Sitting trot tips please!

[Doormouse]

As long as you don't have to do any steering then there is no shame in holding the front of your saddle to start with just until you are feeling more secure. When little children are learning to ride they often do that and it seems hard on people who start learning when they are older that it is frowned on for them! Even when you have got the reins to worry about as well you can still put 1 or 2 fingers under the front of the saddle as you go into sitting trot to reasure you. I have been riding for 32 years and I still do that sometimes when I'm riding a very sensitive horse and am asking for canter. No shame at all, and it saves any hanging on to their mouths. I also find going floppy very helpful but that requires a bit of confidence to start with. Good luck, you will get it.

 

[[69117]]

ALSO, I've just had a thought!

I had a major accident a few years ago, and for about two years I couldn't ride with stirrups for more than about five minutes - it was just too effing painful! SO, I took them off my saddle and did without unless Yogi decided he wanted to give me a particularly brutal lesson, until I found some swivelly things that don't hurt my legs.

Hacking out with no stirrups has improved my riding a gazillion fold - I can sit on pretty much anything without stirrups, and will happily jump just about anything too, all thanks to some horrendous injuries and a truly horrible accident! Try kicking your feet out of your stirrups while you're out on a hack (only on a horse you feel safe on of course, I'm really not saying what I did was the safe way, but it was the only way I could ride!) - initially just in walk, and then gradually for longer and longer periods until you feel relaxed. Also ask for your instructor to take your stirrups away for a whole lesson - Yogi does this a lot to me even now that I can ride with stirrups, and by the end of an hour you'll find you're thinking more about what you're being asked to do rather than the fact you're doing it without stirrups. My riders have about 50% of their lessons without stirrups on the saddle, and it seems to work brilliantly for them. Once you're comfy without stirrups at the walk and canter, you'll find you've pretty much cracked sitting trot.

Also practice half halts using your body - you see far too many riders half halting by yanking on the reins grrr! - and work on controlling the speed and amount of collection within the trot with your body, that way you know you can always get a trot that you feel comfortable sitting to, and eventually you'll find you don't need to slow down to keep your bum in the plate!

 

[Thelwell_Girl]

I feel your pain!!!

Been riding for donkeys years and always had a mental block when it comes to sitting trot - work it up in my mind that I can't do it, you know the thing.

My latest instructor is just amazing and I truly believe she could teach anyone to ride.

Took me back to basics and gave me a few lessons on the lunge with no stirrups. Taught me to feel the horses stride through my seat and to imagine my hips were rising and falling with his stride (think trotting diagonals). I got a bit carried away with this and did a hula dancing impression at one stage which had us all in fits (don't think the horse was overly amused he just stopped poor boy).

Once you've mastered it without stirrups then re-introduce them, long at first and then just gradually take them up to a normal riding postition.

Worked for me.

Hmm, I'll try that! All the exercises I did really made me realise how much I rely on the reins for balance

when i was a kid, my instructor used to work us very hard in our lessons which was great, so we did loads of work without stirrups, jumping without stirrups, sitting trot with stirrups etc to get a really good seat.
She used to get us to recite the alphabet as we went round with no stirrups so that we had to think about something else and not concentrate too much on trying to sit deeply.
I have to admit it worked really well. By not overconcentrating, it meant that your body naturally moved with the horses movement and you went with the flow.
Worth a go maybe.

Or the trick of both hands on the pommel and then just one hand, and then just 2 fingers, and then one finger and then one finger just resting on the top (no help at all but psychologically seems to make it easier lol!) and doing it that way!

If you are having lunge lessons.....keep going with them, they are fab for that sort of thing!

I really liked the lunge lesson, it was good fun! Had a nice warm up and some FAST canters round the school I'll try doing the Alphabet as I go round, hopefully it'll make me less tense!

As long as you don't have to do any steering then there is no shame in holding the front of your saddle to start with just until you are feeling more secure. When little children are learning to ride they often do that and it seems hard on people who start learning when they are older that it is frowned on for them! Even when you have got the reins to worry about as well you can still put 1 or 2 fingers under the front of the saddle as you go into sitting trot to reasure you. I have been riding for 32 years and I still do that sometimes when I'm riding a very sensitive horse and am asking for canter. No shame at all, and it saves any hanging on to their mouths. I also find going floppy very helpful but that requires a bit of confidence to start with. Good luck, you will get it.

I held on for part of the time, but I did feel reeally bouncy! I think I was tensing up and holding on, so it didnt really work. Hehe, my instructor shouts at me every time I hold on to the saddle going into canter as our horses are good and KNOW how to canter, they just want to be lazy Though, seeing the canter I did off-lunge yesterday, you'd think Bonnie the Coblet was actually Bonnie the Racehorse!

I quite liked doing lots of no-reins work, as it did mean I wasn't trying to balance on the reins and saved poor pony's mouth

Twas also really fun too

 

[Thelwell_Girl]

ALSO, I've just had a thought!

I had a major accident a few years ago, and for about two years I couldn't ride with stirrups for more than about five minutes - it was just too effing painful! SO, I took them off my saddle and did without unless Yogi decided he wanted to give me a particularly brutal lesson, until I found some swivelly things that don't hurt my legs.

Hacking out with no stirrups has improved my riding a gazillion fold - I can sit on pretty much anything without stirrups, and will happily jump just about anything too, all thanks to some horrendous injuries and a truly horrible accident! Try kicking your feet out of your stirrups while you're out on a hack (only on a horse you feel safe on of course, I'm really not saying what I did was the safe way, but it was the only way I could ride!) - initially just in walk, and then gradually for longer and longer periods until you feel relaxed. Also ask for your instructor to take your stirrups away for a whole lesson - Yogi does this a lot to me even now that I can ride with stirrups, and by the end of an hour you'll find you're thinking more about what you're being asked to do rather than the fact you're doing it without stirrups. My riders have about 50% of their lessons without stirrups on the saddle, and it seems to work brilliantly for them. Once you're comfy without stirrups at the walk and canter, you'll find you've pretty much cracked sitting trot.

Also practice half halts using your body - you see far too many riders half halting by yanking on the reins grrr! - and work on controlling the speed and amount of collection within the trot with your body, that way you know you can always get a trot that you feel comfortable sitting to, and eventually you'll find you don't need to slow down to keep your bum in the plate!

Thats wonderful that something good came out of a horrid accident! I do quite like riding without stirrups, especially bareback

I was trying to do a whole lap of the sand school in canter, and to prepare I was working on slowing down and steadying Bonnie's trot, and felt a lot more secure when I did canter, as a result. It was nice to have Bonnie really working and listening though (even if she did do a good sized buck while on the lunge, and I had taken my stirrups away!).