When you do it right you don't even need a girth!

The following is excerpted by permission from ‘The Joy of Icelandics’ by Christine Schwartz. This is a great book in general and the information can be applied to all gaited horses, not just Icelandics.

Mounting The Icelandic Way

Believe it of not, once you get the hang of mounting the Icelandic way you can actually do it without a girth. When doing it correctly you are always in balance making the maneuver much easier for yourself and the horse.

Stand beside your horse facing front, your inside hip touching the saddle flap. To make things less confusing, we will mount from the left. Hold your reins as if you were already riding, which means the right rein in the right hand, the left rein in the left hand with light contact to the horse’s mouth.

Now place your right hand with the rein onto the saddle, just below the manufacturer’s button where the suede leather of the knee roll begins; or hold the off side stirrup leather, whichever is more comfortable. Your left hand guides your left foot into the stirrups and then, again still holding the rein, grab a hold of the horse’s mane about 1/3 up the horse’s neck. As your push yourself up off the ground with your right leg you are also transferring your weight into your right hand and with a little practice you will notice the saddle does not slip. Gently lift your right leg over the horse’s croup and slowly lower yourself into the saddle.

To dismount just reverse the order, or lift both feet out of the stirrups and swing off. When riding a nervous or young horse or one that I don’t know, I will always step off and I am careful to take my right foot SLOWLY out of the stirrup, ensuring it does not bump against the horse’s side.

Practice mounting and dismounting from both sides and you will notice that on some horses it is easier to mount from the left. Strange? Not really. Most horses (like humans) are not built perfectly symmetrical and one side is lower than the other. It is easier to mount from the horse’s higher side, since we have a tendency to pull the saddle towards the lower side.