How do I improve my sitting
trot?
One of the things people want to
know most is:
"how to improve the sitting trot"
It's the number one question I receive
around the world! Beginners, just learning sitting trot want
to know "how to ride the sitting trot" and FEI professionals still want
to work on improving their dressage sitting trot & especially - bouncing
in extended trot or passage/piaffe.
We all want to stop bouncing at the trot.
We would all like to know how to ride an extended trot on "full
throttle", big moving horse or pony.
So, if you're having difficulty riding the
sitting trot, you're not on your own! Learning to sit the trot can
be very difficult! It's all very well if you're young, fit,
confident & flat-chested! You haven't got as much to bounce
(smile). But, if you're
unfit, older & large-chested it's feels so awful, or even hurts so
much, it's enough to give up!
But here are some great ways to improve
your sitting trot...
How to Improve the Sitting Trot
1. Improving the Rider's
Balance
The three best
exercises for sitting the trot are exercises that increase your
balance, strength, timing & confidence:
1►
Test it
out. Still legs improve the rider's balance
2►
Best tip on the
horse! Learn to stand
3►
Check your stirrup length
The first one
"test it out" in the "Still Legs" Article shows you how to test
out if the rider has good balance, or can easily be tipped back
in the saddle. To have good control and balance
through the leg is the first step to a great sitting trot.
Practicing this
"standing exercise" (see photo right). This is the not
just the fastest way I know to learn
how to do
a sitting trot, it teaches you how to improve your balance for
all of your riding, no matter what your sport.
Check your
stirrup length. Not only is it an Official Rule that your
heels must be the lowest point, but it's that levering of the
heel down that stablises the leg, and give the rider balance &
confidence.
A rider needs a
good independent seat before they even attempt sitting
trot. The best way to gain true balance, independence and
control of our body is to do some basic balance exercises on the
lunge, or on a vaulting horse, or even on your own, and the way
to start is to
start with standing.
2. Best tips for Bouncing in
Trot -
Stopping the Rider "Flapping"
Improving sitting trot means getting
stiller and stopping the flapping, nodding & bouncing in sitting
trot:
Here's four best tips to fix the
four major things that start bouncing in sitting trot:
1►
hands
2►
heels
3►
dressage headnod
4►
Bottom bounces in the saddle in
working trot and even bigger bounces
during extended trot
(article to come!)
Needless to say, if the
rider's hands move, their heels bump and their head bobs up and down, then
in response, the horse stiffens, and
lowers their spine tensing and then the horse becomes
impossible to sit on.
One of the fastest
ways to learn how
to not bounce in the saddle when a horse trots is to really see
yourself on video sitting trot.
Your sitting trot video
for the first time might not be easy to watch....but you can't imagine an Olympic runner who hasn't watched their technique and
action on video! In fact, that's a major field of sports
biomechanics: video & motion analysis.
The first step is to get filmed!
1►
Video of sitting trot
2►
compare
to sitting trot videos of the masters
(www.youtube.com)
3►
Check to see
their belly buttons, and check your own "wiggle in the
middle" (article to come)
Then, look at
the masters. There are so many videos now on
www.youtube.com
Have
a look at the Spanish School of riding, and the current riding
champions. SEE THAT THE GOLD BUTTONS DOWN THE FRONT OF
THEIR RIDING COATS DO NOT MOVE!
They absolutely
DO NOT "wiggle in the middle".
There is nothing more valuable than
your seeing your own Video or DVD of sitting trot.
4.
My Best Kept Secret....
It's all very well for young, fit, tall
riders to just hop on a horse and just "sit" - but that never
happened to me. I BOUNCED!
Not only did I bounce
in the saddle, but my chest bounced completely independently of
everything else too! ...and that's NOT what they
call they independent seat! *smile*.
I couldn't do the "normal" sitting trot
like everyone else, and for years and years struggled desperately,
until someone taught me like this:
The trots you know about are:
1) Rising Trot where you sit
when the outside front foot (and inside hind) hit the ground and
then rise. Sometimes called a "single" trot as you're only
sitting in time with one front leg.
2) Sitting Trot when you sit in time with both
front feet (or both back feet). Sometimes called a
"double trot" as you're not rising at all, and sitting
twice as much as rising trot..
But...there is the "third alternative"
which I wasn't taught for years...It's called:
3) Rising Trot -
but your bum doesn't leave the saddle. Yes, that's
right. It is CLEARLY rising trot, not "normal" double sitting
trot (bounce-bounce).
That is, you put a little "rise" in your sitting
trot so that instead of just going "sit-sit", or
"bounce-bounce", you're going "sit-rise", but you're rise is so
small that your bum doesn't leave the saddle.
I often put a dollar bill under someone's bottom and tell them
to do RISING trot, but to keep the money under their bum.
So it's a more forward-back motion than an up-down motion, and
therefore your butt doesn't leave the saddle.
As I said, it's all very well for
talented riders not to have to worry about it, but if you are
large-chested like me I can GUARANTEE nothing will stop them
bouncing completely apart from this "third alternative".
Not ready ...
Sitting trot is not a requirement
until the THIRD year of training. Let's look at this in terms of hours. The
Spanish School eleves work
40
hours per week.
And, the average rider rides only 2 or 3
times a week.
If the rider attempts their
sitting trot before they are able to do the previous movements, then neither
horse, nor rider are following the program of training laid out in
the dressage tests, they are "jumping levels", and there is nothing that
the major texts agree on more than:
THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS!
The older
horse's back is stronger and more "set", the muscles are thicker and
stronger with the ability to hold the rider stiller. A younger
novice dressage horse is bouncier and more difficult to ride until they
can really balance themselves, and then you on top of them.
It's much more difficult to ride
sitting trot on a horse doing novice or training level dressage. If the horse is young, or untrained, or simply unfit, they don't have the
physical ability, balance, and especially co-ordination to be able to hold the saddle still.
And, a moving saddle is harder to sit on than a still saddle!
Perhaps, if you're having
difficulties, then you're just trying too difficult a
movement, or too early.
Above the bit
Another reason why sitting trot is not
introduced until later is that the horse needs to
be on the bit...truly on the bit...for the rider to be able to
sit still, and a novice horse is more 'on the bit' than the preliminary
horse. If the horse is hollow, or forced into a "fake frame",
you will bounce.
So, again, you might be asking too
early.
On the forehand
Often riders think they have to
train the horse to do sitting trot.
It's not so much you're training
sitting trot, is that you have to develop the correct muscles to
enable you to sit the trot.
This
means the horse has to "sit down" bending it's back legs a big
like a kangaroo or a frog. "Sitting down" to be able to
spring. If the horse is too young, or too unfit, or
unprepared they will carry more weight on the two front feet
on the forehand and
it will take a lot of skill in riding the sitting trot!
Too fast - rushing
Even 1 or 2 beats per minute faster than
normal trot makes sitting the trot almost impossible to sit. More information here:
Tempo & Timing. Rushing-vs-labored
Best reading on improving the
trot
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See our new
DVD...
Improve the Horse Rider's
Balance
"The training as an eleve (involves) thorough training on the longe in
order to learn balance and posture required to become a Rider"
Spanish School of Riding
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