05/30/2026
Many riders struggle with the sitting trot than almost any other skill in the saddle. These riders are struggling to sit the trot because they are trying to sit still on a moving horse instead of moving with it. The moment you try to be still at the sitting trot, you bounce. The moment you try to grip, you bounce harder and your horse hollows underneath you. The sitting trot is not about absorbing movement by staying rigid, it is about following movement so completely that there is nothing left to absorb. Here is what helps...
1. Start with the pelvis
A common mechanical problem in a struggling sitting trot is an anterior pelvic tilt where the pelvis tipped forward, the lower back arched, and the hip joints locked. In this position, the hips physically cannot follow the horse's movement because the joint is not free to swing. Before you ask for sitting trot, check the pelvis. Ask your student to think about sitting on their back pockets and tucking the pelvis slightly under to find a neutral spine with no arch in the lower back. Then ask them to draw their belly button gently in and up. This is core engagement not gripping and it is what makes everything else possible.
Here is a useful off horse test: ask your student to lie flat on the floor and press their lower back down to touch the ground. The muscles they use to do that are exactly the muscles they need to engage to sit the trot correctly. Once they can find those muscles on the floor ask them to find the same sensation in the saddle.
2. Do not sit, move
The mental image of sitting still at the trot is the enemy of a correct sitting trot. As the horse's diagonal pairs move beneath you, let your hips follow that movement which will look like a subtle, almost invisible shimmy and swing that travels with the horse rather than bracing against it. Think of your hips moving up with the bounce and back with the return without having your butt leave the saddle. Be draped over the horse like a wet towel rather than perched on top of it like a statue. The rider who follows the movement softly will always sit better than the rider who tries to hold themselves in place through core tension alone.
3. Think about posting without posting
One of the most useful mental cues for unlocking a stiff sitting trot is to ask the student to think about the rhythm of the posting trot while staying in the saddle. Lift slightly through the chest and hips in rhythm with the trot - not a full post, just the intention of one. This keeps the pelvis mobile and the hips following rather than bracing and gives the rider a rhythm to ride to instead of a stillness to maintain. Combined with lifting through the chest it opens the hip angle and frees the lower back in a way that pure sitting rarely achieves on its own.
4. Build it in short intervals, not long grinding sessions
This is one of the most important things to get right as an instructor. The sitting trot is genuinely physically demanding and a fatigued rider at the sitting trot does not learn correct movement, they learn tension patterns that take weeks to undo. Start with a few strides of sitting trot on the rail or on a circle then return to posting. Try again with a few strides of sit trot then back to rising. Build gradually over weeks and months, not within a single lesson. "Post before you lose it" is the mantra you need to keep in your head. Short quality intervals of correct sitting trot develop the skill while long exhausting sessions develop the brace.
5. Check the saddle before you blame the rider
If your student sits the trot comfortably ba****ck but struggles in the saddle, the saddle is part of the conversation. A seat that is too small tips the rider forward into exactly the anterior pelvic tilt that makes sitting trot impossible. Thigh blocks that are too large for a rider without sufficient core strength force the leg into a position that restricts hip movement rather than freeing it. Check the fit before you spend ten lessons trying to fix a position problem that the equipment is creating.
6. Use the lunge line
Put your student on the lunge on a quiet school horse and take away the reins. Remove the steering, remove the contact management, remove every distraction and ask them to focus entirely on what their hips are doing. A rider on the lunge who is not responsible for anything except following the movement will almost always find a better sitting trot than one managing the full complexity of riding independently. Use it regularly, not just once. The feel developed on the lunge transfers back to independent riding consistently when the work is done correctly.
7. For younger riders, make it playful
Ask them to relax their belly like a bowl of Jello. It makes them laugh, it makes them breathe, and it releases the abdominal tension that may have been blocking the movement in the first place. As they develop, change the language to hips and belly button, follow the swing, invisible shimmy, but keep the lightness in the instruction. A tense child trying hard to sit the trot will always bounce more than a relaxed child who is playing with the movement.
8. Address the whole body
Tight hips are one of the most significant contributors to a poor sitting trot and they have nothing to do with what happens in the saddle. Hip flexor tightness from sitting at a desk all day, limited hip mobility from lack of stretching, weak core muscles that have never been asked to do this specific job and all of these show up at the sitting trot because the sitting trot demands more from the body than almost any other riding skill. Yoga hip openers such as the frog pose in particular is excellent for releasing the hip joints that sitting trot demands so much from. Core strengthening work off the horse makes core engagement on it significantly more accessible. The riding improves faster when the body is being prepared for it away from the barn.
The sitting trot is not a skill that clicks in one lesson. It is built over weeks and months through correct movement practiced in short quality intervals on a suitable horse with a pelvis that is free to follow. Rush it and you build tension so take the time and you build feel.
What is your go to cue or exercise for helping a student unlock their sitting trot?
