Ideas for helping rider learn to post the trot (therapeutic riding; dev. disability)

[Lazy_Palomino_Hunter]

I’m an instructor at a therapeutic riding program for children.

We have a student, about 10 years old, who has a disorder characterized by poor muscle tone and coordination, obesity, and cognitive disability. The individual in question might also be described as being extremely stubborn and having relatively anhedonia (inability to experience strong positive emotion). We’ll call her Jane.

Jane always has a leader and at least one sidewalker. Usually two sidewalkers. We’ve tried her on various horses of varying sizes (14h-17h) of varying levels of bounciness. She’s always on very, very safe horses, and has excellent helpers, so there’s no risk she’s in any physical danger. It’s just frustrating she can’t seem to advance past the point she’s at right now.

Jane is having serious trouble learning to post the trot. At the walk, she posts beautifully. She has a perfect two-point position. But when trotting, Jane grabs the pommel and PUSHES very hard to “post.” Her toes go down and her legs go floppy. It is entirely an arm-muscle effort to get herself out of the saddle.

The push clearly takes extreme physical effort. Jane grunts, gasps, and occasionally passes gas due to the effort it takes to get herself out of the saddle. She always subsequently slams hard back in the saddle. In all fairness I’ve been riding for twenty years and I’m not sure how well I could post using my arm strength!!

She will sit the trot while holding the pommel to hold herself down. However, she refuses to try and post the trot without grabbing the pommel in a death grip and heaving herself up.

We tried getting her to cross her arms while posting. No dice, she won’t do it. She says she feels “uncomfortable” (I think she means she feels unsafe) using her legs instead of her arms.

Appeals to logic don’t work. Telling her it’s EASIER to post using your legs instead of your arms gets you nowhere. She won’t try.

Appeals to safety don’t work. Explaining it’s unsafe to post how she is (toes up, leg flopping…) gets you nowhere.

Appeals to “personal favors” (i.e., “can you try doing this for me?” or “it would make me SO HAPPY if you would try this”) get us absolutely nowhere.

We’re at a loss. Any ideas for teaching her to post?

[charismaryllis]

how is her two-point? maybe start there and when her legs get stronger she’ll feel more comfortable relying on them?

[Equibrit]

Have her learn to feel the movement of the horse underneath her. Have her be able to feel the back legs and feel for the push up from the horse, and stretch her body up with it. There’s plenty of able bodied people who missed out learning the basics like this, but it is more intuitive I think. Are you sure her legs are correctly aligned under her body and she’s properly balanced ?

[Pookah]

Definitely two point. And then teach her posting sort of in reverse - have her sit down every other beat instead of focusing on the standing up part. You could also try having her “post” while standing on the ground - I don’t know why that works, but for some kids it seems to trigger muscle memory differently than doing it at a walk.

[horseownerinthesouth]

Not the same situation as yours but we’ve taught several small children (who just didn’t seem to “get” posting by using a small enough pony that we could literally lift them up and down to the right timing. Once they felt the “right timing” at posting, they quickly got it on their own.

[Luseride]

I have used music and silly rhymes. That takes the focus off the posting and they “dance” up and down.

[hca86]

Is hippotherapy used as a treatment strategy at the facility you are located at? The reason I am asking (she has very good skills as you describe so this is not the route), but about the possibility of a PT/OT being on site. This is a great opportunity to consult with a therapist. The therapist could provide you with some great physical and cognitive strategies and as an instructor you can provide some feedback regarding how this will work from a riding perspective. If not possible, is this child receiving therapy services elsewhere and maybe they could have someone come in and/or consent to video or at the least be able to talk to to family/therapist about what strategies they use from a physical, cognitive, and emotional perspective to help this child through her daily activities and routines?

[arlosmine]

One thing I would do is give what you are teaching her a different name. Do not call it posting for now. Call it “balance-sit-balance” or something. If I run into a Road block with a kid I will try changing the approach (like start with two point at the trot and touch down for one step then back to two point).
Changing the name may help you. Ypass her resistance to “posting” and get a fresh start on the concept.

[DancingArabian]

It sounds more like she’s scared than that she’s not getting it.

[mjs8]

I agree with teaching her to sit rather than to post. Perhaps ask her to try the trot in two point or half-seat, and introduce a random sit, then back into two point. Gradually increase the frequency of how often the "sits"are being requested, and go from there.
Let us know how she does! =)

[alternate_universe]

I’m no expert in this area, but why is it so imperative that she learn to post? If she doesn’t want to don’t make her. This is recreational riding… not like the kid’s trying to head into the show ring next year. If you just drop the topic for a bit maybe over time as she matures her attitude about trying new things will improve.

[drsgdiva]

As a rider with poor muscle tone and coordination, I can maybe give you some insight. When I was first learning about posting, the biggest thing I did not realize was that you really were not standing up. Your pelvis was actually tilting. I also had (unexpressed) concerns about if my legs would keep me in position…yes, even with side walkers. Try having you, and her 3 assistants, and other students if possible, all make a circle and just do the pelvic tilt movements. You may find her 1) hip flexor muscles are so tight she really can’t do this yet, or 2) her low back/pelvic region is tight, not allowing the movement. She may very well just not be in a place mentally that she thinks she can do this. Nudge, but don’t push. Good luck. Let us know how she does.

[betsyk]

Ah, yes, Jane. I’ve met a couple of Janes over the years

The Janes I knew had next to no core strength, and think about what is really going on when someone is posting correctly - they’re using their core to control the bounce up and out of the tack, and back into it. No core, no coordinated posting. Trying to use your hands doesn’t work, but most kids will try that first. She feels insecure about posting no-hands for good reason - her legs are probably not strong enough to help her rise in the absence of the core muscles she needs.

But don’t feel badly for trying it with her, because she’ll never get it if she doesn’t try!

It’s a lot easier to teach the Janes in our programs to post when they’re teeny tiny, because you can grab the back of their britches and help them go up and down Once they get too big for that, you almost have to decide to shift gears for a while, and do a lot, lot, lot of sitting trot in all sorts of different ways: bareback pad, with saddle but dropping stirrups, hands on head, shoulders, around obstacles, on circles, etc. You need to help them develop the core strength and the confidence to come back to posting later. Posting at the walk, if she’ll do it, is great for the body awareness piece.

I’ve had bad luck teaching posting trot by teaching 2-point. I find kids think they’re supposed to put their hands up the horse’s mane and lean forward and stiffen their legs – all common mistakes kids make in learning two-point, and none of those are things you want them to consider doing when posting. Once I have kids posting reliably, and they need to work on their lower leg, then I’ll teach them to go back and forth between 2-point and posting – but I save it for later. YMMV!

Another thought about Jane and all the Janes we all know: visual-perceptual problems are common in adolescents with disabilities like you describe. Can’t explain it, but our therapists confirm that early adolescence is the time when things they loved as young kids suddenly become scary - walking up the ramp to mount, tall horses, stairs with open sides. One girl I remember suddenly hated the ramp but would mount from the block; another boy only wanted to ride short horses that moved smoothly - we wondered if he was getting seasick.

So, in the end, maybe lay off the posting for a while and find whatever it is that Jane loves to do and encourage that. Power struggles for something like posting are not worth the effort!

[Adamantane]

How about finding the horse or pony with the most minute, tiny trot motion around, one that’s so small a movement that it’s pretty much trivial to sit. That should take the scary sense of being out of control away.