My horse moves away every time I try to mount — how do I fix it?

A horse that consistently drifts away as you prepare to mount has been successful at avoiding the mounting process often enough that the behavior is confirmed. The correction requires that you never complete the mount while the horse is moving — if you get on a moving horse, you teach the horse that moving is acceptable and eventually effective. Set the situation up so you can correct the movement without getting frustrated: use a fence, a wall, or a helper to limit the direction the horse can drift. Position the horse with its right side near a fence so it can only drift left — toward you — which is a less successful evasion and easier to correct. Each time the horse moves, move it deliberately: yield the hindquarters, send it in a circle, back it firmly, then re-position it and try again. The horse must do more work every time it moves, until standing becomes the obvious path of least resistance. Work on standing separately from mounting: practice approaching the horse with your foot in the stirrup, adding weight to the stirrup, leaning over the saddle, and swinging a leg over — stopping and rewarding stillness at each stage without necessarily completing the full mount. This breaks the anticipation cycle the horse has developed around mounting. Some horses move away specifically because mounting has been uncomfortable — check saddle fit, your mounting technique, and whether the horse shows any back soreness that makes the initial weight of mounting painful. Pain-driven movement away will not be resolved by training alone.