Any tips for sitting trot on v. bouncy horse?

dibbin

dibbin

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As title really, Dylan's trot is very bouncy and I find it very difficult to do sitting trot on him without bouncing all over the place. It's slightly better if I take the stirrups away, but not much.

I'm letting my weight drop into my heels and relaxing my seat and everything lol.
 
Get someone to lunge you at least once or twice a week and practice - its mainly you strengthening your core muscles which will only happen with constant practise.
 
also dont try to make it comfortable. sounds weird but it was only when I just accepted that it is bouncy, that it stopped being so bouncy, I guess cos I relaxed all the muscles instead of tensing in anticipatiob!
 
An old riding instructor once told me about the BUM WALK!!! Where you move your bottom cheeks along with the diagonal movement of the trot, like walking on your bum as your horse is going forward....Sounds funny I know and he basically you have to almost think about your body as separate entities.

So when your are sitting trot your whole body is not one (it is but isn't is you know what I mean!) and you have to allow your bum and hips to really absorb the movement. He said, think about a brick on top of a brick and you shake those bricks around... The top brick will just bang on the other and possibly fall off should the botton brick change direction.... Now he said place a wet cloth on brick and no matter where you shake/move that brick around the wet cloth will absorb every bit of movement!!! So you have to relax but not become dead floppy weight and really think about aborbing the movement, as you know you are going to move around, don't try and sit still. You will look still when you are with the horse!

As you can see I do not have the ability to powerphrase or sum anything up sorry for the ramble!!

xxx
 
I have been told that if cant sit to bouncy trot is cos horse isnt properly though in their back - Sometimes i can sit to mine sometimes i cant and i dont think its cos of me think its sometimes she gets tight behind saddle and doesnt work through properly so may be something in that - but agree with bum walk - each side of pelvis up and down and horses long back muscle moves.
 
A good saddle.

Or a flair flocked one.

Frank is very short coupled so in attempt to do sitting trot you are constantly getting all of the back end power.

I got worried at one point that it was me and I couldnt do sitting trot anymore :eek: but having ridden a few friends horses and managed fine on them its not me :D :p

my dressage saddle was flair flocked and taught me how to sit to his trot, so I could manage it in is GP then. Now have a new multipurpose saddle which fits me really well and I can do it better than in the old GP. I dont persist with it for too long though, its strictly on a 'need to' basis, ie if he is being a spooky sod and I think he is going to try and catch me out mid rise :D :D
 
try, from rising trot, just sitting a few extra beats, then rising again, then sitting extra beats. this will keep you relaxed and stop you tensing up and trying, which usually makes it worse... you tense up, horse tenses against you, and then no-one could sit to it once horse's back isn't letting you in. so, i do
up down up down up down down down up down down down up down down down down down up etc etc, rising the moment it gets too difficult, then relaxing into sitting again, concentrating on staying poised, head above neck above shoulders (not looking down, which pulls you out of balance), soft, relaxed elbows and wrists, shoulders up and back, clavicles open (this really helps me, anyway).
hope that helps.
 
Make sure you have as much as possible of your underneath in contact with the saddle - so don't try to be just on your seat bones, keep them pointing downwards but try to get your knicker gusset stretched into a long diamond from front to back, with the whole of the diamond in contact with the saddle as well as the seat bones.
 
Wow, lots of suggestions! Thanks everyone, will definitely try these next time I ride.

Just thought (although there isn't really anything I can do about this one, as I have literally no money), could my saddle be making things worse? It's a flocked Wintec 2000 GP, and the seat seems rather ... springy, although it's quite old.
 
I tend to focus on not bobbing up and down as such, but my hips swaying from side to side to the movement of the horse, whilst pushing into the balls of your feet (if you have stirrups) to keep the heel down and stop you from gripping with your knees which is v easy in sitting trot.

I definitely think the saddle is making things worse... I rode a really bouncy (and I mean throws you out the saddle even in walk bouncy warmblood) horse in a wintec and felt like I was riding in a racing saddle, absolutely no support at all. Yet we swapped over to a deep seat Lovatt and Rickett saddle and found sitting to his unbelievably bouncy trot no problem at all...
 
kerilli said:
try, from rising trot, just sitting a few extra beats, then rising again, then sitting extra beats. this will keep you relaxed and stop you tensing up and trying, which usually makes it worse... you tense up, horse tenses against you, and then no-one could sit to it once horse's back isn't letting you in. so, i do
up down up down up down down down up down down down up down down down down down up etc etc, rising the moment it gets too difficult, then relaxing into sitting again, concentrating on staying poised, head above neck above shoulders (not looking down, which pulls you out of balance), soft, relaxed elbows and wrists, shoulders up and back, clavicles open (this really helps me, anyway).
hope that helps.
Click to expand...

As a side point, I find this really works to get a horse's attention back listening to me again :)
 
As Kerilli said.

A good tip I was given is to take your legs away from the saddle for a couple of strides just before you think you are about to start bouncing. Tightness through the hips and gripping - even inadvertently - cause bounce.

Also as Kezimac says, if the horse is not working through his back it will be very difficult to sit. As long as my horse is soft it is not a problem but if he tenses or hollows it is impossible so I go rising to resetablish the trot and then go sitting again.
 
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