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Rising Trot:
Improving the horse rider's balance & timing

A good rising trot helps the dressage rider, show & hunter jumper alike, develop their independent seat, stop bouncing & become more 'in time' with the horse's movement.   It improves rider position developing a straight and balanced rider action.

Master trainers in the "speed sports": campdraft, polocrosse, pony club games & reining use rising trot exercises from beginner's circles, to advanced trot movements such as shoulder-in & travers to improve the strength & flexibility of the hind quarter open up the outside "armpit" of the horse and allow great extension.

Most riders find rising to the trot trot easier than sitting, but some riders find sitting more comfortable & confidence building - even the big extended trots!

However if you ignore RISING trot, you are missing out on a very large part of the gymnastic curriculum for horse & rider.   If athletes don't practice a particular exercise - their performance will suffer as a result.   And, rising to the trot is a very important part of riding generally.

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Rising trot is a simple "one-two" beat, where the rider rises and sits at 150bpm (Elton John's Crocodile Rock).

In rising trot, you stand up (posting) & sit down in time with one of the horse's front legs.

How to improve rising trot....

Rising to the trot can be so much easier if you are prepared to practice just a few exercises every day.

Simple trot exercise

1.  Rise only from the knees.  Pretend your stirrups are old and frayed and about to break and you don't want too much weight in the foot to snap them.   Or, pretend you have two marshmallows under your feet, and "don't squash the marshmallows".

Then, change it over...

2.  Do rising trot only from the foot, take the knee off, put ALL your weight in your stirrups, and NONE in your thighs.    Feel how unstable you can become.  Feel how unstable you can become if you don't use your knees and thighs.

Advanced trot exercise

The fastest way to improve your heels, your leg position, balance & independent seat is to learn to stand up.

Start at halt, move to walk, and then ultimately standing in trot.  And, if it's easy, you're not standing up straight enough. 

Have a look at the No. 1 exercise I can give you:
"standing" trot"

Testing the rider's trot

In rising trot it is important to be very straight on straight lines.   Here's some important tests:

1.  Does your belly button track straight. 

2.  If you were on a clockface would your belly button rise towards 12 o'clock, or go crooked off to 11 or 1 o'clock

2.  Does your tail bone land exactly over the horse's spine at 6o'clock, or does it land crooked off to 7 or 5 o'clock

Trot speed

One of my early exams asked me on the paper "what is the No. 1 thing the dressage judge is judging", and the answer = regularity.

The rising trot can be too slow, or too fast, or irregular, going faster & slower.   But, it's so easy to fix! 

1.  Imagine you have a whoopy cushion under your butt.

2.  Rise (posting) & sit in time to Elton John's Crocodile Rock.  

3.  Exaggerate the whoopy cushion.  Really SIT.  Now, if the "rude noise" is in time to the music, then your trot speed is perfect.

If you're in time to the music you won't get the remarks "laboured", or "not enough impulsion" or rushing.

The higher you go, the more important tempo, timing & regularity become.

Rising and Sitting with the Correct leg:
Getting 'in time' to diagonals

A question that's often asked of me is "which leg do I sit with when riding on a circle?"

The answer is you must sit in time with the OUTSIDE FRONT LEG (or inside hind).

The more you practice rising & sitting, the more 'in time' & balanced you will become in rising trot.   You need to train yourself to sit in time with just one of the front legs, and to stay in time with that leg, not losing rhythm, and then, to "double bounce" (or double rise) to sit in time with the other leg whenever you want.

If you only ride in time with one front leg, then you'll only develop those muscles.  You must ride as much in time with the right front foot as you do in time with the left front foot.

In trot the legs work as diagonal pairs.   When the right front foot hits the ground, the left hind foot hits the ground at the same time.

So, the pair right front & back hind hit the floor together.    You need to learn to sit in time with one of the front feet, and stay in time not losing your rhythm (easier said than done!).

You always SIT when the OUTSIDE front foot hits the floor.

Video of Rising Trot

There are many videos of rising trot now available on the internet, but a great way to improve quickly is to get a rising trot video of yourself.  Always watch in the rising trot that the rider's bottom hits the saddle when the outside foot hits the floor.

Teaching correct diagonals

One of the things I am often asked is "which diagonal do rise to"?   Or "which foot should I sit in time with?"  "Which leg do I rise and sit in time with?".  People can get terrible confused.

Just recently I had the honour of working with a lovely Riding for Disabled Rider who just could not learn, and remember, about diagonals.  None of the 'normal' techniques were working.

This is the series of steps that did work:

1.  I got a coloured sticker from my bag and put it on the horse's left shoulder, down near the elbow, and asked the rider to lean over (safely!) and watch it move.

2.  To get started, I called out "left-left-left" when the left foot touched the ground.

3.  Then, asked the rider to imagine they had a whoopy cushion under their butt.  Then stand and sit and make a pretend "fart" (sorry...) noise when they sat.

4.  Now fart in time with the sticker.

There was so much laughing to the point of even stopping dead in the middle of the track to laugh!  

It's funny what rider's dreams are.   To make the Olympics, to win a National Championships.  Well this rider achieved their dream.   After years of trying and trying he finally was on the correct diagonal.  

Sometimes dreams are big,
Sometimes dreams are small
But it's the ones that are achieved
that are the most rewarding of them all
 

 

 

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