10 TIPS TO HELP YOU SIT THE TROT

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “Can you give me some tips to help me sit the trot better?”
So here are some quick tips to help you with this all too common challenge.

1. First and foremost, your horse needs to be on the bit. If his back is hollow, stiff, or tight, you’ll find it impossible to sit comfortably. (And, in turn, you’ll make your horse uncomfortable too!)
To put him on the bit, use the “connecting aids”. Start in the posting trot on a circle and do the following:
–Close both legs as if you’re asking for a lengthening.
==As your horse starts to surge forward toward a lengthening, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain and recycle the power back to the hind legs.
–Keep giving those aids for about 3 seconds.
==If your horse starts to bend his neck to the outside, give some squeezes and releases with your inside hand to keep his neck straight.
–After 3 seconds, soften back to maintenance contact with your legs and hands.

2. Slow the trot down. Ride “sub-power” and when you can sit easily, increase the impulsion for just a few strides at a time. Then slow down again.

3. Put your horse on the bit in posting trot. Once he’s round, sit for just a couple of strides. Start posting again before you feel like you need to grip with your legs. Reorganize your body, relax your legs, and sit again for just a couple of strides.

4. Cross your stirrups over the front of the saddle. Post without your irons until your legs are tired. If they’re tired, you can’t grip so you’ll sit deeper.

5. Focus on your hips. Notice how they open and close in the walk. Mimic that motion when you’re in sitting trot. You can even exaggerate the motion by pretending you’re sitting on a swing and you’re moving your hips to make the swing go higher.

6. Pretend you’re a belly dancer. As you swing your loose hips, use a buzz phrase like, “Do the hootchie kootchie” or “Swing, swing, swing”.

7. Hold the front of the saddle with your inside hand. (Or use a “grab strap”.) Use that hand to pull you deeper into the saddle so you can learn the feeling of sitting close to your horse and moving “with” him in sitting trot.

8. Attach a small strap (like the bottom strap from a flash noseband) to the outside D ring on the saddle. Pull straight up to pull yourself down deeper into the saddle. This also helps to keep your hands forward in the “work area” so you don’t pull back.

9. Relax your knees and thighs by taking then an inch or so off the saddle for a moment, letting them drop, and then placing them on lightly again.

10. Take longe lessons. This is the best way to develop an independent seat so you can sit the trot easily. Don’t use any reins or stirrups. Let the person longing you handle steering and controlling the speed. Do exercises where you move one part of your body while you keep the rest of your body still. (Arm circles, scissor kicks etc.) Also, just practice sitting deeply on your horse in his traveling gaits as well as through upward and downward transitions.

To learn more about sitting the trot, check out: www.programyourposition.com

Sit the Trot Better and Don’t Lose Your Stirrups

The Incredible Shrinking Leg (or How To Avoid Losing Your Stirrups!)

Ruth and I have been giving a bunch of seat and leg position riding lessons lately, and we’ve discovered some interesting things about the correlation of the pelvis, lower leg, and losing your stirrups.

Does this ever happen to you?

Do you lose your stirrups in the sitting trot?
Does your horse slow down in the sitting trot or when you work without stirrups?
Does your knee come out over the front of the saddle when you’re in the sitting trot or canter?
Does it seem that the more you use your leg, the slower your horse goes?
Do you lean forward no matter how hard you try to bring your shoulders back?
Is your bum smacking the saddle in the canter rather than sliding along your tack?
Is it hard to get up into a standing or 2-point position and keep your balance?
Is it just impossible to keep your heels down below the stirrup bar?

All of these problems could be related to the following position issues.
1. Your pelvis is not in a neutral position.
2. You’re gripping or pinching with your knee.

Here’s how the cycle unfolds.

When your pelvis is NOT in NEUTRAL, it can’t work as a spring or joint to follow your horse’s movement. Most of the time with the problems described above, the pelvis is in a too closed or tight position. As a result, in order to keep your balance, you feel that you have to pinch with your knees to stay in the saddle.

This causes problems.

When you pinch with your knees, your whole leg actually draws upward away from gravity (the ground) and shortens your contact with the seat in the saddle. (When I say “seat”, I’m not only talking about where you sit, but also I’m including your upper thigh all the way down to the top of your boot.) The less length of leg you have around your horse, the less stable you are.

When you pinch with your knees (which also closes your thighs), you actually give an aid for your horse to slow down. Remember, your upper leg should close for downward transitions, and your lower leg should close for upward transitions. Your horse won’t know what to think when you close your ENTIRE leg! This is why when you grip harder in the sitting trot to try and stay balanced, your horse slows down.

By now it’s a catch 22 because the slower he goes, the more you’re squeezing to try and speed him up. And yet the more you squeeze, the slower he goes! You’re squeezing yourself right off the top of the horse. (Like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube).

Pinching with your knees with a closed pelvis also inhibits your body weight from dropping into your heels where it should be. With a pinched knee, you stop the ability of your weight to actually get to your heels. (It’s like putting a “stopper” at your knee like a stopper in the bath tub. Gravity can’t pull your weight down to your heels. The “stopper” at your knee is blocking the weight from going down to your heels just like the bathtub stopper keeps the water from running out of a bathtub.)

Pinching with your knees also leads to losing your stirrups. When your leg is not as long as possible, your weight can’t drop down to the stirrup bar. When your weight is not down on the stirrup bar, your heel comes up and you lose your stirrup.

So there you have it. When you get your pelvis into neutral and elongate your thighs, you’ll solve many problems. Below are a few pictures and images that you can use to help with this issue.

Pelvis too closed Pelvis in Neutral Pelvis too open

Elongate your thighs by thinking “gardening knees”.

For more information and solutions for improving your riding position so you don’t lose your stirrups go to www.programyourposition.com

Sit Centered and Balanced for Effective Horseback Riding

Horseback riding is all about balance and staying centered. You always want to keep your horse in good balance for his stage of training no matter what your discipline.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a dressage rider, a western pleasure rider, a trail rider, or an event rider. Correct balance is essential to effective riding because the center of your balance directly affects your horse’s balance.

Your goal should be to have an independent seat so you can effectively influence your horse as positively and as harmoniously as possible.

In order to have this independent seat, you need to sit in the saddle properly. By that I mean that the both the placement and the position of your pelvis must be correct. This position will, in large part, determine your level of success.

So in your quest for good balance, here’s a great image to help you keep your pelvis in the desired “neutral” position.

Imagine your pelvis is a big bucket filled with water. If you ride with an arched, tense back, the top of your pelvis tips forward, and the water spills out the front of the bucket. In this closed or tipped pelvis position, your seat bones are actually aimed toward the back of the horse.

If you ride with a rounded lower back, the top of your pelvis tips back and the water spills out the back of the bucket. In this position, your seat bones are aimed forward and down, and can sometimes drive the horse’s balance and back downward.

When your pelvis is in a neutral position, you can keep all the water in the bucket. When your pelvis is neutral, your seat bones point straight down toward the ground.

In this neutral position, your body is balanced over your horse’s center of gravity. When you’re in balance with your horse, all things are possible,

So, help your horse find his balance by riding with your pelvis in a neutral position so you can keep all the water in the bucket!

Click on balanced seat for more help with your position.

Use the Dressage Tests and Dressage Competition As A Guide For Moving Up through the Levels

I want to talk about using dressage competition and the dressage tests themselves to help you decide when it’s time to move your horse up to a higher level.

One thing to consider is your scores. If you’re consistently getting scores in the mid 60% to 70% range in your dressage tests, you’re probably ready to move up.

If your scores are consistently in the 50% range or lower, then you know you still have homework to do at that level. I’m not talking about the occasional bad show or class. We all have those. But if your scores are consistently in the 50% range or lower, you need to get some outside help.

Another thing to consider is the differences between the levels. For example, let’s talk about moving up from the Training Level to First Level at dressage competitions.

For me, there are two big differences between Training Level and First Level. The first major difference is that you need to be able to ride your horse consistently on the bit.

At Training Level your horse just has to accept the bit. By that I mean he has to accept a contact from your hand to the bit, and you can direct, turn, and guide him with the reins. But he doesn’t have to be “on the bit”. That is, he doesn’t have to be “round”.

At First Level dressage, he must be on the bit. Ask yourself if you can use your connecting aids to put your horse on the bit. Also, does he stay on the bit consistently?

If you want your horse to stay on the bit consistently, you can’t just give one set of connecting aids and expect him to stay there. You need to layer those connecting aids one on top of another, like coats of paint.

Throughout your dressage test or ride, you’ll give many connecting aids. The first one puts your horse on the bit and the succeeding ones say to him, “Now stay there; stay on the bit.”

So give “connecting aids” by lightly closing your legs and outside hand for three seconds. (Your driving aids create power and your closed outside hand recycles that power back to the hind legs.) Then soften for a few strides. Then repeat.

Another big difference between Training and First Level dressage tests is that you need to be able to sit the trot. At Training Level, you have a choice. You can either sit the trot or post. In the First Level dressage tests, you must sit the trot except in some of the lengthenings.

Then start to look at some of the new movements and exercises you’re asked to do at First Level. Here are three new things you’ll need to show at First Level:

1. To begin, you’ll need to be able to show lengthenings in both trot and canter. As I said in a previous article, if you can maintain the rhythm and tempo of the gait, start incorporating rubber band exercises into your work. Go more forward for a few strides, and then come back for a few strides. Then gradually increase the number of strides so that you can eventually do a trot lengthening across a whole diagonal or a canter lengthening down the whole long side.

2. Also, in the First Level dressage tests, your horse needs to leg yield. One of the questions you should ask yourself is “Can my horse do a turn on the forehand?” In other words does he understand to move away from the leg that is placed behind the girth?

For leg yields, he needs to understand the difference between a leg that is placed on the girth that says, “go forward” as opposed to a leg that is placed behind the girth that says, “go sideways”.

3. You’ll also need to be able to show a few counter canter strides. Can your horse maintain the balance and the quality of his canter as he arcs off of and back onto the long side?

To sum up, use your scores at dressage competitions and the dressage tests themselves as guidelines to help you decide if it’s time to move up. If your scores are consistently good and your horse is adept and confident at doing the work at the next level, you’re probably ready. Give it a shot!

Click here for more tips on dressage tests and competition.

Put Your Dressage Horse On the Bit So You Can Sit The Trot Better

HOW CAN I TELL WHEN MY DRESSAGE HORSE IS ON THE BIT?

Put Your Horse On The Bit To Help You Sit the Trot

Many riders don’t realize that the reason they have trouble sitting the trot, is because they haven’t put their horses on the bit. No matter how good a rider you are, it’s nearly impossible to sit on a back that is stiff and hollow.

The key to making both you and your horse more comfortable in sitting trot, is to connect him so his back is round. You do that with what I call “the “connecting aids”.

Before you try to give connecting aids, check that your horse “thinks forward”. That is, When you close both calves, does he surge forward? If he doesn’t, give him a couple of taps with the whip or a couple of bumps with your legs to chase him forward. Then, ask him to surge forward again when you close your calves lightly. If he gives you a good answer this time, praise him.

Next, ask him to surge forward again, and after his first two strides, close your outside hand in a fist, and vibrate the inside rein. Keep all of these aids on for about 3 seconds. You’re asking for the surge FIRST so you can be sure you’re riding from back to front.

Later on, you’ll give the connecting aids almost simultanoeusly, but you’ll still think of them in this order: Close both legs, close your outside hand in a fist, squeeze and release on the inside rein. Maintain for 3 seconds and then soften.

When you marry those three sets of aids correctly, your horse will come on the bit, and, as a result, it’ll be easier for you to sit the trot.

Click here for more help with sitting a horse’s trot.