Mounting from the ground puts your whole weight on one stirrup, hanging off one side of the saddle. That torques the tree, drags the saddle across the withers, and loads the back asymmetrically. Repeated a few thousand times it shows up as a sore back and a horse that moves off as you mount, because mounting has become uncomfortable.

A block removes almost all of that. You step across rather than pull up, the saddle stays centred, and the horse stands more willingly because it does not hurt.

Use the block by default at Ocean View Stables. Learn the ground mount too, because one day you will be out on a trail with no block, but keep it in reserve. Learn the off side as well. A horse only ever mounted from the near side finds the other side genuinely alarming, and on a hillside there is often only one place to stand.

1. Position the horse alongside the block, square, and ask it to stand.
2. Final cinch check. Two fingers, tighten if needed. Last chance.
3. Gather the reins in your left hand, even length, short enough to stop the horse but not pulling it back. Rest that hand on the neck with a piece of mane in it.
4. Left foot into the near stirrup, toe in, heel out, so you are not digging into the ribs.
5. Right hand on the far side of the seat or the horn. Not the cantle, it drags the saddle sideways.
6. Rise smoothly and pause standing with your weight over the horse. Check the saddle has not shifted.
7. Swing the right leg clear. Clear means clear. A toe dragged across the rump is how a quiet horse learns to move off.
8. Lower into the seat with your thigh muscles. Do not drop.
9. Find the off stirrup by feel, without looking down and without poking the ribs.
10. Sit still three seconds, then ask the horse to walk on. It moves when you ask, not before.

From the ground the sequence is the same with one change. You stand at the shoulder facing the tail, not the head, body angled back as your left foot goes in.

Here is why. If the horse walks off while you face forward, its movement swings you backwards away from the saddle and you get dragged alongside. Facing the tail, that same movement rotates you toward the saddle. You are carried up and on rather than pulled off and under. It also means you see the hindquarters if they swing toward you.

• Turn the stirrup toward you rather than twisting your ankle into it.
• Spring from the right leg, do not haul on the horn.
• Keep the swing quick and quiet, and land soft.

If you cannot mount from the ground without dragging the saddle across the withers, you are not yet strong enough for that method, and there is no shame in using the block until you are.

Most dismount injuries come from a foot still in a stirrup. This order makes that impossible.

1. Halt properly and let the horse settle. A dismount is not a way of stopping.
2. Gather the reins in your left hand with light contact, resting on the neck.
3. Right foot out of the stirrup.
4. Left foot out as well. Both feet clear before you move. This is the step riders skip, and it is the one that gets people dragged.
5. Right hand on the pommel or horn, lean forward, swing the right leg clear.
6. Slide down facing the horse's side, both hands controlling the descent, landing on both feet with soft knees.
7. Run the stirrups up and take the reins over the head once you are down and the horse is settled.

Dismount on the near side by default, because that is what the horse expects. Teach it the off side too, on quiet days, so that if you ever have to get off on the uphill side of a slope you can.

The emergency dismount is how you leave a horse fast when staying on is worse than getting off. It is one movement, not a sequence.

1. Both feet out of the stirrups in the same instant.
2. Drop the reins, or keep one only if that does not pull you forward.
3. Lean onto the neck, swing the right leg over, push off with both hands.
4. Land on both feet, knees bent, facing the direction of travel, and keep moving with the momentum. Do not try to stop dead.
5. Get clear, then look for the horse.

Practise at a standstill first, then at a walk, on a quiet horse, with an instructor, in soft footing. Learn it before you need it, because you will have about one second to decide.

Use it for a saddle that is turning, a horse heading somewhere genuinely dangerous such as a road or wire, or a horse going down. Not for much else. A bolting horse on open ground is better dealt with by a one-rein stop. Leaving a horse at speed hurts, so it is the option you take when staying on hurts more.

• Loose reins while mounting. The most common one. Fix it before anything else.
• Toe in the ribs. Toe into the girth, heel out.
• Hauling on the cantle. Drags the saddle sideways. Use the seat or the horn.
• Dropping into the seat. A horse that hollows as you land is answering a thump.
• Fishing for the off stirrup with your toe. Find it by feel, or place it by hand.
• Horse walking off before you ask. Halt, get down, and fix the standing on the ground. Every time you let it go, you have trained it.

The pattern is the same throughout. The horse is not defying you, it is answering something you did and did not notice.