My horse has a really lovely walk and canter, but quite a pokey trot.
I’ve read and heard that you can improve the quality of the trot quite substantially, but I’m really not sure how to go about it. Are there specific exercises I could work on? We are at Elementary (US 2nd level), so the quality of the trot is becoming an issue 
Without knowing you, your horse, or what exactly, is going on, some general advice that should’t get you in (too much) trouble no matter what 
Shoulder in so that you have a genuine, honest to dog half halt on the outside rein. Then use it to adjust the trot: on a large circle, make a trot that is normal, then big, then normal again.
And horses with good canters usually give their best trot immediately after cantering. So use the good canter to help develop the trot. Again on a Circle, create a lively bounding canter then half halt and trot WITHOUT reducing the bounding. Trot for about 1/4 to 1/2 circle, then up to canter again for 1/2 circle to re-establish the ‘bounding-ness’ then trot.
Riding outside the ring is good too. Big rising trot up a low to moderate slope.
Cavaletti are also excellent esp for increasing articulation in the legs. But not set super far apart, though. Klimke’s book on cavaletti is excellent. A slim volume but packed with good information.
Have fun!
trot poles, and lots of canter-to-forward-trot conditioning.
if you are at 2nd level, shoulder-ins and lengthenings and extensions should be no issue. incorporate them in your ring work.
spend time outside the ring hacking; going forward and out on hills will do so much to strengthening the muscles – which then can translate to less muscle fatigue when working on improving the gait.
for trot-poles and cavalettis - i like to warm up/cool down over 6-8 walk poles every ride… and put 3-4 trot poles in a row somewhere in the ring – a good exercise is to pick up the trot, trot over poles, canter 1/2 circle, come back down to trot, trot poles, canter - rinse repeat. make sure to keep the impulsion and balance forward.
cavalettis are similar, but take much more effort on the horse’s part so introduce them slowly. 2-3 in a row should be enough for the first few weeks - work on keeping the horse uphill and forward over the cavaletti. do not let him suck back or lose impulsion over cavalettis.
The mentioned suggestions are very good ones for improving the horse. I also like to ride a horse who doesn’t quite seem to get it along a horse who has the kind of trot my horse doesn’t know it’s capable of, and have my horse try to match.
But also, you need to ask yourself how you’re riding. Is your seat just staying deep and heavy in the saddle? I think of my seat as making room for my horse to lift upward in the trot and swing. It’s not bouncing, as the landing from a bounce bangs on your horse’s back and makes your horse hollow instead of lifting. My trainer calls it “internal bounce” and I had a pilates instructor refer to it as doing kegels - very similar muscles. Driving won’t get you there, but once your horse is in front of your leg if you just allow room and invite more, your horse will give it.
net-g’s thoughts. I try to think of it as “you carrying you”. While your seat must stay planted and following, following being an absolute necessity, have your upper body lift on each stride. Think up and lift. This requires the legs to stay on, with the seat regulating pace. Actively sitting in rhythm that allow him to get a bounce in his stride.
Here is where I find the aforementioned lateral work to be of benefit, as both S/I, and H/P ridden correctly increase engagement.
Start the half-steps in-hand and under saddle with a good trainer. Once I had access to the half-steps, I was able develop multiple different trots, out of which I eventually developed a better collected trot.
When you watch a horse with a big trot, you notice the front legs first. But in fact all the power in a big trot comes from the hind end. So you need to work on strength and length behind. And you need to work on forward.
My stock horse mare had a short-strided somewhat broken trot when I started riding her. It looked like she was almost fox-trotting. After several years, she now has a normal trot.
The things that worked for us were stretching forward to the bit, engaging the belly muscles, lifting the back, and going forward. At that point, no attempt to collect, but rather to step forward with her hind legs. At the same time, lots of lateral work at the walk and in hand, shoulder in on the circle, making the hind leg step over and under the body. Easiest to see if this is happening in-hand, rather than in the saddle. Plus trying to get energy going forward, which can be a bit of a challenge with a naturally somewhat lazy horse.
In retrospect, we stuck with this a bit longer than we needed to. But after the big stretchy trot was more confirmed, we did move on to starting to lift the head/base of the neck, and then use that collected trot as the foundation for starting to move into something approaching a medium trot. But we couldn’t have collected usefully at the start, because there was nothing to collect.
Also post at this point, don’t try sitting the trot. Use the post to lengthen the strides.
Zonder* gave such a great summary. It really will work. I have a trot challenged mare and she truly has improved. No, she does not have a “7” trot all the time (except in obedience). But it is better. Sometimes it is a 7. The canter work was a huge part of it, so was lateral work, so was hills. All are continuing and I don’t think we are done.
Do a search on JJ Tate riding a Connemara named Gideon (ex. Jo Tate and Jo Hinneman in a symposium). I saw that horse years earlier and it is amazing to see what she has developed in a cooperative, studious, hard working horse.
Use your inside leg as you stand in the posting trot, instead of as you sit. Helps create more lift in the rib cage by activating the inside hind leg.
This. Just this.
For about a year: (or forever)… big trot, little trot, big trot, little trot…
Lots of good ideas here!
Zonder - his trot is waaaaaaaaaaay better after the canter. We’ve been doing tons of t/c/t the last few months, and loads of work doing big trot, little trot. I try not to do more than a 1/2 circle at a time of the same speed if I can help it.
I think the cavaletti ideas will really help, so thanks for those! I’ll make it my mission to incorporate them as much as possible this year.
This is my first time at 2nd level, and Odie and I are learning everything together for the first time, so it will probably take 4 times as long to get anything new established 
I’m finding the process hugely rewarding though, and this gait development idea is fascinating. He’s got such a lovely loose slinky walk and canter, but a short little trot.
Lots of good ideas here!
Zonder - his trot is waaaaaaaaaaay better after the canter. We’ve been doing tons of t/c/t the last few months, and loads of work doing big trot, little trot. I try not to do more than a 1/2 circle at a time of the same speed if I can help it.
I think the cavaletti ideas will really help, so thanks for those! I’ll make it my mission to incorporate them as much as possible this year.
This is my first time at 2nd level, and Odie and I are learning everything together for the first time, so it will probably take 4 times as long to get anything new established
I’m finding the process hugely rewarding though, and this gait development idea is fascinating. He’s got such a lovely loose slinky walk and canter, but a short little trot.
Sorry for the double post, I keep getting a warning that I need to wait 30 seconds between posts, but I haven’t posted ANYTHING yet today. Odd 
loads of good ideas so a few personal faves:
Si to medium to SI without collecting after the medium… so you effectively do the second SI in medium.
10m circle, LY out to 20m, go medium round the circle.
canter round corner, halt, rein back, medium trot straight out the RB.
start to teach some passage steps.
loads of good ideas so a few personal faves:
Si to medium to SI without collecting after the medium… so you effectively do the second SI in medium.
10m circle, LY out to 20m, go medium round the circle.
canter round corner, halt, rein back, medium trot straight out the RB.
start to teach some passage steps.
Curly, I think the trot is the easiest of the gaits to improve from the dam-given talents of a horse.
(Ignore those double post warnings. The BB software is a mess at the moment. Supposedly the developers are fixing it.)
Timely thread. Scribbler, I have an AQHA mare who sounds similar to yours. While I don’t know that she was ever used as a stock horse, she was originally trained Western Pleasure.
What were your canter experiences like in the beginning? Mine was trained with that weird “tranter” that looks like she’s cantering in front and shuffle-trotting behind. Nowadays she has a more normal 3-beat canter, but has trouble maintaining it. (It has only been a year, so still a work in progress.) Ideas or suggestions? Similar experiences?
Hi Rain,
I started riding maresy when she was green: trail broke, but just started in the arena, so very unbalanced on 20 metre circles, etc. She was started by my coach in basic old-school dressage; coach thought she’d make a nice low level eventer but didn’t get that much done with her. Maresy actually has a huge bounding canter that has the potential to be very adjustable, but she has never been very happy about cantering under saddle in the arena and her opinions on this have led to some ongoing issues with balking. So that made the canter/trot/canter sequence not as useful for us. We had to think of things to improve the trot without doing trot/canter transitions. My coach said the canter would come as the trot progressed, and that does seem to be happening.
It’s certainly helped my horse to canter her on trails, anywhere she can go straight and not have to worry about her balance around corners. Of course then she gets a bit speedy!
She is a big Paint, but her papers got lost along the way. She has quarter horse butt and shoulder, but English withers, so not totally stock-type. She’s meant to be Paint x Appendix. She certainly has a split personality. She can go from dopey dude string pony to slightly out of control green eventer in a matter of minutes, given the right situation. So one of our challenges has been accessing her energy, and then channeling it.
I see the folks with young warmbloods whose main task is getting the energy level down to a safe level, and then sometimes actually cramp the horses a bit too much, and lose the suspension and lift. I think for the stock breeds, mine and it sounds like yours too, the task is getting that energy level consistently higher. You might need to get a nice forward but controlled jumper hand gallop out of your mare before you have enough power and energy to start collecting.
I’ve certainly seen dressage riders getting a four beat lope when they think they are trying to collect, and I expect that would be even more likely if the horse was schooled to do that previously.
So you might want to try schooling the trot, getting her to go big and balanced at the trot, from stretching trot to collected to medium (getting collected and then adding impulsion), and meanwhile work on opening up the canter by pushing her to go faster, get some impulsion at the canter. If you have more energy at the canter, you can then start on lifting in front and collecting it a bit.
Doing half to trot with no walk steps is what made the biggest difference in my flat, grounded ponies trot. Square halt, on the aids and then step right into the trot. It increased her collection tremendously. First she had one step of a beautiful, cadenced, collected trot. Praised and repeated. Then two steps before she would revert to “pony trot”, then 3. Just asked one step at a time and now she’s strong enough to stay in it and it’s her “default” trot when I ask for a trot. You can’t even believe it’s the same pony when you see her go! She went from a 5 trot to an 8.
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