The sitting trot.
The most feared movement to be ridden by hunters and dressage riders alike. Perhaps only the western pleasure rider sitting on a mount bred to jog nearly motionless laughs in the face of the sitting trot.
After all, we POST in order to make riding the trot more comfortable for ourselves as well as our mounts. By rising and sitting in sync with the driving hind leg we conserve energy (ours as well as our horses'), reduce impact and concussion (to our horses' spines as well as our own pelvis), and even remove our self out of the way of our horses' movements so they can bend and flex more efficiently.
However, we need to develop our independent seat so that we can do all of these thing while sitting the trot and in many instances use the sitting trot to get a higher developed communication between horse and rider for certain movements. Or, just be able to competently perform in an equitation class. Which ever your goal for developing you sitting trot, the basics are the same. (PLEASE NOTE individual horses' gaits will make learning sitting the trot more or less difficult depending. They will also shine a bright light on any faults should a horse have a more animated trot.)
This article is being written with the assumption the rider has a competent understanding of a correct posting trot. If you are really not certain on your true comprehension of correct posting trot, NO WORRIES, please read "If less if more, Why does it seem more difficult". And that phrase really applies to the sitting trot as well.
Just like posting many riders try "too hard" to sit the trot. They begin by jamming their heels down in to the stirrup (don't want to lose those), then they round their lower back and press their seat bones down in to the saddle (trainer told you to sit deep after all), then they brace for the inevitable bounce. The first two strides don't seem so bad, but by stride 3 or 4 your horse is annoyed at the thumping on his spine so he gets a bit quicker. Rider becomes more tense through the seat and spine, but DETERMINED not to fail they begin gripping with the backs of their upper thigh as though their bum can hold on to the seat of the saddle. Now horse goes more forward, the cycle repeats and in about 20 strides you have a rider that resembles a badly puppeteered muppet. We have ALL been there. So just HOW are we supposed to stop from doing our best Kermit the Frog imitation?
Posting DOWN.
We know that at the trot one hind leg is driving us up out of the tack and we then follow that leg down to post. So, now I want you to swamp this concept around in your mind. Instead of following the motion of the driving hind leg UP (correct diagonal) I want you to follow the diagonal DOWN.
The reason we bounce at the sitting trot is simple lack of flexibility and following of the motion. It is not a natural reaction for the human body to relax and allow it's self to fall with something drops out from underneath it. In essence this is what happens when we sit the trot. We are not actually being bounced up initially. The horse's back drops from beneath us and our lumbar is tense and our legs grasps hold out of the instinctual fear of falling. By then the horse's back is coming back up and thrusting our stiff body up with the motion making the next stride with the back dropping all the more dramatic; and before we know it, The Muppets Take Manhattan ;) .
To keep this cycle from beginning (and it will perpetuate even as you learn and advance in your sitting trot work as your body tires or you simply lose the rhythm, but don't give up, this is normal) we first need to loosen and stretch our lumbar spine. Start out of the saddle doing daily stretches, practicing belly dance movements concentrating on hip rotations, lifts and drops ("Dolphina" on youtube has fabulous beginner dance videos concentrating on these motions) to begin to feel and control the full range of motion you truly have in your pelvis.
NOW, in the saddle. Begin feeling the motion of your hips at the walk. Lumbar soft, legs relaxed and hanging. As your horse walks you will feel each seat bone move individually (your fitness and flexibility level will affect how much movement you will have in your pelvis). You will feel each seat bone rotate forward with the corresponding hind leg, depending on your horse's walk you may even begin to feel your legs swing in rhythm with your horse's walk! Let. It. Happen. This means you are soft and following the motion.
Next, ask for the jog/trot (best scenario here is to be on a lunge line so you have NOTHING else you need to think about other than feel) with a soft cue from the seat. And just like you would as if you were going to post feel for the diagonal. However, instead of feeling for the inside hind to push you UP I want you to feel for the inside hind to drop and allow your relaxed lumbar to follow the leg, in the same motion of the leg. Therefore your lower lumber is going to allow your pelvis to to move forward and down. As the inside hind leg is again rising (the point at the post your would rise with) you are going to allow your seat to return to the neutral position. Your legs are still hanging, soft, just laying heavy in the stirrup; not pressing forward as this will force your upper body back and restrict your lumbar spine; not gripping around the barrel as this will pitch your upper body forward and tilt you on to your pelvis.
RESIST the urge to thrust your pelvis forward. Thrusting the pelvis forward at the sitting trot will result in the same byproduct as when posting such as getting out of rhythm and driving the horse more forward than intended. The sitting trot is a following motion and while it DOES require the use of some abdominal muscles they are your deep posture muscles that are simply pulling the top of your pubic bone up, tipping it up towards your head and this helps to further stretch the lower lumbar spine to better follow the inside hind leg down and forward. (This muscle will work much harder on a horse with a more animated trot than it will on a flat moving horse). You will know you have these muscles working as you will feel a slight tug in the groin area and often many riders experience cramping in the groin area after working a successful sitting trot. But like ANY muscle used in riding this will soon strengthen and develop.
PRACTICE:
Begin with only a few strides of sitting trot at a time. Small bites at the apple. You may go between posting and sitting or begin sitting trot and drop back to the walk. But only do a few strides at a time that you can complete correctly and then walk or resume posting before we head back to Seasame Street ;) Two reasons.
1. Muscle memory. We want to create a correct muscle memory and you can only do that when the last movement made by your body is made correctly. In the eternal words of George Morris "PRACTICE DOESN'T MAKE PERFECT. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT".
2. Strength. Whether sitting on a western pleasure horse or a springy dressage horse sitting the trot requires muscles and rhythm we do not use in our every day lives. So, even though 5 strides doesn't seem like very many it is the equivalent of NEVER doing pull ups and being asked to knock out 5 of them several times in a row. So take it slow to properly build your muscles so you can refer back to reason number one.
And just think, this is merely the BASICS of sitting the trot. I know it is a LOT to absorb. But, trust me, if you stop trying to sit the trot and start POSTING DOWN you will unlock your body and your brain and begin to find the rhythm and the fabulous feeling of one with your horse. And eventually, you will learn to adapt to what ever trot you end up sitting on that day.
HAPPY TRAILS!!
