Of the many fun things you can do while riding, riding bareback is one of my favorite! However, getting on a 16.2 hh mare is not always easy. After searching the web, I tried the "normal" methods of bareback mounting, but they never worked for me. After some thinking, I decided to go the unconventional way. I taught her how to 'bow', and that worked great! If I time it right, I can hop on while she is bowing. Now, that is my favorite way to mount bareback. What is yours?

I used to climb things xD I fell off a fence once when I was younger.. mum was complaining about how naughty my pony was.. and I had to explain to her that I did not indeed fall offf the pony.. but the fence xD 

I'm really short, and I also love to ride bareback, so I bring the mounting block up, grab the reins, and then just sort of vault up. Basically the same way I'd get into a saddle but without the stirrups.

Kirre Potter:

Yes, tried that why too, but my horse is like "nope!" and walks off. lol

Recently I've been getting on bareback by walking the horse up to two bales of shavings stacked on top of each other in front of another horse's stall, standing up on them and then swinging my leg over the back. One of the horses I ride I've done it enough with him that he's fine, the other I have a 'now or never' time slot since he's already trying to walk away to eat the hay that's spread across the isle of the barn.

There's only been a couple horses I've been able to mount from the ground, all the other times I've had to use either a mounting block, stump, or fence to pop on.
There was this one mare who refused to stand close enough to the fence but was patient enough to stand a good couple feet away...well after a few attempts I flying-squirreld my way onto her back and everything was fine and dandy after that. My friend who was in the pasture with me just started laughing at how I actually managed to do that. xD

Haha we have a thing that if you're riding in the arena you MUST use the mounting block (seriously mounting from the ground is nawt good for their backs) so we have this brilliant ramp that's flush to the arena side so you just walk up with your horse and it's great xD it's only on trails that I get uhhhhh creative haha 

I always just used whatever was closest... a bucket, bale of hay, stump, chunk of wood, side of the horse trailer, etc. Nothing fancy! :P

i rode my mare bareback today for the first time in years. i parked her up next to the arena fence which is probably about 1.20m tall, climbed up on it and then from there kind of jumped onto her back haha.

Yeah, I'd never make it lol! I usually get a horse up to something like a truck tailgate.. then climb on. I haven't rode in ages :(

Paints since 6-8-14

I usually find something to climb on or I just jump up. My mare is short though so it isnt hard to jump up

I have recently started riding my horse bareback when I go fetch him way down in the pasture. I have found a little mound of dirt that I can usually navigate and get on. It works about half the time, lol. I wish I had the skills to just hop up there like some of my friends, it would make things so much easier! But he's been really great about getting on bareback and riding through the field - so proud of him :3

My dad was always super firm on not using the stirrup to 'climb' up, so I'm remarkably bouncy.  Even so, I use a mountain strap if I need a boost.  At home, we have rail fences, so i use those too!

My mare is 16 hands and I'm fat lol so we haver to get creative on mounting. 

I step up by my mare's chest, facing her rump, and run two steps and then throw a leg up and on. So swinging up. Sometimes it takes me a couple attempts lol. 

Mounting block or bust. Eagle is such a wiggle worm though I usually have like half a second to get settled.

Link Tree

I always use a mounting block of some sort (my gear box in the pasture works great), I'm not a fan of mounting from the ground but I am not bouncy enough to get on from the ground and even if I was, Bella's ready to get off and marching the second she knows you're ready to get on so you gotta be nimble & you gotta be quick!