Tips & Tricks for a Strong, Correct Posting Trot

Has your riding instructor ever told you that you shouldn't have sore calves after riding? Or that you should be posting through your thighs and heels? Yet, sometimes we still wake up the next morning with sore calves and wonder how we can improve our posting trot.

Here are some things to think about for a strong, correct posting trot:

• The posting trot is done with the Hamstring Muscles, NOT the Quadriceps. Your hamstrings are on the back of your thigh, the quadriceps on the front. Your quadriceps help you rise out of the saddle and the hamstrings pull you back into the saddle. Often when we start posting the trot we feel the need to rise out of the saddle – but in truth the horse’s trot should push us out if we are in the proper body position for posting trot. From there the only work we need to do is to bring our butt back to home base. The key here is being in the proper body position which includes your upper and lower body.

• Your lower legs must find the widest part of the horse’s barrel. We can have a tendency to allow our lower legs to sit forward, rather than bringing them back underneath us – whether we are sitting or posting the trot. The correct position of the leg is for the calf/heel/foot to hang down straight below the knee or slightly forwards. In order for the hamstrings to be effective in bringing us back to the saddle in the posting trot our lower leg has to be behind the vertical below our knee. And to create a solid leg position if our calf is pulled back until it naturally stops against the widest part of the horse’s barrel means our lower leg will no longer be moving forwards and backwards with every posting stride.

• The knees have to be relaxed. If you are pinching with your knees in the posting trot it pushes your lower leg away from the side of the horse and restricts your ability to bring your body back down to the saddle while posting the trot. A great way to combat this is to practice opening your knees away from the sides of the horse when you rise out of the saddle.

• Stirrups are not for pushing against. This is very common – riders using the stirrups as a means to push themselves out of the saddle in the posting trot. The best solution for this issue is to post the trot without stirrups altogether – an exercise I recommend regardless as it reveals any weaknesses or imbalances in your position, posting timing and rhythm and any tensions in your legs.

• Stirrups can be a crutch. If you’ve ever lost a stirrup (had your foot come out of the stirrup) while posting the trot this is precisely what I am addressing. What did you feel or experience when that happened? Were you off balance, out of sync, feeling panic as you tried desperately to find the stirrup with your foot again? Did you have to bring your horse to a walk or halt in order to regain your stirrup and your position in the saddle before resuming? This is a sure sign that you are using your stirrups as a crutch for balance and this is dangerous in the posting trot… Solution? Practice posting the trot without stirrups and once you are confident with that practice posting with stirrups while you drop them at the same time and separately and pick them back up again without losing your timing, position and balance.

I hope this helps you understand how to have a better posting trot. I know that I do better when I remember these tips.

Also, don't forget to check out my post about posting on the correct diagonal, here.

Happy Riding!