Continued from the previous page,
we will talk about the trot in this page too.
We are going to introduce the sitting trot too.
Once you mastered the rising trot,
let's move onto the sitting trot.
みんなの乗馬TOP ＞ How to improve your riding skills＞How to improve your riding skills:
The Trot, part 2
How to improve your riding skills
日本語 / English
How to improve your riding skills: The Trot, part 2
Rising trot without sitting movement
In previous page, we talked about a several techniques of rising trot.
By practising rising trot, your balancing skills should be improved by now.
Now, let's try the standing trot as shown in the illustration below.
Straight your back, ensure to keep the legs in the correct position not to restrict the horse's movements.
Keep the heels down and imagine you sit your weights on your heels.
Your lower legs gently touch the body of the horse, relax your legs and keep the ankles flexible.
Try with a short distance first and move on to the longer ride as you getting used to the standing trot.
You may find it difficult to well balanced on the horse at the beginning, so you can relay on the reins and horsehair if necessary. Once you got used to it, try not to use the reins.
If you mastered the standing trot, you can work on the canter and ride a horse like professional jockeys.
Sitting trot
When you were practicing the rising trot, you could ease the bounciness off by sitting and standing in turn.
The sitting trot, on the other hand, you cannot avoid the bounces by rising your hips up.
You may find it painful, however, this is also a good practice for the canter.
Although bouncing around, you may grip the horse harder with your legs to take a balance but that is not a good practice.
Gripping with your tense legs makes the horse think you are asking him to go forward faster.
The rider should not leave your body too far from the horse neither, so it is better to 'gently touch' with the horse rather than 'squeeze' them.
As we have mentioned how to balance with the seat bones in the previous walk section, it is important to relax your legs, open your chest and sit straight on the seat bones.
Similarly, imagine your legs come straight out from the seat bones.
As the sitting trot causes greater moves, your hands are likely to move ups and downs. It is important to take a control and keep them in the same position throughout.
Due to the horse's bouncy stride in sitting trot there is a tendency for the rider to become tense which results in the rider being bounced even more.
The main thing with sitting trot is to try and relax, keep the legs relaxed and keep your back soft and relaxed.
Perhaps it is a good idea not to focus on the horse too much, think about something else.
Leaning backwards
If you feel you that you cannot balance well on the sitting trot, your upper body may lean forwards.
Try leaning backwards – even you feel you lean too much, you may not lean backwards as much as you think.
Once you put your weight backwards, you should feel less bouncy.
In the trot, the horse kicks their hind legs harder to mover faster.
Therefore it bounces forwards.
If your upper body lean forwards, you will fell more bouncy.
That's why you need to lean backwards to ease off the pressure and going forwards smoothly.
The image below was taken at a dressage competition.
You can see the rider leans backwards.
If your club has a mirror, check your riding posture on the mirror.
If there is no mirror, it is also a good idea to take a video with your smart phone and see if you are on the correct position.
Usually it looks different from what you expected!
Practice trot without the stirrups
The best practice for the sitting trot might be the trots without the stirrups.
You must not take a balance by squeezing your upper legs – just touched to the horse gently.
Without the stirrups, you must take a balance with your seat bones.
We recommend you to use a gentle horse to start with.
It is more likely to lean forwards without the support from the stirrups, ensure that you keep the straight back.
Open your chest and position your seat bones onto the correct position.
You may feel 'straddling' rather than 'riding' a horse.
Next page, we will introduce the
Canter, which will make your horse riding more exciting!
