Horseback Riding 101

Lesson 8: Getting Good at Trotting

Final Lesson: Preparing for Sitting Trot and Cantering

Cantering is what most people want to do on a horse. They have seen cowboys galloping across the West, the cavalry galloping into movie battles with flags waving, and people in red coats jumping over rock walls in movies about the sporting life in the British Isles.

It is a great gait, but then they all are. But it is a three-beat gait, and those beats aren’t even. Why? Because the horse has one foot, then two feet, then one foot on the ground at once.

The result is a rocking motion, and to ride it, the rider must be both tight on the sides of the horse and in the saddle, and supple so that his or her hips can follow the horse’s rocking back while the legs stay glued to the sides. The arms must also follow the horse’s head, which is acting sort of like cresting waves, coming up and swinging down in a shallow arc.

Holy cow! It can be intimidating at first, but it loses its power to frighten if you wait until you are ready to try it the first time, and if you prepare yourself by learning both techniques and thought processes.

This final lesson in this course will help prepare you to both sit the trot and canter in another set of lessons.

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