Trotting bareback help

Question

Since I moved my horse to a new stables I've been doing more and more bareback riding. My balance is good for walk, and canter, but it's still really bad at a trot. And I know it's probably bothering my horse because he's keeping his head and neck more erect at the trot than the walk or canter.

What are ways that I can help sit a trot? I just watched a Parelli video that I had on Fluidity so I'll be trying their methods since I'm a huge Parelli fan...and I've used alot of their training methods (for cantering bareback, neck-reining, and so on), but I didn't want to just try one thing...I wanted to try many to see what worked best for both my horse and I.

Normally my horse is good about going into a slow trot when i ask, but transitions are killing me and my horse at the moment and sometimes I want to go faster than his western pleasure trot, but not as fast as his canter.

So...how do you stay balanced at a trot (bouncy-fast paced trot)? How long did it take for you to be able to sit it?

Here is a video of me cantering bareback...at the end there is the transition so you can see how horrible it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Fwp0h-vxc

Answer 1

when you trot, you NEED to make sure you sit as deep as you can.. hold yourself with your thighs and rock a little to the trot of it helps. also, your canter is pretty good! kudos to you, but try to keep your upper body a little more in place. by that i mean your shoulders are rocking a little back and forth, and you want to try to keep them in the same place so it looks like a REALLY smooth ride.. as far as a trot goes, it mostly takes getting used to once you know how to do it, so practice a ton!!! ...good luck and have fun!

Answer 2

Keep your heels down and legs long. Don't pull up your knees for balance. Hold on with your thighs and calves. Sit back and on your bottem and just sort of go with the trot

Answer 3

you may want to practice a sitting trot at first with no stirrups or with stirrups (either way with a saddle) and just keep your heels down and let the trot basically go through you. good luck =]

Answer 4

use them thighs more for balance, not the knees

sit up straighter

point heels down

good luck!!

Answer 5

It just takes practice and LOTS of it!

Answer 6

sit on where your pockets would be.

leean back and keep your heels down.

Answer 7

transitions down from a canter bareback are always going to be ruff. your horse neck reins so grab his mane to get used to it. dont grip with your legs. the more you do it the more you'll get used to it.

btw on your youtube video i so came up in the related video tab xD

Answer 8

well, wen i learned sitting trot (like in a saddle) i was told to move my hips foreward and back with each trot step..

So if your standing behind a horse (at a safe distance of course! lol) and the horses back right leg moves foreward, the rider would bring their right hip foreward, and then when the left leg goes foreward the left hip goes foreward..

But i have the same issue trotting bareback.. this technique only helped me a little, but its definatly worth trying! and it did help the trot..

You can also try posting at the trot-even if its not alot it WILL help with your horses comfort.

Answer 9

When trotting bareback squueze your upper thighs as tightly as u can to help stay on. I just today finally got comfortable at trotting bareback. Just imagine your butt glued to the horses back and keep your heels up. If u really trust your horse, it helped me a lot to get into the trot, and then let go of the reins and put my arms out straight (like your flying) it seems really wierd but it helped me SO much with my balance!

Hope I helped you! Good Luck!