Horseback Riding 101

Lesson 7: Beginning to Post theTrot

Helpful Hints About Posting

Although riding schools and instructors call beginners up-downers because of how the posting trot has traditionally been taught, forget that term. The motion of posting is not up-down. It is a gentle, controlled thrust forth and back, with just a little lift to clear the pommel. If you think up-down and practice up-down, you will spend too much energy at it, risk injury to your horse and yourself (face it, if you set your pelvis down wrong and hard on that pommel, which you risk with up-down, it will hurt.) Think of it as rocking of the hips, back to front and back again, tilting the top of the pelvis backward as you move the lower pelvis forward and reversing that as you sit back down.

So practice a rocking forth and back motion. If you find you are suffering from friction when you rock forward, lift a little more with your buttocks or thighs. For many people, they have to think about that lift coming not from the back of their thighs, but from a tightening and relaxing of their buttocks. Women, particularly, often have to experiment with the most effective and comfortable muscles to use to accomplish a rhythmic, painless posting trot motion. If you have trouble with that, ask an instructor to observe what you are doing and suggest slight changes in your position that make everything more comfortable. Except for a modicum of muscle fatigue as you learn to use all these muscles in a way you’ve never done before, there should be no pain.

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