Rising Trot

[Meg]

As someone who, until recently, has only ridden gaited horses, I've arrived at a new problem...the rising trot. I've had a friend try to explain it, but she mostly rides western so she usually sits the trot. I completely understand the concept, but my body just won't follow what my mind says! Any tips? P.S. It seems I tend to "bounce" rather than going forward. I don't want to do damage to a horse's back trying to learn correct form.

[LadyLimerik]

Maybe try shortening your stirrups a but until you get the hang of it. I don't know much about riding gaited horses so I am not sure how you are used to having your stirrups. What you could also try is thinking of it this way. It might help if you stand in jumping possition. It helps you feel the bet of when you should be posting.

[floppy]

for gaited horses you usually ride with your stirrups longer than you would for normal dressage or general riding..same with western. so what you need to do liek said is shorten your stirrups
have a look here
http://www.newrider.com/Kinder_Way/The_Paces/rising_trot.html
and see if that helps you!:) i havent read it all..

[Dizzy]

I am teaching my neice to ride on a pony to small for me to get on and give an example, she had never seen anyone do rising trot (she could do sitting trot no probs), I tried all different descriptions with no result. Finally this is what I came up with.

Firstly in walk, to tune into the ponies back legs, and say now as each back leg stepped underneath, when she got it right we moved up to sitting trot and got her to do the same but swapped it for one,two as each leg stepped underneath. When she had the rhythm right I said I want you to rise as leg nunber one steps under and fall with number two. It worked, much to my relief.

I hope it helps you

Lesley

[Maci]

First, to get practice of the movement, try it in a walk. What you do is sort of stand in you stirrups, although you shouldn't come too high off the saddle, when when you come up, you gently thrust your pelvis forwards, then return into the saddle. Hope you understand, it is confusing to explain. Try this a few times in walk, and then try it in a trot. When you do it, try to "fit" the movement with the pace of the horse, or in other words, do it to the rythem the horse sets with his pace. If you are rising, what you feel, off rythem, sit two bounces and try again. You should then feel more "in tune".

Good Luck!
Maci :)

PS-(This is for later when you have mastered the movement of the r.trot): When you come up, out of the saddle, you do it when the outside leg is coming forward and sit when it is back. This helps to balance the horse and make it easier for him. To check what diagonal (what it is called) you are on, look at the outside shoulder. *BUT, don't try this until you can generally rise trot, or this will confuse you!*

[fionahogg]

Hi Meg. When you do rising trot try not to think so much about standing up in the stirrups but more of swinging your hips forwards and back. You only need to rise a few inches - try to brush the front of the saddle as you rise. Count the rhythm of the horse's trot, and say to yourself, 'one, two, one, two'. Rise when you say 'one' and sit when you say 'two'. You need to try to stay relaxed otherwise you will bounce. Think about using your knee as a pivot - don't straighten the whole leg as you rise but pivot around the knee. If you are in rhythm with the horse then you shouldn't have to put too much effort at all into the rise because you should use the movement of the horse to push you out of the saddle and back again. So try to get into rhythm and this should make it easier.

Hope this helps!

Fiona.

[floppy]

keep your upper body straight adn dont lean forward

[Jodie]

I dunno if this will help but I recently heard an instructor say to children to push their belly button toward the horses ears in rising trot to help explain exactly how to do it.

Jodie

[Meg]

Thank you for the tips everybody!! I'll try them this week when I get the chance to ride a "non-gaited" horse!!

[Peace]

Meg, I know what you mean - I rode western starting out, and when I switched to english the concept of a rising trot was completely foreign. My instructor had me start by just moving up and down in rhythmn with the trot, although of course you have to just barely touch the saddle when you come down, so you don't hurt the horse's back. I held on to the mane at first and kept the reins bunched in one hand so if I lost my balance I wouldn't bump my patient equine teacher's mouth, either. And I watched other people ride rising trot before every lesson. I am far from the world's most coordinated person, but after about five tries of ten trotting steps each, the correct forward motion just kind of came to me and I wasn't bobbing up and down anymore. I think it helped me to break down the new concept into small pieces and not try to do it all at once.

I've never ridden a gaited horse - there's lots of Tennessee Walking Horses around here, and I'd love to try their "running walk." (The Tennessee Walker people claim it's the "ride with a glide!") What kind of horse have you been riding?

[floppy]

what other breeds than tennese walkers and icelandic horses are gaited?
i've only ever ridden icelandic horses...i prefer gaited horses...

[Peace]

What a good question! I could only think of a few, but I found a site addressed http://www.gaitedhorse.com - there's lots of em!

[Edited by Peace on 23rd May 2001 at 11:21 PM]

[jed lewis]

if your fella needs something to balance
him put a spare stirrup leather round the
neck of the horse .also exsplain he needs to
keep his lower leg undernath him and that his
alinement of shoulder ,hip ,and heel,will help
to balance him .may be he is not ready to
trot yet and with being nervouse this will
make him stiff and tense and to lose rythm.
try to go back to horse movement awareness
and rebalance him and try to exsplain about
the horse trotting by moving his legs in prs
and the horses movement will help with his
rising trot .
jed

[jed lewis]

sorry i have put the wrong post to the wrong
thread its late and im tired ,,sorry guys and
gals jed

[Meg]

Hey Peace and Floppy,
I'm used to riding Tennessee Walking Horses. I've been riding them all my life (since I was 3), so this whole trotting thing is new to me!!

I'll have to check out that site, Peace. Gaited horses aren't the "in" thing right now, but I love them. The walking horse people also say that if you ride one today, you'll buy one tomorrow!

Thanks for the tips,
Meg

P.S. My horses are flat shod as apposed to wearing built up shoes (do they call those "pads"?!?) I can't stand those artificial, animated gates!

[floppy]

its true..once you ride a gaited horse y ou need to buy one :)
i always wanted to buya haflinger but since i been riding icelandics i am now saving the extra few thousand for my own icey! wonderful horses...can do the 3 gaits of a noraml horse (Well sometimes maybe not trot) plus the 2 extra..i havent tried pace yet but im sur ei will sometime soon!
the iceys i ride are shod 'flat' too :)

peace, i looked at that site...there are ALOT more gaited hroses than i thought :D