Montar en vs Montar a

[wafflestomp]

Which is more natural/are they just totally interchangeable or what?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by wafflestomp

Which is more natural/are they just totally interchangeable or what?

Both are natural and are not interchangeable.

Montar a caballo, is the act of arching your legs while on top of practically anything, including a horse.

Montar en, is used to describe that you actually got on the horse and went wherever or stayed there, on top of the horse.


hmmm

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

Both are natural and are not interchangeable.

My dictionary makes it more confusing:

montar [A1] verbo transitivo
A
1 ‹caballo› (subirse a) to mount, get on; (ir sobre) to ride; montaron sus corceles y salieron al galope (literario) they mounted their steeds and galloped off (literario); montaba un precioso alazán she was riding a beautiful sorrel; ¿quieres montar mi caballo? do you want to ride my horse?
2 (subir, colocar): montó al niño en el poni he lifted the boy up onto the pony
.
.
.

montar verbo intransitivo
A
1 (ir): montar a caballo/en bicicleta to ride a horse/bicycle
2 (Equitación) (subir) to get on, mount

[aleCcowaN]

Don't forget "montar en cólera" (to become extremely angry)

The fact is that they are set expressions:

montar a caballo
montar en bicicleta/motocicleta

a caballo = acabalgadamente (formal description of that position) = a horcajadas = on top of the X and with X between the legs [X = horse, bull, timber, wall, etc.]

montar = to climb on top of Y and with Y between the legs and using the arms to govern Y, to overcome Y or just to avoid falling from Y, and so perform an energetic activity like locomotion (or figuratively, you can imagine which one ) holding that position all the time.

We say "montar en patineta" (to skate) just by assimilation, but that's pretty much it. You can't "montar una camioneta" unless you are building, repairing or modifying it, or you are Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies when they moved to "Californy". Maybe in some places where English has permeated the language they might use "montar en coche", but that's not normal -or it's normal just among them-.

You can't say

montar en caballo
montar a bicicleta

Some phrases:

montar a caballo
llegó montado a caballo
llegó montado en un alazán [sorrel horse]
se alejó al galope montando el alazán que había robado

montar en bicicleta
montaba una bicicleta roja
se alejó montando una ruidosa motoneta

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

You can't say

montar en caballo
montar a bicicleta

Definitively you cannot say "montar a bicicleta", but "Montar en caballo es una de mis pasiones", I have understood it is correct. I guess you couldn't think of it, hence the confused emoticon.

[aleCcowaN]

Para mí, cuando se monta algo que requiere control por sobre sus instintos naturales, ese algo acaba montado. Uso "en" para todo complemento circunstancial de modo que incluya detalles, pero para mí la acción de gobierno sobre el caballo tiene que ser explicitada. Es como decir "llegó montado en elefante", la persona que llegó estaba puesta encima del bicho mientra que su entrenador y amo lo guiaba, sea a pie o a horcajadas sobre el pescuezote. La preposición hace la diferencia.

montar(se). 1. Cuando significa ‘subir(se) a una caballería o a un vehículo’ o ‘pasear sobre ellos’, puede construirse como transitivo: «El día que pudo montar aquel caballo asesino fue un día de gloria para él» (Egido Corazón [Esp. 1995]); «Se acerca despreocupadamente montando una bicicleta nueva» (Che/Granado Viaje [Arg. 1992]); o como intransitivo, con un complemento introducido por en: «Montaron en sus briosos corceles» (Velasco Regina [Méx. 1987]).

Del DPD