Lesson 6: Basics of the Trot
Posting the walk
Before you begin to trot, you need to learn the motion of posting. Many instructors ask new riders to post the walk.
Unless the rider is a very young child, it is does more harm than good. A very young child will think it is fun. An older child will think it looks stupid. (It does.) And an adult will quickly realize it uses more muscle than it’s worth and even while being strong, the rider is probably sitting down pretty hard on the poor horse’s spine.
So, if you are using these lessons with a young child, you can have the child post the walk, which is nothing more, for a little one, than grabbing some mane very close to the pommel, or a balance strap if one is attached to the front of the pommel on the child’s saddle, and rising up and down, up and down, in some sort of rhythm with the horse’s motion.
