Preparing for the Sitting Trot

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sonjanae

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Jul 3, 2019
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I have a tendency to be long winded, so I apologize in advance!
I am a relatively new rider— was always a horse obsessed kid who took any chance I could get to be around horses, but ultimately never had much time in the saddle, and never once had a formal lesson until last year. I had about 4 lessons last year but had to discontinue for various reasons, and now at 22 have found an amazing opportunity at a barn with a very accomplished dressage rider who gives me lessons in exchange for barn chores. I could not be happier as I’m finally able to live out my childhood dream for the first time, but could use some advice!
I’ve only had about 5 lessons (1 a week) at this new place, and have loved every second of it, even at the inevitably frustrating times. I’m confidently posting the trot around the arena, picking up on the correct diagonal, and overall having a blast. Keeping close on the track around corners could use some work, but hey we’ll get there lol! My instructor hasn’t suggested cantering yet, and I suspect it may be a couple more months off at the least, but nonetheless I am incredibly eager. I have 0 fear when it comes to riding, BUT I have a little reservation that’s come up... here’s the deal— my husband rides very well as he’s taken lessons for years, and told me I’ll have to learn to sit the trot before I can canter. When I took casual lessons last year I was actually a bit put off due to the (other) instructor’s horse. He was older, short, and a true lazy lesson pony. It was not only incredibly difficult to get him going at all, but man was his trot the most jarring thing I’d ever experienced. After 4 lessons I still couldn’t even post it, and the RI had me try to sit it, which was even worse. I felt like a sack of potatoes. To be fair, even the RI did warn me that her horse has a harsh trot. So I was very pleasantly surprised to be able to pick up a fairly decent posting trot from the very first lesson on this new horse. He’s a 17hh Warmblood, and I feel that the bigger strides make posting incredibly easy and natural for me. Part of what’s made me want to canter so badly these days is that I LOVE the feeling of just absolutely flying around at a big, strong trot. I’ve been feeling the strong, euphoric desire to go faster! And here comes the BUT part— due to my experience with the other RI’s horse I’m apprehensive about learning to sit the trot. I feel as if I’ll go rigid and unbalanced and fail, as I did in my previous experience. I know going into it tense will cause problems and probably be a self-fulfilling prophesy type of issue, but I can’t help it! The idea of feeling incapable and humiliated again just puts me on edge. So, down to the bare bones of my question: how do I get over the apprehension, and what is some solid advice on how to actually perform the sitting trot when the time comes? My RI is great and I’m sure she’ll give me good instruction, but I’m also looking for more advice and tips just to ease my mind and make me feel a little better prepared! And I’m sure hearing many different takes on it will give me more to go off of than just what my instructor says. Thank you!
 
First welcome to NR :D 2nd embrace the embarrassing, because horses have a way to doing that and we are all life long students of them, we never stop learning or being humbled by them :) 3rd learning a good sitting trot can take years and illude some almost forever, it's tough so don't put pressure on yourself to succeed immediately, 4th you should have already been doing a little sitting trot, in those moments when you first ask for trot, until your horse gets into rhythm you sit and don't start rising, so you're just going to carry that on a bit longer :) think of it as an extension rather than something totally new.
IMO sitting trot always feels much less graceful than it looks, so don't worry too much about the sack of spuds feeling to start with :)
 
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Just relax and don't worry about t, that's only going to make you stiff and unable to follow the movement. Think about it logically,, you couldn't rise to the other horse's trot either, but you can on this one so why shouldn't you find sitting to it easier too? Going into canter doesn't require huge amounts of sitting trot first anyway, just three strides is normal to ask when the correct legs are coming through to get the lead you want, so probably no different to what you do when asking for walk to trot or trot to walk.

I suspect the big difference between this horse and the last one is partly the longer stride & partly if he's owned and trained by a dressage rider he's better balanced & rounder in his frame. The last two in particular will make learning sitting trot & canter much easier. So stop fretting about it and enjoy yourself!
 
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Welcome to NR :) - the key to sitting trot is to relax, sit up and lean back, let your body absorb the movement.

Sitting trot is NOT a necessary precursor for canter - you can do walk to canter or even halt to canter transitions.

Even from rising (posting) trot you just need to sit, squeeze and give the reins in one fluid movement to go into canter.

All depending on the horse's level of training of course ;)
 
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I didn't learn to do sitting trot before canter. Maybe I should but that's by the by. I still don't do sitting trot that well. And I think it depends on the horse - their way of going and the saddle you are in. It was much easier in J's dressage saddle for some reason. And on him. (That's maybe because I'm not a top level dressage rider because different saddles shouldn't mean less good movements etc but you know what I mean). I don't remember it being brilliant on Storm. Haven't tried it on Zi! I have always just asked for canter right from either walk or rising trot. Hahaha probably a load of old rubbish but it works for us.
 
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Lol just discussing this with Mr T and he remembers being taught sitting trot and doing it a lot! (Though we learnt at the same place!). I still don't remember ever doing more than a couple of strides before going into canter even on the school horses.
(I don't canter much anyway:oops:)
 
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Trewsers said:
I didn't learn to do sitting trot before canter. Maybe I should but that's by the by. I still don't do sitting trot that well. And I think it depends on the horse - their way of going and the saddle you are in. It was much easier in J's dressage saddle for some reason. And on him. (That's maybe because I'm not a top level dressage rider because different saddles shouldn't mean less good movements etc but you know what I mean). I don't remember it being brilliant on Storm. Haven't tried it on Zi! I have always just asked for canter right from either walk or rising trot. Hahaha probably a load of old rubbish but it works for us.
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Not rubbish at all, I totally agree with you
 
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The reason one usually learns to sit trot before one learns canter is that when a horse stops cantering (downward transition) it usually goes into trot and the learner probably needs to balance during those first few steps of trot. The difficulty of sitting the downward transition from canter is why as an elderly rider I was never required to ride canter with no stirrups. Our RI says it is really hard to sit that downward transition.

There have been many threads on NR on how to learn to sit trot and I have contributed to them. You start in walk. As the horse walks you should breathe deep, relax and feel your seat bones alternately rise and fall. They are moving up and down, forst one side and then the other, as the horse moves its hind legs.
In trot, the movement of the hind legs is the same as in walk - feel it first in walk and then try feeling the same thing in trot. In trot it is faster and on a horse with a bumpy trot you may be bounced up from the saddle. But relax and concentrate on feeling that same up down movement. First one hip rising and then the other. Once you feel that movement and allow it to happen you will be able to sit trot.

There is I think a Mark Rashid DVD on learning to sit trot - He is a great teacher tho I dont own that particular DVD as I had already learned to sit trot.
 
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That's why it's important to ride forward in the downward transition - in fact thinking of it as a downward transition probably isn't helpful as all transitions should be ridden with an uphill feel so you keep the hindleg stepping under and therefore the horse more balanced. The more balanced the horse the more secure the rider will feel.
 
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In theory that is good advice carthorse. But the reality of an adult learning to canter for the first time is that the first downward transition from canter back to trot is usually chosen by the horse and not the rider. Even now my first canter on an unfamiliar horse is quite likely to end sooner than I expect. Because I am not confident to ask for fast forward in a school.
I dont know how the RS horses are selected for beginners who enquire here on NR but my experience as a very elderly rider going for WTC proficiency tests is that the safest horse and therefore the one I get to ride may well be over 20 years old. I have twice now been mortified that I was unable to keep the canter going for a full circuit of the school, only to be told that I have done very well.
Not only are beginner canter horses often elderly but they may also stop cantering if they feel their rider is unbalanced.
 
carthorse said:
That's why it's important to ride forward in the downward transition - in fact thinking of it as a downward transition probably isn't helpful as all transitions should be ridden with an uphill feel so you keep the hindleg stepping under and therefore the horse more balanced. The more balanced the horse the more secure the rider will feel.
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Great advice!
 
Skib said:
The reason one usually learns to sit trot before one learns canter is that when a horse stops cantering (downward transition) it usually goes into trot and the learner probably needs to balance during those first few steps of trot. The difficulty of sitting the downward transition from canter is why as an elderly rider I was never required to ride canter with no stirrups. Our RI says it is really hard to sit that downward transition.

There have been many threads on NR on how to learn to sit trot and I have contributed to them. You start in walk. As the horse walks you should breathe deep, relax and feel your seat bones alternately rise and fall. They are moving up and down, forst one side and then the other, as the horse moves its hind legs.
In trot, the movement of the hind legs is the same as in walk - feel it first in walk and then try feeling the same thing in trot. In trot it is faster and on a horse with a bumpy trot you may be bounced up from the saddle. But relax and concentrate on feeling that same up down movement. First one hip rising and then the other. Once you feel that movement and allow it to happen you will be able to sit trot.

There is I think a Mark Rashid DVD on learning to sit trot - He is a great teacher tho I dont own that particular DVD as I had already learned to sit trot.
Click to expand...
Put much better than I could. The only thing I would add, is sit updont lean back. If you lean back you won’t be able to move your hips, which is why people bounce. Word to the wise though, it is much easier to learn to sit to the trot if your instructor, ie the horse, has an educated trot in the first place
 
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