Any riders or riding instructors on here?

Question

Hi, when I trot, I bounce up and down a lot, how can I improve my trotting so I don't look like a dork bouncing up and down?

Answer 1

Sit your seat. Roll your hips. It's just like having s*x. lol

Answer 2

Try to relax. Ride without stirrups, so that you'll have nothing to push off of. Then, when you trot with stirrups, try to imitate what you were doing without your stirrups.  

Answer 3

first of all every one will do it at first i did it for about a year lol and then all of a sudden it just clicked and i can sit perfectly on the bouncyiest horse in the stable but do lots of trotting with out stirrups that really helps!

hope i helped:)

Answer 4

This is a fun one!

Start at home with the balls of your feet on a step, your knees straight but not locked, and your calves stretched with your heels down. Hold onto a handrail lightly, just for balance.

Keep your eyes up and imagine that you are on a horse! Take a few deep breaths to slow your body down so you can notice how your hips, knees and ankles feel as you...

Pull your belly button in toward your spine, take a nice relaxing breath, and bend your knees. Notice where your hips go as they move back to keep your body balanced over your feet. Keep your eyes up, de-focus your vision so you can feel your body.

Slowly and intentionally, straighten your body, then bend your knees and hips, straighten and bend, breathing and noticing your body. Keep your belly in against your spine. Let your hip joints relax and get wide as you bend your knees, and just practice being aware of your body. Get to know how your hips feel when they are relaxed and bent vs. relaxed and straight.

Now, when you get back on a horse, begin by breathing right when you get into the saddle, and let your body go back into that "relaxed and bent" feeling. Notice how your body feels with your hips, knees, ankles and toes relaxed at the walk. Imagine that your stirrups are the step and practice once and twice standing up in the saddle just as if it's the step. Each time you sit down, let your hips relax more and get wider in the saddle. Just practice what it's like to be relaxed in the saddle.

When it's time to move up into the trot, make sure you are breathing! So many people hold their breath and don't even know it! Riding is all about body awareness, and it begins with breathing!

The trot is a forward gait, lots of motion. Let your body move. You know you have two beats to the trot - one-two, one-two, one-two. Let your body fall into that rhythm, as you breathe and allow the motion to happen. Let the motion happen as you remain aware of your body. Focus on breathing, on relaxing your hips and keeping your belly button pressed up against your spine. Let your legs hang down on your horse's sides, remembering what "relaxed, straight" feels like. If you are posting, you are going from "relaxed-straight" to "relaxed-bent".

Breathe, relax your hips, lift your chest from your belly button, let the motion happen in rhythm, and let your body follow the rhythm.

I hope that helps! It's meditation in motion!

Answer 5

If you ride English style, you need to learn to post.  Even if you ride in a Western saddle, you can still do this to help you maintain control of the bouncing.  Posting is when you sit on one "bump" and then rise slightly in the seat for the next "bump".  In the showring, posting is strictly for English riding.  But if you are just messing around and not competing, posting can really help you control your seat as well as develop better muscle coordination to properly "sit" the trot when you need to.  Google it or ask a more experienced rider to help you through learning to post.

Answer 6

relax relax relax.   The more you try to stop yourself from bouncing, the more you will bounce.  The horse is moving up and down, the goal is to be going in the same direction at the same time.  You will always be going up and down.   It takes time and practice.  

Answer 7

There are two issues at play here.

Less likely...Some horses naturally have a more bouncy trot because their hind end is more engaged.  Other horses trot so smoothly you can set a tea cup on their butts.

If the problem is yours, here's the painful advice.

You are not in balance and not moving properly with the motion of the horse.  Very common with newer riders.  When you start to become tense and thus lose balance and rythym, the automatic reponse is to draw up your knee and probably lean forward.  Of course, this makes the situation worse and then you start bouncing and looking like a dork.  There is no quick cure but here is what I would tell my students.

Drop the stirrups.  This will help stop you from pulling up your knees.

Sit up.  Imagine a sting attached to the top of your head straightening your spine.

Allow your legs to relax and let your hips move with the motion of the horse.

I grew up in a place where winters were really tough.  We seldom rode with a saddle in the winter just because it was too cold.  My early horse years were half bareback on trails and half dressage coach.  I fell off into snowbanks many times.  But eventually, my balance and ability to stay on created a decent rider.  

If you can't imagine going without a saddle for a month or two, the easiest solution (if you ride English) is to get into the two point position (half seat) and stay there for 5 minutes at the halt, then the walk, then the trot, then the canter.  Then spend 5 min. without stirrups at the walk, then the trot, then the canter.  Take your watch and see how long you can last.  My trainer made me do this.  It really hurts.  5 minutes doesn't sound like much, but try it out.  

One of the best trainers I ever had would have flunked out of any equitation show.  He was short, built like a potato, looked like a potato on a horse, but showed very successfully in jumpers.  He had no style or grace but had an astonishing feel for a horse.   His balance was so good it would compensate for his other faults and his horses would perform with excellence.

Work on your balance and feel.  I disagree with other posters about one thing.  There is no home exercise that will help you with this.

Best of luck.

Answer 8

If the horse run slowly you will experience bounching up and bounching down, try to run fast.

Answer 9

I think everyone does that when they are first learning! I suggest that when you ride, relax. Think of relaxing your seat and shoulders, think of melting into the horse, and breathe! Concentrate on your breathing and bodily awareness. I am not sure if you are posting or sitting, but sit how you think the horse would like you to sit, and at least pretend you are comfortable. Ask your instructor to give you lots of lunge line lessons, where you try to build your seat and legs. Good luck!

Answer 10

try this exercise

1.take your feet out of the stirrups

2.roll your knees up

3. lean back

4.now put your feet back in the sturrips and lean forward slightly and keep that position so when you trot you dont put any weight in your stirrups.

Answer 11

I'm assuming yur doing a sitting trot..... my instructer always tells me to relax and to imagine your butt as A 1000 pound weight and just let it drop into the saddle.  I know it sounds silly but it worked for me

Answer 12

first off, before you get on start with some stretches. make sure your legs are loose and warmed up. Then when you get on start by standing in your sturrips, and allowing your heel to drop down, sit back down and pick up a walk. At the walk loosen your shoulder by doing shoulder rolls and take deep relaxing breaths focusing on getting your weight in your seat bones, and your legs long and loose keeping the weight in your heel. Ask the horse to pick up a slow trot, remembering to keep your arms relaxed push your heels down and keep your weight centered.

Don't worry if you don't get it right away! it takes alot of time and practice and learning how to "feel" with your seat and move with the horse.

Goodluck!

Answer 13

Don't worry! I think everyone does this when they first start riding! Just relax and lean back a little, almost pretend you're sitting in an armchair!

Answer 14

get a motorcycle  

Answer 15

yup