how to sit on a VERY bouncy pony

[AprilBlue]

my instructor said that next time i ride, i have to do 40 mins sitting trot with no stirrups however the pony that i ride is VERRRRYYYYYY bouncy in sitting trot, in my opinion especially without stirrups

how am i meant to sit him for that long without thrashing all over his back???

and i don't really like to grip to the saddle because i get quite tense

 

[mandwhy]

Haha I think after 40 minutes of practise you'll have worked it out ;-)

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Does the pony work on the bit at all? I find generally that once a horse/pony is using itself properly and working over it's back it is much easier to sit to, even the really bouncy ones! If the pony tends to go round with it's head in the air being hollow then it is probably going to be very hard to sit to! I would ask the instructor if you could have a lunge lesson with the pony in side reins or similar if she really wants you to do sitting trot, the pony needs to learn to slow down and relax over it's back, ask her about some exercises to help with this. I would try to work on encouraging the pony to stretch lots, down into a contact in all 3 paces (start with walk and then work upwards). If pony is hollow and rushing you trying to sit on it is probably just going to make it tense and rush even more from you being bounced around by it so of no benefit to either party!

Hope that makes sense, just to add, you're not meant to grip the saddle you have to let your legs go long and floppy, trying to grip with them will not help at all. But as I said above, get the pony to work correctly first and it will be much easier to sit to. Is it your pony or a riding school one? If the latter maybe ask to ride a less bouncy one until you get more established in sitting trot before being made to work without stirrups on the bouncy one again.

 

[AprilBlue]

Does the pony work on the bit at all? I find generally that once a horse/pony is using itself properly and working over it's back it is much easier to sit to, even the really bouncy ones! If the pony tends to go round with it's head in the air being hollow then it is probably going to be very hard to sit to! I would ask the instructor if you could have a lunge lesson with the pony in side reins or similar if she really wants you to do sitting trot, the pony needs to learn to slow down and relax over it's back, ask her about some exercises to help with this. I would try to work on encouraging the pony to stretch lots, down into a contact in all 3 paces (start with walk and then work upwards). If pony is hollow and rushing you trying to sit on it is probably just going to make it tense and rush even more from you being bounced around by it so of no benefit to either party!

Hope that makes sense, just to add, you're not meant to grip the saddle you have to let your legs go long and floppy, trying to grip with them will not help at all. But as I said above, get the pony to work correctly first and it will be much easier to sit to. Is it your pony or a riding school one? If the latter maybe ask to ride a less bouncy one until you get more established in sitting trot before being made to work without stirrups on the bouncy one again.

well it is my loan pony from my riding school. in other words i loan a pony that goes to a riding school and at my riding school, they dont do lunge lessons for some reason. whenever i do sitting trot without stirrups, he goes very slow actually, as if he knows that i want him to, but it still is very bouncy.

 

[Suzie G]

My daughter got a new pony about 7 weeks ago who is very bouncy. Her lower leg was always moving, so instructor got her to do 10 minutes at the end of every time she rode without stirrups, few minutes walk, few minutes trot, few minutes canter then pop over a couple of small jumps.

After 2 weeks of riding most days, Her riding is now much better and lower leg back to how it should be.

If u can't ride as much as my daughter does it doesn't matter it may just take a little more time to get a balanced seat.

Good luck

 

[CaitlinCal]

my horse is just like that tried to master his trot by riding bare back but it was so bouncy i ended up flat on my face in the middle of the arena with a very proud looking horse

 

[SallyBatty]

You need to try and relax your whole body so that you are moving with your horse and reach down with your legs as long as you can comfortably. I wouldn't recommend riding the whole 40 minutes in sitting trot though as you will tense up which will make you bounce more which in turn will make your horse tense. The best way is to start by doing a few strides of sitting trot then a few of rising and keep doing that for a while until you start to relax into the sitting trot more.