quiet hands while trotting

[Meghan]

I am having trouble with my hands whem trying to sit the trot. They seem to be okay when I post, but they go up and down when I try to sit.

The only way I know to get them not to move is to hold onto the saddle, and my instructor tells me to get my hands off the saddle.

Right now, I am using a sidepull with slightly loose reins, so I don't actually jerk the horse's mouth. But I want to work on this.

Does this just get better as I master the trot, or should I be actively working on this?

[LadyLimerik]

Do you get a little tense when you sit the trot? maybe your arms are just not relaxing and so they bounce around. At least that's what I used to do. If that's it then you should just try to keep thinking to relax your arms and see if that helps.

[horselover]

I think that Limerick has the right idea. If your arms are stiff, then they won't be able to move with the motion of the horse's head. Just like your body needs to be moving with the motion, your hands do too. The only difference is that all you have to do to let your hands go with the motion is relax them. You don't have to "pump" like so many paople try to do, you just have to give a little with them.

Your stiffness is probably in your elbows- do you have a tendency to lock them? Before you trot. stop the horse, and drop the riens. do some stretches wiht your arms to lossen them up. Thenpick up the reins and gently bend and unbend your lebows, being careful b/c a sudden movement will startle or hurt the horse.

When you trot, consciously relax your elbows and arms into the position. You still want to have a firmness in your arms- you don't want them flopping around and you still need to maintain contact- but I thnk you are talking about oo much firmness.

Hope this helps, and if the trot is relatively new to you, then don't worry. Most beginners have this problem. It usually goes away when you become more comfortable.

[lamprellsarah]

i have recently been helping my friend out with this problem and he's been riding years, but i picked it up. If you can be put on the lunge then do it like this then get to bottles fill with a little water (keep the top on), then do some trotting look down at your hands and try to rise without the water moving too much the more you do this the less the water will move as you get better, it is hard to do this off the lunge. otherwise you can put a whip in each hand and rest it on your leg, as you rise the whip should hardly move, this is not as effectives, a good book that helps out with all those type of problems is 'riding and schooling' by Clare Albinson