Improving rising trot

schneeko

schneeko

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I am helping with a new horse, he's quite nice but lacks muscle. The problem is that the horse also has a loaner who rides him 5 days a week and is quite inexpirienced and has had very few lessons. I'm a bit worried that her riding will be detrimental to the work i'm doing. I'm not allowed to give "lessons" on my yard (because it's owned by a riding school and they want to give lessons themselves) but the loaner doesn't have the money for proper lessons as well as loaning the horse. What exercises could I suggest? She has an armchair seat, where her legs are too far forward and she sits too far back on the saddle, particularly in rising trot.

Thanks

:)
 
TheMule said:
Lots of standing up in the stirrups to find a better leg position and balance
Click to expand...

100% agree!!

Then try and get her to stand for 2 beats and sit for one. Helps to get them to control the sit as most people just colapse and this is when the lower leg shoots forwards.
 
Agree with sneaky 'lessons' suggestion, even if its you standing at the side of the arena offering an 'opinion'...

I used to get folk to imagine what would happen if the horse suddenly vanished from under them and ask would they land, on their face, on their bum, or on their feet, seemed to help people visualise what I was talking about.

If she finds standing for any length of time in the stirrup, try double rises to start with and build from there. Once they have better balance forward seat is good for getting legs into the right place. Stick with going down the long sides to start with once thats going ok then build to the whole arena, well thats what I did with my customers anyway.

Oh, edit to add, is she gripping up anywhere? Sometimes if people are pivoting on there knees rather than using the whole leg to rise, they'll end up with there legs all over the place. Another exercise I used was to ask the rider to think about rising with a hip thrust forward and up rather than a stand up sit down motion.
 
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I was taught the trick with rising trot is to get your knees down and level (if the knees are too high then everything else will be wrong) and to sort of grip with your thighs when you rise leaving the lower leg level still.

1) So as to exercise. Get her to kneel on the floor and just rise with her top half - thats something she can do without a horse to get the feel of rising with thights, not moving bottom half of leg.

2) As to balance, get her standing on one leg (any sort of Yoga balance exercise) to start understanding/improving her balance. Also, anything that will improve her stomach muscles will help her core balance.

3) If she has access to Wii Fit balance board, thats great for understanding balance, as is sitting/doing exercises on a large swiss ball.

4) On the horse, get her to count time as she rises - slowly and then quickly. If she can control her own rhythum, she can then a) influence the horses rhythum and b) has to work quite hard controlling her own body)

Any good?
 
canteron said:
I was taught the trick with rising trot is to get your knees down and level (if the knees are too high then everything else will be wrong) and to sort of grip with your thighs when you rise leaving the lower leg level still.

1) So as to exercise. Get her to kneel on the floor and just rise with her top half - thats something she can do without a horse to get the feel of rising with thights, not moving bottom half of leg.
Any good?
Click to expand...

What a clever way of practising, sometimes it is hard to explain to someone how to swing the hips forward rather than stand up.

My advise to you is to place her feet under her and then tell her to lift her body from her knees, swinging her hips forward. Standing trot is good so long as the rider is able to get the legs under her and stand without pushing on the balls of her feet. Once balanced get her to then sink her knees down. What you could do is show her the difference - show her how she is sitting and rising and then show her how it should be done.
 
That video was really interesting to see, and i've been riding for over 15 years. I think i am rising incorrectly so will have to see next time i am on board. Thanks for posting it, has got me thinking.
 
I go back to the times when rising was referred to as "posting" as that word had nothing to with what I'm doing now! I rode like a cossack - I didn't fall off, indeed, I could lean down and pick up things off the ground while still in the saddle but there wasn't much finess.

Much later I relearnt at ........ ( wait for it ) Fulmer International .... oh a moment of glory - and of course days of agony as my body readjusted to classic dressage style.

How to learn a good posture - take away the leathers! One's seat was the be all and end all in lessons - you didn't get to take up the reins until you'd mastered how to sit.
 
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