little flatwork help please!! medium trot!!

[wildcard]

so ive just stepped my girl up from prelims to do some novices and so far have had okay results usually 58-67% or their abouts now ive never done any dressage until getting this horse so im pretty rusty to say the least but i dont believe in staying at a level where your not challenged or learning hence the move up, so im starting to try and now teach her some of the moves needed to help improve these marks and am finding medium trot particularly a bug bearer shes rising 6 this year and i broke her myself when she was rising 4 turned away etc so am under no illusion that we have LOTS to learn as im sure the whole schooing process hasnt been of a significantly high level as she hasnt been produced by a professional!! so bare with me if i sound dumb at any point its all a learning curve!!

so i started with using poles etc to try and help increase the stride and she does this no problem but when you take the poles away rather than continuing at the same speed but increasing her stride length she starts to rush!! i ride predominantly from my seat as taught by my instructor who is off atm hence asking here. and im finding that as she increases the stride i become unbalanced and so my seat becomes irregular and so resulting in her rushing and us loosing the connection both front and behind?? im finding im getting all or nothing with the trot its either HUGE or normal and no real medium.

is their any exercises or things i should be practicing to try and help improve my seat in order to hopefully help her feel more understanding of my seat aid!!
any help more than appreciated

 

[HBBambee]

Well done for moving up to the next level.
The best way to improve your seat is unfortunately no stirrup work and lots of it, I wouldn't recommend you try working on the medium with no stirrups as she will need to be free over her back and balanced. Ask your instructor for a lunge lesson with no stirrups this really helps to improve length of leg and depth of seat.
As for improving her medium, the best way is to go hacking with another horse and practising out hacking in a field, so she doesn't feel confined to an arena and you have plenty of space. Once you have achieved the mediums out hacking, you can take this to the arena and start by asking for 2-3 steps and then back. Once her 2-3 steps are balanced you can then start to ask for more steps. In novice they only want to see some or a few so 4-5 quality steps is plenty.
I find my medium trots improve and are much easier if I go and work on some LY, walk pirouettes and collected canter work. It really engages the hind end and lifts the front end. Make sure you work on collecting the trot before you ask for the medium. And you should be working on this in all 3 paces not just the trot work.

 

[ischia]

I have found that a half halt before you ask for more trot, ask for 2-4 steps and half halt again to rebalance. During the medium steps really think of rising for longer as you ask for more. I have the same problems with my mare if i push for too much we end up in a heap.

 

[wildcard]

thats brilliant i never thought about lunge work with no stirips definately something ill do as think a lot of her problem is me!!

having only 4-5 good quality steps makes perfect sense i think ive been caught up in trying to maintain for too long and so in essence we maybe do get a few good says very loosly strides but because the whole picture dosent work i get focused on that. can i ask what LY means this might be a totally dumb question?? thanks got stuff to work on

 

[khalswitz]

My lad tends to get a little tense in the medium trot and can shorten the front and rush. I find him much looser and able to properly lengthen after a canter - ill do a canter circle, trans to trot at a, and then ask for a medium on the diagonal. He really gives it some oomph then!

 

[HBBambee]

Wildcard - sorry, me being a lazy typer LY stands for leg yield
I used to get rubbish marks for my medium in novices because I pushed for the whole length of the diagonal, and like you it died at the end became unbalanced and the good steps were lost. Since only doing 4-5 he now gets 7's/8's. A lot of it is the preparation in the corner and not asking for the medium until you are straight and balanced. enjoy working on it