Legging up your horse

Question
QUESTION: What is the correct way to go about legging up your horse ? What excercises, how much time, etc,
Thanks for your help.

ANSWER: I assume the term "legging up," means getting a horse used to being mounted.

Every horse is different with the time factor, but the process should always be the same - slow and steady.

First, get a horse used to having a saddle on, next, work on the mounting - getting the horse used to pressure, after that, work on full mounting and sitting in the saddle. While this seems like a simple process, it is something that requires a great deal of time and patience.

I am not sure how far along you horse is in the process, otherwise I would like to give you specific instruction or exercises to work on. Please get back to me on that so I can provide you with more detail!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I appreciate the information you gave me.  However I think of "Legging Up" it is getting a horse in shape to perform. I have a 10 year old quarter horse mare that I have used for trail riding and team sorting.  The mare has not been ridden in a good while.  I have gotten a variety of answers in how to "Leg" her up correctly.  I wanted to know what was the correct way.  Thank You for your help.

Answer
Conditioning a horse can be done in many ways, there is no one correct way to do it.

All of the performance horses I have dealt with have all been conditioned in a similar fashion, but always have a few minor changes on a horse -to-horse basis.

Here is an example of what we do to condition our show horses after they have had a season off or have just been put out to pasture for the off season:

* We always work on a lunge line or in the round pen first in order to get the horse warmed up to the fact that it now has to work again. The length of time for this process varies, but for us it is normally about 1-2 weeks.

* After the horse is ready to work, we saddle up and do basic flatwork to ensure that the horse is indeed ready to work under saddle.

* If the horse is working well on the flat, we normally will take them out and work them up and down hills to build up muscle mass quickly. If we have horses that are not trail horses, we generally work them in sand - but sand can be dangerous to work in if you are not careful.

* When muscle definition is back and we can work on all of our basic flat work and have no problems, we continue on to whatever advanced moves we need to work on with that particular horse.

* At this point, our horses are in good shape, have been conditioned, and if kept working daily - they are ready for show season.



For your situation, it sounds like you may want to stick with ground work and make sure the horse will still work well for you in hand. If she works well in hand already, she may be a little sour from not being ridden in a while, but the only way to really fix that is to get out there and ride! I wouldn't suggest competition with her, but just getting her back into a good riding condition is going to take you being consistant with her and being patient at whatever sour attitude she may have. Who knows, you could get lucky and have a mare who could care less!

In any event, good luck and safe riding!!