How to Sit the Trot: 7 Steps to Simplifying the Sitting Trot

The Sitting Trot

7 Steps to simplifying the sitting trot!


by, Riding Instructor, Inge Halliday of Malibu Horses, Inc.

1.Center yourself( find your core): Have your trainer or friend hold your horse for you. Measure approx two to three finger widths below your navel and halfway between your belly and your lower back. Take a moment to close your eyes and just be in your center. Visualize being grounded in your center and connected to your horse evenly....feeling all of the points on your lower body that are in contact with your horse(or saddle).

2. Find seat bones and lower abdominal muscles. While you still have someone holding your horse practice knee lifts; draw your knees up to touch in front of you( start with five). Notice that when you are centered your seat bones sit on both sides of your horse’s spine.
***Imagine those seat bones are flashlights shining at the ground under you. During the sitting trot, when your horse moves your seat, imagine those flashlights shining forward and up in the rhythm of the trot. Gently engage your abdominal muscles to guide your seat bones under and forward. The spine has more range of motion this way.

3.Thighs are key to a strong riding seat . Gently hug your horse with your thighs so you stay with his forward movement. By doing so you will avoid putting excess pressure on stirrups. You must keep your mid waist supple and allow the seat bones to stay in motion as you use your thigh muscles.

4. Elbows. A super important and often overlooked component of a good sitting trot. Make sure your elbows are bent at your side. Make your reins a bit longer if necessary to start out. Keeping your elbows close to your center and your hands low and wide will cause your seat to be continuously pulled deeper into the saddle between your forearms. You can shorten our reins gradually as you ride more from your seat and the reins aren’t pulling you up and out of the saddle.

5. Open your heart! Make sure your chest is properly held open. You can momentarily check yourself by holding your reins in one hand and putting your free hand across your lower back grabbing a hold of your opposite elbow...or putting a long dressage whip across your back. Resting whip on the inner angles of your elbows.

6. Shoulders must be either directly over your seat bones or slightly behind. If your shoulders are in front you will bounce. Everyone does, it’s just physics, English or western it’s all the same.

7. Breathe! Regulate your breathing. Listen to the hoof beats. Four counts in, four counts out. Expanding your belly and lower back as you inhale. This is quite possibly the most important step. When you breathe your body is more supple and in tune with the horse’s motion.

I hope that both yourself and your horse will enjoy the sitting trot more after implementing these steps.