Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Emergency dismount

From: Kathy

Hi - My daughter is taking begining riding lessons at our local stable. I have heard of a technique called an emergency dismount. I believe it's a kind of vaulting where a rider practices getting off their horse at a walk and a trot, lands and on their which enables them to dismount safely in an emergency. We have taken many precautions with her riding. She is only allowed to ride a 17 year old gelding that we lease that is very calm and she must wear a helmet at all times. Her instructor is very safety conscious but doesn't know anything about this technique though she would be interested in teaching it if she had a video or book about it. Would you have any suggestions?

Dear Kathy -- the emergency dismount can be a very useful skill for riders to know. I teach it to Pony Clubbers and to most of my other students, even the adults. Sometimes it just isn't possible to stay with a horse, and it's good to know how to get off in a hurry, at speed, as safely as possible. Let's say that you're out for a ride and something really frightens your horse and he bolts toward the highway -- if you can't stop him, slow him down, turn him, or even get his attention, you may need to bail out. Here's one way to learn how.

When I teach the emergency dismount, I use an indoor arena with good soft footing. I put two traffic cones (or overturned buckets, or jump standards -- whatever's available that makes good markers) about twenty feet apart along one wall, and send the horse and rider down the centerline of the arena at a walk (if the rider is stiff, timid, or nervous, we begin by doing the whole thing at a standstill). Then the rider learns to dismount on a "one-two" count --

when she passes the first marker, she says "one!", kicks her feet out of the stirrups, and puts her hands on her horse's neck. When she passes the second marker, she says "two!" and leans forward while still looking up and ahead at where the horse is going. She puts her arms as far as she can reach around her horse's neck, stretches her legs back as far as they can go, and pushes off from the saddle pommel or the horse's withers, bringing her right leg over the top of the horse's back. She lands, bending her knees, still looking up, facing forward, one hand on the reins and ready to run a few steps with the horse, stop him, or let him go -- whatever the situation warrants.

Then we repeat this at a walk, trot, and finally at the canter if the horse will cooperate -- the biggest problem in teaching this move is that the horses tend to try to keep the riders in position, and so begin to move slowly or actually come to a stop as soon as the rider's body starts to come forward and her legs start to move back!

There are other ways of teaching this -- one way involves getting as far away from the horse as possible, rather than landing close to it, on your feet, facing forward and holding the horse. This other method involves a sort of tumbling fall, in which the rider pushes herself away from the horse, folds her arms across her chest, pulls in her head and legs, and makes herself as small as possible, intending to roll on landing. I don't teach this method, but I know people who do, and who believe in it very strongly. I can certainly see that it could be very useful under certain circumstances, but I think anyone who wants to learn this should either learn from an instructor with some experience in gymnastics and tumbling, or should begin by taking a course in basic gymnastics and tumbling, which probably would be a good idea for ALL beginning riders.

In either case, no matter which technique you learn and use, the important thing is that you feel more in control of the situation and of yourself, if not of the horse. I've found that many students benefit from learning emergency dismounts, not because they were afraid of falling off, but because they were afraid of being run away with and not being ABLE to get off the horse!

- Jessica

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