staying in trot!

[qwerty]

I sometimes find if quite hard to keep the horse in trot when doing shoulder inns! I try in geantly push forward but then she just goes forward instead of sideways!
Any advice?

[Lgd]

More impulsion needed. Also make sure you are not blocking the horse with your outside leg.

Not sure what aids you are using but I would ask by increasing weight on the inside seat bone, lengthen inside leg down and almost a little forward towards the shoulder. Rider's shoulders should still be square to the horse's shoulders, so it will give you the feel of the inside shoulder coming more over the inside hip and the outside shoulder advancing ahead of your body. Outside leg slightly behind the girth to stop the quarters swinging out. Thigh on the outside soft and a little open to give the horse room to move across, careful not to block the horse's shoulder with your knee. Soft feel on the inside rein to encourage the bend - no pulling or they will fall through the outside shoulder and lose impulsion and don't lock the hand into the horse's neck, Outside rein should control the impulsion and bend but be offering an elastic contact sufficient to stop the horse moving away from the shoulder-in line.

Angle to the track of about 30 degrees. bend in the neck should be only enough so that you can see the corner of the horse's eye & nostril.

Sounds complicated but I've put a lot of the don'ts in as well as the do's.

Another thing that may help would be to imagine you are going to ask for Medium trot, this helps to improve engagement and produces bigger steps.

[qwerty]

I get told to lean back a little though????

[Lgd]

I would get seriously screeched at by any of my trainers for leaning back. If you lean back it will push your seat down and forward and tend to make the horse hollow and lose impulsion - you may have just found the answer to your problem!

[qwerty]

I get told the same for turns on the forehand too! If I don't lean back they wont go at all! It is apparantly pushing them forward with your seat.

[Lgd]

If you did that to my horses you would get the giraffe reaction - head up and hollow. It is OK to put your weight down through the seat but if you put the shoulders behind the movement and seat you develop some very weird weight dynamics. What your instructor may mean is for you to open the shoulders more at the front and drop the shoulder blades more together at the back. The other possibility is that if you have a tendency to be in front of the movement she is trying to get you straight. Try and get a video of some of the really good dressage riders working shoulder-in, I ususally find seeing it worked correctly often helps.