How to Trot Your Horse

Trotting or jogging your horse is a faster pace than walking and will allow you to cover a lot more ground. In the trot the horse will pick up and land one front foot and the diagonal hind foot at the same time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Tack up your horse using English or Western tack.

2. Mount your horse.

3. Hold reins firmly yet allow enough slack that the horse can move its head.

4. Sit upright with your shoulders back, head up and eyes looking ahead.

5. Keep 60 percent of your weight in your stirrups and 40 percent in your seat.

6. Begin by having your horse standing still or walking.

7. Squeeze both of your legs to get your horse to move forward.

8. Cluck or kiss to your horse at the same time. These are both noises you make with your mouth to get your horse to move.

9. Release the pressure from your legs once the horse is trotting.

10. Bounce along with each upward movement of the horse or raise yourself slightly out of the saddle each time the horse's outside front leg swings forward (posting the trot.)

11. Get into the rhythm of the horse's movements and relax.

12. Remember to breathe. Holding your breath creates tension in your body that your horse will pick up on.

Tips & Warnings

• Trotting is the English name and jogging is the Western name of this gait.
• Squeeze the horse with your leg from the thigh down.
• Use only slight leg pressure to get the horse to move. If the horse is lazy, dead-sided (doesn't respond to light touch) or stubborn, you may need to bump the horse lightly with your feet. Never kick the horse.
• When you ride, look where you're going, not at the horse's head.
• Wear a helmet for protection.

[agnivansh]

on 7/29/2009 very good advice from all contributors above, found it helpful when put to practice specially MissGenny, thanks

[MissGenny]

on 7/2/2007 No riders should not use the stirrups as a crutch. Balance and thigh contact are important. Heels down at all times. Posting is the horse's motion throwing you up into the air, and the rider controls the descent. Posting 'softly' is good, not alot of air between you and the horse. Sit tall and let your hands be quiet and independent of your body; they should not go up and down when you post. Also, a jog-trot is slower than a trot, but is the same movement in the horse -diagonal pairs. Try riding on the lunge line to practice posting so you can concentrate on the up/down of the horse. This could also be used for western sit/trot. An exercise to increase lower body strength for posting is to sit on the edge of a chair in the correct body position, and post up and down about 15 times. To increase intensity, hold a medium size ball between knees, will also increase thigh grip.

[stayinthesaddle]

on 1/30/2007 You do not post to a western trot. Instead, you learn to move with the horse's natural movement by keeping a good posture (no sitting on your back pockets!) and settling deep into the saddle with a relaxed seat. I encourage students not to rely so much on the stirrups, so I strongly disagree with putting 60% of your weight in the stirrups (this is different for English, obviously). And, do not use your hands/arms/reins for balance. Teach your body to relax and move with the horse, communicating properly with him - therefore, kicking will not be necessary.

[julie123]

on 1/7/2007 If you can not get the rhythm of your horse stand him/her still, and stand up sit down and keep doing that until you are ready to trot again. Also if you ask someone to lead you around and stand and try to find your point where you can balance.

on 9/13/2006 Post by standing up in the saddle and and sitting down with the horse's trot. Make sure you keep your heels down and point your toes up. Every horse has a different trot beat. Don't kick your horse like crazy to make it trot, either squeeze the horse or kick horse not to much. If kick doesn't work, have a crop with you and hit the horse with the crop about 5-7 inches behind saddle pad on the side.