Posting a Trot & The Correct Diagonal

You are trotting your way around the arena, delighted that you are posting through your heels with strength, until someone bursts your bubble by pointing out that you are on the wrong diagonal… “Sit for two!” they shout your way… And you think ‘Come again!?’

Being on the correct diagonal has to do with rising or posting to the trot. We know that when our horse trots, his legs move in diagonal pairs, the front inside leg with the back outside leg and the front outside leg with the back inside leg. This way of moving, in diagonal pairs, is what creates the two-time beat that we experience in the trot. The 1,2,1,2,1,2… or, when we rise or post to the trot, the up, down, up, down, up, down.

Posting on the correct diagonal in trot is when you are sitting or down when your horse’s outside shoulder (and inside hind leg) are on the ground. This means that you are rising or posting when the same outside shoulder and inside hind leg are moving forward.

When we are first learning to ride and first being introduced to a diagonal, the easiest way to establish which diagonal is correct is associated with which front leg is closest to the wall, or the outside shoulder.

As the inside hind leg comes onto the ground, your horse is at a point where he is most balanced. Your being ‘down’ at this point will help to maintain this balance, particularly around turns, bends and circles. The other consideration or factor with riding the correct diagonal is that you are equally conditioning or working your horse’s back and hind end.

While you are in an arena or an enclosed space and assuming you are working your horse equally on both sides, you can use the wall or fence as your ‘outside’ reference. However, as soon as you leave the arena and perhaps are on the trail or the road, your outside may not change for long periods, if ever, so it is important that you are consistently changing your diagonal periodically throughout the ride.

The next step is to be able to learn how to feel which diagonal you are on at any given time. This takes a lot of consistent effort and focus on your part. You should aim to eventually be able to literally feel which diagonal you are riding on, but until then use your eyes to glance down and make sure you are indeed riding on the correct diagonal.

Be wary of how you use your eyes, though. The term glance is an important one here, because if we begin to lean or even tilt our head down to see what is going on with the horse’s shoulder, it changes our weight in the saddle, which will in turn unbalance our horse and potentially ourselves, too.

Start by practicing this glance at a walk so you can get a feel for it. Take notice of when the outside shoulder is going back and forward. Start coupling your rising and sitting with the horse’s outside front leg movement. It can also help to say out loud what the outside front shoulder is doing, “down, down, down.”

Once you are able to correctly and easily post the correct diagonal using a glance to tell, you can start to work on the feeling of the trot and diagonal. Start by feeling your hip movement as you are sitting and the horse is walking. Take notice of how your hips shift forwards and backwards and what the horse’s legs are doing.

Then start working in a sitting trot. As you focus on your hip movement during the sitting trot you can start to notice that during the ‘bounce’ one of your hips will be higher than the other one. The next bounce will produce the same result, but on the opposite side.

This is the diagonal pairs of your horse’s legs in the trot moving underneath you. You need to begin to isolate what your outside hip is doing, and when it is up, you can begin to rise at that point in the trot. This will be the posting part of your trot; you will rise as your horse’s inside hind leg is moving forward underneath you and as his outside shoulder is moving forward. You will then ‘sit’ as your horse’s inside hind leg and outside shoulder are on the ground and your horse’s body is moving over them.

When we are rising or posting on the correct diagonal, not only is our horse more balanced on turns and circles, but as that inside hind leg moves up and forward, you are rising along with it out of the saddle, and so freeing up some ‘space’ for your horse to move into if necessary.

How our horse engages or uses his inside hind leg is one of the biggest factors in the quality of the gaits our horse produces, the balance, rhythm, tempo and overall performance. Knowing where your horse’s hind legs are at any given time, regardless of the gait you are in, is always a bonus.

Happy Riding!

Happy riding!