There are other ways of getting your horse down on the ground in a hurry, we aren't going to discuss those here. You do this on the horse's time, when they're ready you'll know because the horse will be soft and willing to work with you. Having a horse that trusts you enough to lay them down in their most vulnerable position is a pretty incredible thing. We have learned a lot about the right and wrong ways to teach this to a horse. We'll focus on techniques which work well for both us and the horse.
Safety is the number one issue when teaching a horse to lay down.
This is not something that everyone should rush out and try. If you get injured while out trail riding and can't mount your horse, your horse can come to you so that you can get on. If you are disabled and can't easily get on a horse, this would work well. If your horse is injured and you need to get them down for medical treatment, you can lay them down. The process of laying down We work the horse with a goal in mind of having the horse lay down with us in the saddle.