So I'm on horse riding holiday in bullgruia at the moment. And yesterday I happen to mention that apartlly I'm going to jump in my next lesson after she said "tomorrow you can try and a 2 point postin" and after that she said you should trot and canter before jumping and i said I do in an arena so she "why not here" and mentioned it was just going up down hills and that didn't seem to pharse her and said she tell guide that could do trot and canter and after I competed my readyness said I don't have canter but I can trot but and said "you'll be fine if you do canter you'll be fine" but shouldn't I have troted uphill in a lesson with someone on the ground first or am I not likely to do that In lesson and would need to go for it at some point anyway I have ended up troting up a short hill here when the horses just decided to do it
Really safe to trot/canter up hills at this stage?
- Thread starter RayRay
- Start date
Trotting and cantering up hill is generally easier, the horses use their hocks more giving a better ride and they tend not to get stronger/faster the further you go as the hill takes the wind out of their sails, plus if you do tip forward a little (as we tend to when learning) it is ok as that is the correct position for going up hill, so it's an ideal situation for your first canter out of the arena, especially if the horses are used to doing it and are calm 
Trotting and cantering down hill is a bit of a different beast, you need to be more balanced (as do the horses) as tipping forwards could tip the horse onto the forehand and if they were to stumble from that it could result in ejection of the rider if they are already off balance, so I'd tend to avoid that until you are comfortable with all the rest
Trotting and cantering down hill is a bit of a different beast, you need to be more balanced (as do the horses) as tipping forwards could tip the horse onto the forehand and if they were to stumble from that it could result in ejection of the rider if they are already off balance, so I'd tend to avoid that until you are comfortable with all the rest Well okay that makes me feel a little better about the troting uphill atough not sure how to rise the trot in the uphill position. Just hope I won't need to do down hill. I'm not sure I would book something like this again without alot more practice first although after this I'm going to be alot more confident riding around the arena.
The uphill position is basically the same, just very very slightly tipped forward compared to the horse, you actually remain vertical but as the horse is going up hill he is no longer horizontal under you, does that make sense?
My boredom at work this morning means I did a terrible picture to try and explain what I mean
Go for it. Unless you book a hacking out ride rather than an arena ride you wont learn about hills. As you are still learning I would avoid trot or canter down hills. But definately trot and canter up them. Dont try too hard to rise to the trot. Stay relaxed and go with the flow of the horse. You will find it easier the more relaxed you are.
You need to stay balanced, you only lean forward a lot if its a really steep hill. I thought of a good example of that, Tevis is the toughest endurance ride there is, and on that ride there is Cougar Rock which is an incredibly steep tough section, this is a pic from tevis on cougar rock
you see how even on this super steep mountain side the rider is still vertical
even though she has leant forwards a lot from the normal 90 degrees to the horse position, she's almost got her body along his neck.Vs someone going up a less steep hill who has only leant forwards a little to stay vertical
To give perspective, this is cougar rock from the bottom, it is crazy steep and most experienced riders
probably
wouldn't try it 
I'm not advising you try anything like cougar rock tho
just using it as an example
But I did see some amazing views doing it yesterday another thing is my hats taken quite a view knocks by trees so I'm thinking I would need to replace it after I've got back home(it probably wasn't in a very senisable on the plane either to be honest) someone here didn't seem to think so she unless it's really hard but I was thinking surly it's still impact right? So should I just replace it?
If the horses are balanced, moving calmly and used to carrying novices there's no increase in risk of falling off.
If it's had a good smack I would, if it were just a gentle knock on a branch I might not. When you say you brought it on the plane, did you carry it with you in the cabin? if you put it in your hold luggage I would definitely assume it would have been knocked about and damaged.
It should have been fine if you carried it on/off the aircraft, it's those bag loaders who put the big bags underneath in the cargo area that would have damaged it, they throw those bags around and pile them on top of each other but as you didn't do that it should be ok.
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