by Hanoverian » Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:57 am
Hm. I think that Toppy and Danazo have pretty much covered it, but I'll go drag out a book and see if that has anything else in it. I've been posting for so long that I forgot how to start it, haha! I hardly ever give book advice, takes to long, but oh well. After time it becomes second nature, when you'll always feel your diagonal and prefer posting to sitting trot.
Here goes: Learning the Posting Trot
Start by standing up in the stirrups to improve your balance on the horse. You may find yourself wanting to grab the reins to help you up, but that makes your horse back up, so it's not a good idea. To stand up, hold onto some mane or the front of the saddle, and stand straight up. Now you're going to sit directly down into the saddle without letting your feet move. If you stood up correctly, your lower leg is in the proper position. Your feet are under your body mass; don't let them move when you sit back down.
Try it again, but this time when you rise, lean your body forward slightly. Feel the horse with your calves. The action is more forward than up, your hips move toward your hands. Keep practicing until you can do this easily, without holding onto the mane or reins. You should feel more like you're kneeling rather than sitting.
After standing up and sitting down several times without falling forward or backward, you're ready to try the trot.
You'll feel two bounces for every stride the horse takes. You'll be in the air when these bounces occur, and sitting in the saddle betwween them. You only sit for a fraction of a second. It's really more like touching the saddle with your butt than sitting down.
Go left around the ring. Chances are that the first time you ask your horse to trot, your derriere is going to bounce! bounce! bounce! against the seat. That's okay. You're learning.
Does this hurt your horse? It's certainly going to make him uncomfortable and you're going to owe him an extra carrot or two after class. But hopefully you won't be doing this for long, and your horse is a patient fellow. Teaching you is how he earns his oats.
Focus on finding the rhythm of the horse. There's a definite sequence to the horse's bouncing. Learn to feel it. Pivot forward from your knees, taking your hips toward your hands and then back. Avoid moving your body straight up and down., Remember, yous should feel like you're kneeling.
Keys to learning the posting trot
,You should feel more like you're kneeling than sitting.
.Your hips should move forward toward your hands and then back, not so much up and down.
DONE! That was my first and last time copying advice from a book. Way to long. >< The book is called, "Getting the Most from Riding Lessons" by Mike Smith.
Hope it helped, because it took forever to type.
