# Lower leg position in trot, please help



## Alexandra V (Jul 6, 2013)

What my instructor tells us to do when we really need to stick in the saddle (or grip at any point really) is to try to hold yourself on with the top of your calf, just about at the top of your boot/chap. Often a moving lower leg is a sign that you're gripping with your knee too much. Gripping with the top of your calf won't make your horse speed up, and it also won't turn your knee into a pivot point that allows your leg to move forward or back.

Also try to make sure that your weight is not only distributed on the proper part of your foot in the stirrup, but that it's also even across the whole width of your foot too. For instance, if you stand up in the stirrup and your weight is only on the ball of your foot, your knees will knock inwards. But if your weight is across your entire foot, when you stand your knees will stay apart and that's a much more secure position. 

Those are both things that instructors have told me that helped me loads with keeping my legs quiet. I hope it helps!


----------



## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

I suggest your upper body. This was written about a forward seat. Since the stirrups are further forward, the upper body needs to be as well. With a center balance, the stirrups should be further back, and thus you don't need to lean forward. But either way, if your center of gravity isn't over your vertical stirrup straps, things get tough.










Weight in heels doesn't mean weight shoved into heels. It means you don't grip with your knees, so the weight flows uninterrupted into the heels. My tendency when I try to put weight in my heels is to stiffen my leg as I shove my heels down. That causes me to squeeze with my legs and the weight never actually flows like water into my heels.

If your stirrup straps are vertical, and your center of gravity is over the stirrups, then there is nothing to move the lower leg. Gravity should keep your lower leg in place. As a result, your body unfolds like an accordion as you go up, and folds back as your hips come down, while your center of gravity remains the same. All IMHO. I'm not an instructor, competitor, or anything else, and my English riding has mostly been done in an Australian saddle. Works for me, though.


----------



## mslady254 (May 21, 2013)

Here's a third opinion that is opposite of what's already been said,so take what works for you. My ankles were also killing me when I was learning to post/rising trot untill one day my instructor (f i n a l l y) told me how to get 'toes in, heels out' without struggling with turning my foot at the ankle. Wow, that was information I wouldve appreciated from the beginning. What she did was pull my leg slightly off the horse, have me turn my knee in slightly, then put my leg back in place. Viola! great foot position,,,no need to kill my ankle trying to get it. Also, I got praise for having a still lower leg after that, and just this past weekend, got complimented for it. yay! You can try it just standing in place at home, with your feet about a foot apart, turn your KNEES inward (knock-kneed) and look at your feet. And, I do pivot off my knee to post, at least it's the knee that's 'locked' in place and my thigh and upper body are moving--the knee and lower leg stay nicely still. I also have 'heels down', btw, but that's from dropping it down, not pushing it down, if that makes sense. I think of it as weight in my bottom, long in the leg, with heel dropped. 
Hope something in our responses clicks with you and helps! It's so frustrating till it works!
Good luck
Fay


----------



## Cinlee (Jan 4, 2014)

Hi Angelaa. I relate to what you are going through because I have the same issue. My instructor is having me stand in the stirrups while the horse is trotting for several spins around the arena. As I stand, I focus on getting my upper body into a position where I can stand without flopping forward and backward. Putting your upper body into a still position while standing can only be done by really letting your weight sink into your heels. Then concentrate on keeping your heels loose - not tightened up. You will begin to feel your heels naturally acting as shock absorbers as the horse bounces up and down. Feeling this while standing during the trot allows you to memorize the feeling so that when you sit you can recall the feeling and recreate it at the sitting trot. Then, when you start posting, you are in the correct position. One thing I recently realized is that the post upward movement is very minor - you do not need to exert a lot of effort to post upward. The horses movement will kind of push you up and you exert a small amount of movement to rise up a bit. I have not yet perfected it but I think doing what I described is getting me there. I hope this helps.


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Really, You will get the very best most accurate feedback from people if you post a video of yourself trotting. Quite often there are other things involved when you when a person says they have a lower leg problem it can be something In the upper body, such as rolling the back over or elbows out, or other issues. So, a video is your best friend.


----------



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

If your lower leg is swinging around, it is likely a pendulum effect of being slightly out of balance. Try this exercise. At the trot, post 4 strides, stand straight up 4 strides, then sit 4 strides and repeat. (you can skip the sit part if you don't have that down yet) Each time you do the standing part, you will be able to confirm if you are in balance or not. I was very surprised to see how far behind the motion I was when I did it. If you cannot stand straight up in the stirrups without falling forward or back, you are not aligned properly. Fix that your lower leg will never move again.


----------



## AFull99 (Feb 21, 2014)

without a visual, i would suggest taking some lunge line lessons with a dressage trainer.


----------

