. Maybe you could add this in to you regime. If she can stand still she shouldn't move until you ask her too. I won't tell you in case you already know how to do this and you might think I'm being patronising. Just keep putting her back in the correct position she will get it, sounds a very clever horse. Well done to you.

[mrbsmum]

Thanks marsayy - I have to admit, we've not done much work on 'standing still' in our ground work stuff - mostly stopping, turning, following/not barging. An oversight on my part I think - previous horses I've had have had personal space issues and barging issues, so when I got her I went straight into making sure that doesn't happen, without really thinking about what the impact might be on standing still! I'll start working on that. I normally mount from the ground because she's so small, but yes, maybe a mounting block would be a good way to signal that I want her to stand and mount. Initially. I wouldn't want to rely on it though as we often have to dismount to deal with fiddly gates on our hacks, so she needs to know to stand then too. She picks stuff up really quickly, so hopefully we'll get there soon!