Charlotte's magic booty, or, How do y'all improve the trot like that?

[mvp]

I learned here that you have to buy the walk and canter but that you can really improve the trot. Most notably, I think that means that you can make the horse raise his upper arm higher each stride, stay loose in the back and keep the same cadence with more power.

And then, I saw Charlotte Dujardin “manufacture” one of those fancier trots from a plain one in a video. It happened right before my very eyes! But I can’t see what she was doing with her seat that made that happen.

Once I was doing an exercise with my mare where I was riding transitions within the trot and I think I stumbled up on that “better front end” phenomenon for a couple of strides. I think I had asked her to shorten, but did that enough with my body quickly (and she responded more immediately than either of us expected) such that she kept the same cadence behind but “waited” with her front end such that she had more “hang time” for those front legs in the air. She must have rocked back on her hind legs in order to get this done, but I didn’t feel it. I was struck by how suddenly slow and elevated those steps were without losing her hind end.

So my questions:

1. Did I understand this “improving the trot” right?

2. Do you guys have any dirt-simple exercises that can help those of us without magic tushies, improve the trot such that we can feel when we have made it better?

Thank you in advance!

[netg]

If you mean the video on the grey, that trot was already there, she just hadn’t been riding for it yet.
However, the short answer? Kegels.
To get front a d back out of synch, there is more holding involved. But especially for a horse who already has an international passage but really any horse, kegels on the up part stride keep your butt in the saddle while inviting room for the horse to lift itself more. An “adhering seat” as de Kunffy calls it need not be hard, driving, and hollowing. And in my experience with four horses from new to dressage or unstarted, they just understand the invitation in the change in your seat and generally will take you up on it, and use their hind ends more effectively.
The one common I have found with some very different horses is that you must have them in front of your leg first for it to be very effective.

[piedmontfields]

I’m no GP rider or CdesJ, but I have improved the trot quite a bit of my average moving horse.

The most effective exercises focus on CHANGE: Change of frame, change of bend, change of stride length. Tons of transitions within the trot and between walk/halt/canter are also huge.

Some of the movements which have especially helped my horse are transitions between a slow, cadenced trot (like as slow of a trot as possible with activity) and a medium trot on a circle. Lateral work on a circle has also been hugely beneficial for shoulder freedom.

Have fun and take some photos/videos. You can see major change in a year; huge changes in years.

[MysticOakRanch]

To be honest, a lot of it is just strength. A horse has to be really fit before you can do a lot with their trot, especially if you aren’t a super gifted rider. But fitness alone (both yours and the horses) - and making sure the horse is in front of the leg, AND that you can sit the trot without devaluing the quality of the gait are a bit part of it.

Ground poles can be a great tool for making the trot look fancier! I like to make a “half circle fan” of ground poles, so you can move in and out a bit on the fan, making for longer and shorter strides. Super fun! Start with just one ground pole, then slowly add to the pattern!

Transitions -lots of transitions - within the gait (medium/collected for example) and gait to gait…

[DressageD1va]

It’s definitely possible. Charlotte is so exact with every single transition and managing the balance all the time. Then finding how to find the “passagy” trot and keep it without getting too much tension.
look up Ramzes (I think he has a fb page or look on his rider’s page (Lehua). They’re local to my area (southern Cali) and we’ve all watched that trot transform over the past few years. The time that most of us got to see it most obviously was actually during a CDJ expo during one of the San Diego CDI’s. I know for a fact that he wasn’t a “special mover” as a young horse because she was my trainer and I watched him as a pleasant young horse.

[Scribbler]

My experience is that you also have to buy the trot.

[theresak]

[LIST=1]

Ride a volte

As you approach the rail collect the trot to an almost "crappy" trot

As the shoulders touch the rail add leg for a medium trot down the rail, but hold (like @netg explains) and lift your pelvis up, rather than letting the trot out; you can also engage the thighs for the lift up but don't squeeze them the whole time

I reposition my legs for the passage to a more forward foot, directly at the girth

At the beginning, you'll get 2 strides before the horse flattens again and then you repeat with the volte [/LIST] If this doesn't work right away, start with riding a voltes to medium trot a few times so the horse is expecting to add power to the trot when she straightens.

This can take an insane amount of core control/holding - I definitely notice a difference when I’m not using my core enough, especially my lower abs. I end end up going to the reins too much, which reduces the amount of lift and bounce.

Also, make sure you are starting half steps if you haven’t already. Most of the time, I believe you want to have piaffe established before a true passage so you don’t get a passagy piaffe. Even lifting the hind legs to the touch of a whip and tucking the pelvis to a bounce on the croup would be enough at the beginning. The piaffe/half steps will also help build the strength the horse needs for the passage.

I stumbled into my horse’s passage when we were at the end of an injury rehab and the horses in the pasture next to the outdoor were running around. He started thinking about doing that trot with his tail up and dragon snorting. Since we were only the clock for our trot set, I added leg instead of walking, but held with my hands (because I was nervous :nonchalance:). He bounced up into a more cadenced, passagy trot. So if your horse ever likes to do something like that, try to use it for the passage.

[Manni01]

Ok, there is a difference between a higher quality trot and a passage… and I would not necessarily say that a horse need sto be incredibly strong to improve the trot…

I have a young horse which dumped me last year and since then I have lunged her more then before additionally to riding her. So she looks like she is in a general good shape…
But I am not sure lunging made her strong.
Lately I found the perfect trainer and we have lessons daily for a week every other week.
He is amazing and works with looseness and balance of the horse and just today I had the most perfect trot ever.
She always had a very nice trot, but probably not amazing, But he gets us into the right tempo ( which is really the trickiest part, then we do a couple of transitions while I am still supposed to keep her moving through her body and some canter and then she trots like crazy… It goes through the body, She is totally supple and listens to my aids, but there is a huge amount of energy…
this trot is kind of man made and improved her natural trot which is nice but not wow…

[cnm161]

Echo Manni.

Finding the right tempo for your horse makes it possible to add energy and increase amplitude of the trot. I think of it (like the engineery nerd I am) like complementary waveforms: the peaks line up and you get an amplified trot. If you are adding energy to the wrong tempo trot, the peaks align with the troughs and negate each other.

All the other comments re: seat/positioning/etc. are also valuable, but you will be working against yourself if the base trot tempo is too fast or too slow.

[RedHorses]

Hmm… I always thought that “improving the trot” meant. improving the horse’s base trot that he offers - balance, rhythm, power, sit. I experienced it with my older horse, and it was the coolest thing ever! And it was the trot he offered after four months off (the first two being stall rest) even with the muscle loss.

[PonyApocalypse19]

You can manufacture a trot to a certain extent. I bought a horse with a great canter and good walk. The trot was uneven due to balance and strength and an unknown tendon issue in the hock at the time. I held the trot together with every bit of core strength I had and knew exactly how to straighten him to get the tempo correct so he was even behind. His base trot was abysmal, but we could get enough of a secure trot to score upper 60s at third level. Before we realized he had a tendon issue, we were getting that passagey type trot by working on the laterals - shoulder-ins, haunches-ins, renvers. It got him off his front end and really changed the balance backwards. Once the balance was over the hind end, a simple half-halt and a good leg aid and bingo - loads of hang time, great tempo, very active hind leg. If you have the hind legs under your seat you can lighten the front end and it will get expressive. The passagey trot comes from the pushing of the hind legs. My other horse is very gifted for P & P. He can ham his was through the passage. But if I get those hind legs under and active, there’s a whole different level. There are a lot of “trots” one can ask the horse to do. But I found doing the laterals has really helped to “improve” the trot.
There’s a certain aspect of it being your seat prowess and your timing. Charlotte has that experience so she can get to that improved trot with the aides really quickly while us mere mortals fumble around and get a couple strides of pure bliss before everything falls back apart!

[SuzieQNutter]

Charlotte has the experience. She also rides several horses a day AND goes to the gym as well. Her seat which includes your stomach would be able to do horse magic.

[J-Lu]

Something else to add to the good advice you’ve already gotten.

For many horses, you can’t raise their upper arm much for each stride, but you can get them to lift their front end, which is more “correct” than lifting their upper arm and gives a similar amount of extension. Tempo is key. You don’t want them so slow that they aren’t using their bodies, but not so fast that they’re “running” and out of balance.

I’ve recently been working with a German Working Equitation Champion. He mostly rides Baroque stallions but most of his clientele is straight dressage. He uses cones (I purchased small dog agility cones in multiple colors) as an aid in the dressage work, and I find them immensely helpful as a focal point for the horse (and me). In essence, give your horse a reason to improve the trot as you navigate even simple cones. Even a simple large rectangle where you can lengthen down the long side, collect or working gaits on the short side, change directions around the diagonals, work the short side… Start at walk, then trot, then canter. Give your horse time to develop strength and maneuverability “on the fly” (keep changing the routine, your horse will adjust better if he says balanced). Most importantly, demand that he do what he can to and immediately relax into a pleasant attitude and forget any “arguments” when he complies. Don’t overface him, just happily build that trot!

[mvp]

Thank you all so much for the pieces of helpful advice you gave in this thread. There are lots of elements of the improved trot that I can “look into” with my body, my mare’s body and exercises that can help. This is the kind of thing I love getting from COTH. Thank you all again.