sitting trot - help?

[lilly]

along with about every other equestrian in english i have the age old probelm of not being able to sit my trot. my horse really doesn't help-she doesn't give me a good place to sit (we're working on that along with a nice round neck). I've tried lengthing my stirrups so that i can sit deeper in my saddle but then my heels just go up. i always end up bouncing all over the place or squeezing with my knees, which helps the bouncing but isn't correct position. i also try to follow her motion in my seat bones and hips but then i will get a few steps and miss a whole bunch. slower trot is a lot better but if i ever want to compete i have to keep my trot steady. does anyone have ANY advice on how i can help my sitting trot?! i've even been doing sit-ups to help tighten the abs so i can use those muscles to push myself down in the saddle. okay, this is too long but i'd really love some assistance on this!

[Danni]

Lilly, I know exactly how you feel. I had this problem for so long and thought I'd never get the hang of sitting trot until one day I got the best and simplest advice ever - "just relax". It really, really works. So - just relax and breathe! Good luck.

[Sharon H]

Try just sitting for a few strides at a time. Gradually work up from there. Do, say, four strides, then five etc,etc. As Danni says, the best thing is to relax, as soon as you feel yourself tightening up, go back to rising trot.You could also try having a lunge lesson, that way you can concentrate on your own position without having to worry about controlling the horse as well. You could also try rising to the trot without stirrups.

[Edited by Sharon H on 9th Mar 2001 at 12:47 PM]

[Meghan]

I am still not very great at the sitting trot. Some days are better than others.

I have found that it helps when I relax. My first really good sitting trot was when I was on the lunge line and closed my eyes. I instantly felt the difference, and my instructor commented as well.

If my lesson horse is cooperating and not doing sudden direction changes, I will still close my eyes sometimes during a lesson. I don't know what I am doing differently that actually made the change, but it helps.

Also, I started with the sitting trot in a western saddle. Then we did some bareback riding, still working on the sitting trot. I am currently in an english saddle, and doing both the sitting and rising trot. Mostly working in the rising, but my instructor will have me do a few rounds of sitting between rising. Yesterday, I was to post on the long sides, and sit the shorter sides of the arena.

Now that I have done posting, I am more confident at the trot. If I am bouncing too much while sitting, I can readjust and try again. So I think I am more relaxed than I used to be.

[horselover]

For me, the sitting trot wasn't too hard to get as I did it in westren, which is the way I started. Sometimes, though, I ride the occassionla horse(usually english) with the practically impossible to sit trot. I find that relaxing works very well. When I say relax- I mean your hips and that area. Keep your shoulders inposition and your lower leg wrapped around the horse- like, as is often said here- a wet washcloth. Absorb the motion through your hips and allow your hips to find the motion of the trot and move with it. This is what works best for me. Hope it helps and good luck!

[sally]

to help me and it worked. sit on the ground with
your legs outstretched. now your assignment is to
move your legs forward, by wiggling your hip joint
and butt.wiggle left,wiggle right,etc..now you are
forward. go in reverse.go to the side. now stand
up halfway and move your hip joints in the identical
fashion that you just did on the ground. now sit in
the saddle and get the feel for how that joint must
wiggle. now trot and you will have a real deep seat
as you go with the motion of the horse.credit goes
to teacher on this one!! sally

[Dizzy]

When I was teaching my neice I took away the stirrups but kept her on the lunge line and asked her to concentrate on the ponies stride and tell me when her inside back leg was underneath her. At the same time to keep her pony going forward using her legs but feeling the stride through her bum. When she was accurate with the back leg stride I then asked her to speed up the walk using her legs but moving with the pony with a relaxed bum/lower back, then I asked her to slow down the walk still using her legs and relaxed bum/lower back but with just a soft contact on the rein(in fact she rides on a headcollar fitted with reins so had no contact on the mouth). It took a while but when she discovered that her legs/body could speed up/slow down her ponies pace she moved into to sitting trot quite easily. I let her experiment and play about with this until she knew the 'feel' of her ponies stride. When she started to trot it was only a few strides then back into walk, each time getting longer so that she didn't tense and begin to grip which will only result in the pony speeding up and then the balance is lost.

Hope this helps

Lesley

Another thing I always use is a kneck strap, failing that a firm grip on a lump of mane, kneck straps are best as the pressure on the ponies chest also slows them down as hanging onto thier mouths will encourage them to hollow and give an awkward stride to sit to. Relaxation, breathing and a good feel of the stride is the key.

[floppy]

Well ...really there is only one way to learn how to do sitting trot if you havent mastered it riding normally with stirrups and that is to ride without stirrups...so next time you have lesson or ride...take your feet out of the stirrups...if you cant do it with your feet in the stirrups...th eonly way you will learn you balance and movement is to do without stirrups...everyone shoudl be able to ride trot and canter without stirrups..its the only way you will really find out how to stay on and absorb the horses movement because you will find that occasionally when you ride youw ill loose a stirrup or both and you will have to stay on....and you can only do this if you can ride without stirrups...and dont forget when you do ride with stirrups all your weight should be down in the heals....
try it on lung first without stirrups if you want...but it is the only way! you can always try rising trot without stirrups too..its hard at first...but then it gets easy! :)

[Hevz2001]

I agree with 'floppy' here, trotting without stirrups is scary at first but it really improves your balance, just relax as much as you can, and keep your lower leg on.
hope this helps. :)

[Rocket Rider]

When sitting trot, it is important to keep your hands still at the time and to feel relaxed.

[fionahogg]

The secret to a proper sitting trot is to move your seatbones in time with the movement of the horse's back. Believe it or not, it really is easier done than said!
The horse's back is split into two parts - either side of the spine, and each part moves independently of the other with each stride. Your backside is conveniently also split into two parts!
As the horse pushes off the ground with, say, his right hindleg, the right part of his back will move upwards at the same time, so the right side of your backside must move upwards with the movement of the back. As the hindleg swings under the body, the back will dip down, and so must that side of you.
So, when the right hindleg pushes off the ground, your right seatbone must rise up with the movement of the back. At the same time the left hindleg will be moving under the body so your left seatbone must dip down. And vice versa. You achieve the subtle movement of the seatbones by flexing the corresponding side of the lower back - try it when you're sat down on a hard chair and you should see what I mean.
It sounds complicated, I know, but Heather explains it much better in the 'Kinder way to ride' section of the site.
Riding the trot for a few strides after a transition is good because the transition will encourage the horse to lift his back and this is easier to sit to because you can feel the movement of the back easier.
Riding without stirrups is also good but you must still be riding a proper sitting trot! I don't think its worthwhile to just do loads of trotting without stirrups and bouncing around for ages - you will still end up with the same result, but it would be much less painful and quicker and easier if you learned to sit to the trot properly. It is worthwhile to remember that the stirrup position on most saddles does put you in the wrong position so the movement of the horse is much harder to absorb through the independent movement of the seatbones.
Start by trying to move your seatbones with the horse in walk - he does the same in trot but faster. It may be easier to feel with your eyes closed or without a saddle.

Sorry to have waffled on - hope I've made some sense and helped a bit!

Fiona

[Liz E.]

K, guys, I've done a lot of reading an some skimming of this thread. Maybe no one mentioned this, maybe they did. But I learned two little techniques from each of my instructor.

1.(the one I always use) Let your legs hang long (as long as they can in the stirrup,anyway). Let all the weight fall into your heel, and let your heel move with the very gentle side-to-side motion of the horse. Like someone before has said, it's easier than it sounds!

2. I don't really remember doing this a lot, but I remember my insturctor telling me to do this once, so I did. She told me to "Imagine your on a bike. Now start pedaling backward." I think what this did was also give you a feel for the horse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope I helped, and good luck!
Liz

[floppy]

yes when you do sitting trot without stirrups dont grip with your knees..let your legs hang...after time you will suddenly start to absorb the motion of the hrose..just try and relax..you suppose to kep your hands still too but if you hands have a habbit of jiggling about get a strap attached to the front of the saddle that you can use to keep your hands down...oherwise try you hardest to keep you hands still :)

[Bootyfulcobs]

whenever i rode without stirrups, my legs would hang lovely and long and it was soooo comfy, but then the instructor would yell- put your heels down! and when i did that, even tho i was still trying to hang my legs long, absorb the movement and go with it, it felt so unatural to ride with my heel s down- i basically found it impossible to do, but so much easier when i was just trying to hang my legs long... and wrap round them round the horse...

[fionahogg]

If you are trying to force your heels down when riding without stirrups, you will tense your leg muscles up and this will make you unable to absorb the horse's movement. Ask your instructor to explain why s/he wants you to keep your heels down! Also, even when you have your stirrups, your heel should not be forced down as this will render your leg aids ineffective. The heel should only be about 1/2 an inch lower that the ball of the foot, in my opinion.

Fiona.

[Bootyfulcobs]

thanks for that- i always thought it uncomfortable -glad that you can see my point - thankyou!! :)

[msp]

I think a common problem is that people tend to get cause and effect mixed up!

People often tend to talk about keeping you "heels down", or "pushing the heels down", and the assumption is that the effect of doing this is that you will ride better.

The conclusion I have come to (also backed up by Sally Swift's book and others) is that having your heels down is a symptom (effect) of riding with relaxed thighs/knees and ankles (often at the same time as squeezing the horse on with the front edge of the lower leg, which I find tricky :)).

For me it works much better if I concentrate on relaxing and letting the heels go down, instead of pushing them down. In fact I think (not sure about this yet though) that it works even better if the weight is reasonably evenly split between heel and toe, but with a bit more in the heel).

In a similar way, I have found it is tempting to try and stick to the saddle by sucking myself down onto it, and initially I found this works quite well, AS LONG AS your knees/thighs do NOT grip, but when you relax and move more with the horse it works even better with all your leg relaxed (*)! (but not flopping around). Of course it is crucial your lower back flexes with the horses movement and your back is upright (in my case, when my instructor tells me I am upright, it feels like I'm leaning backwards :)).

(*) On the other hand I have seen dressage riders glue themselves down with brut force and its not pretty (to my eyes), they tend to slide backwards and forwards instead of flowing with the horses movement. From Heather's comments in her book, I guess they don't mark down for it?!

Anyway hope this helps!

Have fun
Mark

[kelsey]

I learned to sit to the trot on the lunge by holding the reins in the inside hand and lightly holding the back of the saddle with the outside hand. This helped with my bad habit of leaning forward (esp during transitions.

I didn't ride with no stirrups until I was comfortable with the stirrups. I think that if you are a naturally brave rider, its okay, but otherwise you can become so tense that you get worse, not better.

[Lizabelle]

I not sure if this will help, but...
I find it easier if I really concentrate on relaxing my lower back. No idea why but it helps. I also find it is easier to sit the trot without stirrups. When I start to tense up, I go back to rising trot untl I have relaxed again. Hope this helps !
Elizabeth

[peachy lover]

Don't worry about a thing lilly!! i had a very hard time getting used to my sitting trot too....it will come with time. i found that once i improved my balance i could do it a lot easier. whatever you do, dont lean forward or grip with your knees. keep your legs back and your calf on his/her side. practice doing it bareback and then with no stirips...but if you get frustrated stop or it will get worse!! untill next time....good luck!

***********************************************
a ship in harbour is safe but thats not what ship are for!!!

[HelloKitty]

i dont know whether this is cheating or not but when i have to do sitting trot i always make the horse slow down , it is alot easyer and the horse dosnt mind and he avoids having me bumping up and down, my instructer hasnt said anything either, mind you i suppose its not really a soulution but avoidence. Hope this helps as a tempory thing anyway.

[floppy]

ehm slowing hte hrose down does make it easier but i can tell you it wont be long until your teacher realises you been taking it too easy and makes you make your horse more forward going!
i use to try adn slow the hrose down when iw as younger and my teacher got annoyed with me because the hrose was 'sleeping' hehe...and he wanted me to ride the hrose actively not lazily!

[qwerty]

I personally do not like sitting trot but I have been told 2 ways to do it. :)

The first and easiest way is to pull the pummel on the saddle up with on hand and hold the reins in the other. The only problem is the loss of controll, but if you are good at working the horse with your legs it is ok.

Secondly, imagine that your legs are really heavy and it will keep you in the saddle!

Good luck

Qwerty

;)

[fionahogg]

Lizabelle, probably the reason why relaxing your lower back works is because, when the lower back is supple, you can move your seatbones with the horse and therefore sit to his movement. I described how the seatbones should be moved in an earlier post on this thread. You should 'walk' the seatbones with the movement of the horse's back. This can only be done with a relaxed and supple lower back.

Fiona.

[qwerty]

I did a really goo sitting trot today, it was quite slow at first which helped even though the saddle was slipping!