Common Mistakes in Sitting Trot

Okay hi everyone I'm Amelia Newcomb and today I'm going to show you a few common mistakes that I see people make in the sitting trot. The sitting trot is something that everyone struggles with I struggle with it I think all riders struggle with it because when you're watching someone set the chart it looks really easy and fluid and everything but when you're actually on the horse sitting the trot it requires a lot of strength and flexibility and balance and really knowing which muscles to engage and then how to move with the horse. I'm going to show you first a few common mistakes I see people make and then how we can work on improving these. This is Mercurio and he is a PRE he's seven this year so he is our demo horse for today so first I'm going to start off with just a nice normal sitting trot and Mercurio is a PRE which PRE's generally have a little bit of a smoother trot which is nice this is one of the reasons that a lot of amateurs like PRE's and do really well with them is that they're not as jarring as the warmbloods. Okay so the first thing that I see riders do is that they try and sit still because when you watch someone sitting the trot you think wow they look like they're sitting really still so let me show you what happens if I sit still this is what happens let me show you again and as I go in front of the camera so if I try and sit still you see how my butt's bouncing my hands are bouncing and he kind of slows down and puts his head up like what are you doing so how to fix this so to fix this I need to actually move it so where am i moving I'm moving in my hip so my hip angle is moving my lower spine is moving a little bit my belly is moving a little bit so I kind of feel like my bat Lee's flopping I'm also moving a little bit in elbows so as my seat is bouncing up and down with his motion my elbows are a little bit moving and then you also see I have a little bit of motion in my ankles because my ankles are also absorbing the motion of the trot so that's the most important thing to realize is that in sitting trot you're actually moving a lot with a horse you're not sitting still good boy okay so the second mistake that I see people make in the sitting trot is that they crunch their legs up so this is what a lot of people do they kind of draw their legs up and grip with their lower leg and you see how he sped up and got a bit tense so a lot of riders too like they'll actually lose their stir up like that because when they sit they tighten everything up and they draw their leg off which is not what you want to do so in the sitting trot you want to think about your legs staying long and your heels going down to the ground so every time he does a little bounce in the trot my heels are going down down down down down down my legs are staying long and this is allowing my hips to move with him it's good boy good boy so if you're finding yourself bouncing in the saddle it's probably because either you're too stiff in your middle or you're drawing your legs up and tightening okay now the other kind of common thing that I see riders do when they sit the trot and I'm sure you've all seen this is riders that do the head nod and I actually had someone ask about this in the course so I'm sure you've seen riders that kind of like do this when they sit the trot like kind of like bobble their head around so this is really not a good thing to do it's really not good for your neck but often if you find that your head is bouncing around again it's because you may have tightness in your lower back and in your hips which is causing you to want to absorb the shock through your head instead of through your hips good boy okay so another common mistake that I see people make in the sitting trot is that they slow their horse way down in order to sit the truck so let me show you I'll demonstrate this to you so it's important that when you sit the trot that you don't take away your horses try so I'm gonna get just a nice working trot going here on the circle and if you're going from rising trot to sitting trot you have to kind of be ready to sit a big forward trot in double-time so what do I mean by that so here I'm going up down up down up down up down now when I sit the trot it's going to be bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bumps and my horse is staying in that nice forward trot so here's what most riders do they have this nice forward rising trot going and say okay I need to sit the trot and I want a canter so this is what most people do is they they sit they don't go with the motion and they get the horses trot really really slow and then they try and pick up the canter from that and they get some kind of a tight transition he did it actually really well here good boy so instead what you need to do is say you're posting the trot you've got a nice forward try now if I'm going to sit the trot I have to kind of psych myself up to sit in double-time and sit this big drop so sit sit sit sit keep that trot really move my hips and go with the motion because you do not want to diminish the quality of your horses trot in order to sit it good boy okay so a great way if you're still having trouble sitting the trot to me the best way to work on it is quality over quantity so I'd rather have you know ten steps of really good sitting trot then to try and sit the trot and just be bouncing on your horses back and have them Hollow and bracing in your hand because that's not healthy for the horses back so one of the best ways to work on the sitting trot in my opinion is to work on it from the walk to pickup sitting trot from the walk so this is it this is easier than doing it from rising trot because you're already your seat is in the saddle so you don't have to get the timing right of when to sit in the saddle so I'm just gonna pick up here sitting trot and then I'm really gonna get a forward trot I'm gonna sit with him but when I feel like I'm gonna start getting tired then I'm gonna make a transition nice and round slowly back to walk so again you notice that my horse is round so it's really important before you try to sit the trot that you have your horse on the bit if your horse is not on the bit and their head is up and their back is down and they're Hollow there's no point in sitting the trot because that's okay buddy there's no point in sitting the trot until your horses on the bit because they're not going to be able to carry you properly and they're not going to be developing the right muscles so again a great way to start introducing little bits of sitting trot is to just play the little game of walking have a nice walk and then picking up that sitting trot and again I'm really focusing on my middle like right here that I'm moving with the horse that my legs are staying long that my toes are staying forward that my hands are staying right with him that I'm not bouncing my hands up down and that I'm just moving in perfect harmony with his motion little boy so let me know what other tips you guys use that have helped you with the sitting trot there's also lots of exercises that you can do when you're not mounted to work on your core strength and I will link in a few videos or clips that I have on that but again your fitness when you're off the horse is really important to consider if you want to improve your sitting trot so I hope you guys like this video don't forget to comment and sign up for my email list and thanks for watching

Channel: Amelia Newcomb Dressage

Views: 115,121

Keywords: dressage, horses, equestrian, training, sitting trot, how to sit the trot, how to sit to the trot, posting trot, dressage rider, dressage lesson, dressage rider position, dressage training, amelia newcomb dressage, bouncing in the saddle, how not to bounce in the saddle, horse, horse riding basics, loosing stirrups, gripping with knees, can't keep foot in the stirrup, how to keep your stirrup

Id: EdHcbd9SU5E

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 18 2019