Sitting/rising trot

[Justy]

I have now been riding for 8 weeks and I just can't get the hang of the rising trot!! I'm all over the place when I try! (no laughing please) I have been told that my sitting trot is excellent, the horse I am on is at ease with me doing the sitting trot and I don't find it very un-comfortable, as some said it would be.

Any advice on tips to learning the rising trot would be appreciated. I know what I am meant to do... but its just not working!

I am not going to be competing or anything like that, so not sure if I need to master the rising trot too much.

 

[clipclop]

Do you find sitting trot easy with your feet in the stirrups?

 

[Tempi]

are you having lunge lessons? as this is what you should be having to establish your rising trot.

your instructor should tie a knot in your reins, get you to hol the front of the saddle and then you can 'push' yourself up and down whilst holding on. eventually you can take one hand off, then both.

its hard to learn/get the feel for rising trot when you arent on the lunge as you are having to concentrate on steering aswell.

 

[0ldmare]

My brother leant to ride quite recently and he found rising trot impossible. (Lots of uncomfortable bouncing and just could not get it right no matter how much we irritatingly called Hup, Down...). Anyway he finaly figured out that if he watched one of the horses shoulders (eg the outside shoulder) he could see them moving backwards and forwards with each step. He then made himself sit each time this outside shoulder came back towards him and it worked. Very soon he wasnt having to look. Give it a try!

 

[cazza]

Have always found the best way to teach people rising trot is for them to remember the horse throws you out of the saddle and you just sit back down. You only need to rise out of the saddle a couple of cm's which means you are instantly more secure with your lower leg keeping still. Don't know if you will find this helps, I find it hard to explain in writing.

 

[Coffee_Bean]

I learnt to ride about a year ago and found rising trot impossible, but once one day it will suddenly click and it will be as easy as walking, i know this isn't really advice........sorry and good luck!!

 

[Sal_E]

I don't have any recollection of learning to rise to the tro t so can't offer advice - the hint about watching the shoulder sounds sensible though as it should help you with your timing... Don't worry though, I'm sure it will just 'click' at some point. If it really is bugging you, try to find someone locally who has a mechanical horse; that way they can physically assist you with it & don't have to worry about the horse - you may have to travel a bit to find a mechanical one though...

 

[Dougie]

i used to find rising trot really difficult then one day it just clicked....sitting trot that s a total different kettle of fish as i tend to go to canter lol

 

[puddicat]

Yes you do need to master rising trot because it less tiring and more comfortable for the horse and is used routinely in schooling and hacking and lessons.

First you should be able to balance in the raised position at halt. I would expect your instructor has taught you this, if not it is well worth doing. It should have been explained to you that to maintain balance you will need to incline your upper body forwards slightly. The shrewd instructor will have used the exercise to adjust your stirrups to a length that will make it easier for you to learn to rise based on your body shape and position in the saddle. Balancing in the raised position is hard to maintain for any length of time (you only do it for a fraction of a second during trotting) but I would spend about 5-10 minutes on this exercise making sure that (1) the ankle remained relaxed during the sit and the rise (2) that the rise came from extending the knee and the hip keeping the back straight but soft and at the same slightly inclined angle (3) The the raised position could be maintained with the arms relaxed either hanging loosely or in the normal position for holding the reins.

It is a characteristic of some types of motor skill that learning them requires overcoming an invisible 'barrier' after which the movement is immediately well established and seems easy. Rising trot is a good example of this. Repeated practice is usually successful in the end but the key is to keep varying the approach (instructors job) and trying to invent new ways to understand what it is you're trying to achieve (riders job). So here are some approaches you can try.

First try rising to the walk. The movements of the walk do not make this easy and so as an exercise it lets the instructor assess how naturally coordinated you are and how strong your leg muscles are. I would start by asking the rider to feel and listen the the foot falls and then balance risen out of the saddle for 2 strides then sit for two strides (a stride is clip clop clip clop!) and repeat. Only do this a few times or you will get tired. The next stage would be to rise at the stride rate in walk ie listen clip clop clip clop..... then clip 'rise' clip 'sit' etc. If a rider can do this keeping balance their coordination and muscular development is in excess of that required to do it at trot.

Given the rider that rise at walk and the horse is reasonably well trained, it is possibly simply to ride forward into trot and find the rider can now do a rising trot. This is because the stride rate shouldn't change through the transition if the horsey is well behaved and so the ridr needs only to continue doing the same movement to remain in coordination with the horse. (this sounds easier than it is in practice but with a well behaved horse and good instruction it works!)

Here's another approach. First learn to trot raised from the saddle. You may need to incline your body further forwards to do this at first to remain in balance. Keep your ankles (especially) and knees soft and absorb all the trotting movement using these joints keeping your upper body as steady as possible. This exercise is tiring on your thigh muscles (quadriceps) so a circuit of a 20m x 40m school is enough before doing something in walk for a bit. While you are trotting in this way, notice the movement of the horses outside shoulder (that's the right shoulder on the left rein and vice versa) without looking down! - it will seem to move forwards and backwards. Practice thinking 'sit' as the shoulder moves backwards towards you.
When you can do this without constantly having to check the shoulder to see if you're thinking 'sit' at the right time you can move on to the next bit:

At some point as your trotting in the risen position, 'switch your leg muscles off' as you think 'sit' and drop gently into the saddle but then using your legs again, and the movement of the horse go back to the risen position and hold it. practice this so that you do a single sit every few stride in rhthym. If you can do this you are nearly there and all that remains it to reduce the time between sits until you can sit every stride (this is because the 'barrier' is to do with switching your leg muscles off at the right time, once you've done this once correctly you've done the key bit of motor learning).

Good luck, I hope that's useful

PS I think the disadvantage of the 'sit from a constant rise' approach is that it takes lower leg strength and reasonably good balance (not coordination) so there's an amount of judgement in deciding for whom it will work. However, the coordination for rising trot is easier to achieve by switching muscles off than switching them on so if the rider has an unusual difficulty in coordinating the movement it's worth a try. Another exercise out of the same bucket is two or more rises followed by two or more sits. I think this is a superb exercise for developing muscle control, leg strength, coordination and balance especially on the lunge with detailed observation and correction of technique. Would be interested to know who else does this!

 

[giggles mum]

What everyone else said.

But also, here's what I say to the kids I teach who are generally 4 to 8 years old:

Think of the rhythm like a clock ticking: tick tock tick tock tick tock. Say "tick tock" out loud if it helps. A clock doesn't go "tock tock tick tick tick tock" so you can't go "up up down down down up" either.

THis really works for the kids!

 

[Justy]

Thanks everyone!! very much appreciated!

 

[FREESTYLER]

Rise from your knee, that I was taught towards my latter years and helped immensley, you can practise without a horse to, thrust your pelvis forward and back and open the angle of our knee but do not allow the knee to move... if that makes sense...???!!! Then you will not move your lower leg too much...