Recognising the influence we have with our seat early in our dressage career is essential. Only then can we begin to appreciate how very generous our horses are for allowing us to ride them at all. If you do not you are not alone. Often riders have a tendency to think about the front of the horse to help achieve the correct diagonal. We are told that as the outside shoulder comes back we should sit and if it is incorrect, sit for one beat and rise again.
This method of teaching encourages you to look down at the shoulder to check your diagonal rising is correct and essentially gives you no guidance whatsoever on how to feel it. It encourages you to a move your focus to the front of your horse and b puts you in front of the movement by throwing you off-balance.
It is the easy way to do and if you were taught this way you should feel a little cheated. Your trainer has simply robbed you of the ability to feel what is happening underneath you through your seat. How much better would it be for you to feel what is happening underneath you and select the correct time to begin rising? If you are riding on the right rein, tune into the left outside seat bone. It may take some concentration and coordinated effort but with practice it will become second nature.
Feeling the correct trot diagonal instead of looking will raise your horsemanship to a higher level and help you to develop your sense of feel of how your horse moves.
Eventually you will know when you are on the wrong diagonal because it will feel out of balance. Do you remember to change your diagonal during dressage tests? Do you think you should be marked down for riding on the incorrect diagonal or not?
We are an information blog breaking down the How To's of dressage. All of our articles are put together by British Dressage judges to help you train your horse correctly, get higher scores and win your next dressage competition. How To Dressage. For The Rider. The Pocket Book of Dressage Exercises: Related articles More from author.
July 12, This backwards, forward, up and down feeling you are noticing is happening because your horse is moving. His hips are moving your hips and seat bones. What is important is to recognise that his hips are moving, because his hind legs are moving.
Therefore, if you start to become mindful of how your seat bones are moving and where they are moving to, you will know exactly what is happening with your horses legs. Once you can feel this movement in the walk, you can begin working in sitting trot. Many riders think of sitting trot as being a purely up and down movement, however, this will change when you begin to focus your attention on your hips and what they are doing as you ride the sitting trot. The next bounce beat two will produce the same result, but on the opposite side.
From here, you can begin to isolate what your outside hip is doing. When it is up, you can begin to rise at that point in the trot. This will be the posting part of your trot. As mentioned, when you are riding on the correct diagonal, your horse more balanced on turns and circles. When on the correct diagonal, as his inside hind leg moves up and forward, you are rising along with it out of the saddle.
As riders, we want to give our horse instructions, aids, when they will be most effective for our horse to take action on. 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 just overall performance. Effective application of aids and timing of aids leads to clearer communication between horse and rider.
It has a direct impact on the overall quality of the conversation in the saddle. Therefore it makes sense to take the time to begin learning what is moving when underneath you; and then implementing that in your day-to-day riding. Thank you, I was really struggling with the diagonal this week, being a new rider and finally having the leg strength to post at all. I will use your suggestions! God… such a simple concept…. Dear Lorna, , thank you for the article!
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