# Gallop



## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Lots and lots of trotting bareback. When you can sit a trot or post the trot (post, not bounce), then the canter and gallop are easy peasy.


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## ChieTheRider (May 3, 2017)

Practice. What Maple said. Practice really does make perfect.


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## Cherrij (Jan 30, 2013)

And learning a good half seat!


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## InexcessiveThings (Oct 22, 2016)

I second everyone else here. A lot of practice to improve your seat. Lots of trotting bareback will really help develop your balance which will help make you more secure and will make faster gaits much easier to sit and transition into/out of.


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## george the mule (Dec 7, 2014)

Ummmm, and if you don't want to ride bareback, just kick off your stirrups. It accomplishes the same thing more . . . comfortably


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

^ Just don't cling to the saddle! Arms up!

If you can, lots of work at the longe so you don't have to have reins is even better. Old-school trainers would have students work on the longe for MONTHS before even being allowed to ride with reins or stirrups. Every rider at the Spanish Riding School goes back on the longe, too, and they start off as riders!


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

You bounce at the trot due to stiffness. 

If you jump up and land with your legs straight you will get a jar through your body. It is automatic that when you land you bend your knees to absorb the shock and this is much the same when sitting the trot - you have to allow all your body to absorb the movement. Gripping with your legs will cause a stiffness. (My frost riding instructor would not allow any novice to post to the trot until they had mastered a good sitting trot.) 

There are many ways to learn, as said, riding bareback or without stirrups although both will make the novice rider feel insecure and probably grip more thus causing the tension not wanted. 

A simple exercise, take both reins on one hand and with the free hand insert two fingers under the pommel of the saddle and pull the saddle up. Another thing I would make riders do was to hook their legs over the front of the saddle thus preventing them from gripping. 

Leaning back is not a bad thing to start with, again this might well place your legs forward but again it will stop you gripping up. 

A half seat is _never_ going to help you achieve a sitting trot.

When we rode the ponies to and from the fields, always bareback, we would lean back and have trotting races, you soon learned to sit deep!


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

There seem to be a lot of 'half;s, riding English, Lol! Half halt, half seat

Don't mind me, just some trivia, being only on my first cup of coffee!


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

Smilie said:


> There seem to be a lot of 'half;s, riding English, Lol! Half halt, half seat
> 
> Don't mind me, just some trivia, being only on my first cup of coffee!


We are very nuanced with our riding....


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## TXhorseman (May 29, 2014)

Some claim that the U.S. cavalry taught riding by attrition. The trooper would either ride enough to learn how to follow his horse’s movements or he would quit the cavalry and go back to the infantry. This approach assumes a rider will eventually become less fearful of falling and begin to conduct personal experiments that might enable him to ride better. While this approach works for some, good instruction can make things easier and allow more people to experience the pleasure of riding.

Stiffness and muscular tension lead to bouncing. An independent seat that follows the motions of the horse prevents bouncing. So how is such a seat achieved?

First, one should realize that gravity is a rider’s friend as long as the rider stays balanced. Balance while riding is achieved by motion. “Holding on” tightens one’s muscles and restricts movement. Releasing muscular tension allows gravity to pull a balanced rider’s seat deeply into the saddle, wrap the rider’s legs gently around the horse’s sides, hold the rider’s feet to the stirrups, and draw the rider’s heels somewhat lower than the stirrups. When this happens, the rider’s center of gravity is so low that it is very difficult to fall off the horse.

It often helps to have a horse led by a helper while the rider moves about in the saddle with feet out of the stirrups and hands free. Doing this, the rider learns what true balance feels like. Once the rider learns this, the practice may be extended to riding without reins or stirrups while the horse is being lunged in various gaits.

Even without being lunged, a sensitive rider who has learned the feel of balance as described, should be able to translate this feeling to riding with stirrups and reins. This process works best if done systematically – first at a walk, then at a trot, and then at a canter. Working with a horse with smooth movement makes this process easier. However, any horse will become smoother if the rider is not tense.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Try doing some no-stirrup work. Trot a few steps, walk, etc. You will balance your seat more that way. 
It worked for me!


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

I learned in the old school of being self taught, and where balance came by doing, by riding lots of horses.
I think that holds true for any activity. While formal exercises might help you ski down that hill better, you become a great skiier by skiing lots of slopes, developing that feel and balance as you go.
Much of riding becomes muscle memory, and you don't get that by just being lunged, told technical positions, ect.


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