Well cheer up:') I kind of got my pride dinged a little as I was reading. According to them I should not have progressed to where I am now until I got the mounting down better, including from the ground and a better seat balance without holding the reins . There were some exercises listed I'm going to work on. I was reading about mounting being the most vunerable period and how a bad mount would caz a horse to move and when you lose your seat you are going to bounce all over the place and confuse and cause the horse to go faster and that anyone that can't balance without holding on either going to fall during the ride or after the horse stops but either way you are going off, esp if the synthetic saddle slips. Sigh. Could have been describing me to a T.:')
Well, the thing about books is you can just cross out the parts that you don't like. Take a big black marker and black them out!
Just kidding, but this is silly. ~No one~ just beginning to ride sits and practices getting on and off, on and off, until they are proficient at mounting and can finally ride. You'd get so bored with the drudgery of it you'd give up! New riders get help getting on, some help riding, and they get better over time!
I don't mount from the ground, it isn't an athletic ability test, it's finding a way of getting on that is safe and easiest on horse and rider. I am not a skinny young thing and Bay is really tall. I stand on something to mount, and on trail I at least find a hill or a log to stand on. That's a lot of force pulling sideways and a long ways up. It ~is~ unsafe if it is a major exertion that takes a long time to accomplish. Not if it is easy and faster by standing on something. My friend Bob is also round, and is in his sixtes.... He finds something to stand on too. So does ecurbh for that matter, he's never been told he shouldn't!
That's my take on it anyway.