Horseback Riding 101

Lesson 8: Getting Good at Trotting

Exercise One

When you have properly warmed up your horse by walking him for five minutes or longer depending on his age, ask him for a trot from a seated position, as if you were going to post. Don’t ask hard for the trot; let it be a slow trot.

Don’t post. Let your belly go like jelly, loosen the ‘hug’ of your legs on the saddle and horse just a tad, and grab a little mane in one hand. Keep looking up and ride four or five steps at the most. Then come back to the walk. Do this five or six times in any session. And remember to do it in both directions.

Repeat, only this time instead of going to a walk, begin to post.

As you repeat this exercise sitting for short interval, before your body gets tense, you will begin to learn the sitting trot. When you think you are ready to try a trip half way around the arena, begin as above, but reach your neck back as if to press it into your collar, and slump just slightly down your spine into your buttocks. For quite a while, your hands will bounce if you let go of the mane, and that will stop or slow the horse. So keep using mane, or let the reins out. Or consider your arms to be unconnected to the rest of your body and keep them still while the rest of you ‘bounces’ in the sitting trot. In aerobics, if you can move different parts of your body in different ways, you can also learn to do this.

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