Sit Trot with a Tight Lower Back

[LadyB]

As the title reads, sit trotting with a tight lower back.
I ride with an absolutely wonderful lady, but I’m wondering if there is another way to train my brain to think to get my lower half to relax in the sit trot.

My last dressage test had a medium trot across the diagonal, that must be sat. Well I got to x and the wheels started to fall off, but managed while laughing. I just can’t hold the sit without being rigid and if anything probably causing stiffness to my poor horse.

Goal is to sit trot every ride this winter, one more stride then the day before. I struggle with loosening my lower half, I’m a tad rigid and lock, I can tell my whole spine becomes solid. Any tips to think of while trying to create maybe a more independent lower half?

Hoping someones analogy or terminology might help! TIA!

[Mersidoats]

Sitting requires suppleness of the hips and that joint between your last lumbar vertebrae and your sacrum - it is the joint you move when (if?) you twerk. If that joint is locked, there is no way you can sit. First you need to figure out where it is and how to move it. You can start laying down on the ground and try to carefully rotate your pelvis towards the ground, and then back away from the ground, using only that joint.

Once you get the handle of that joint, then move to your hips. Now that you have that twerking joint moving, as your pelvis slides forward, you need to open the area where your legs feed into your pelvis - easier said than done, especially if you sit all day at a desk. There is some muscle engagement in trying to sit the trot, I feel my gluteus medius firing.

I personally had to overcome a faulty mental image of perfect stillness in the saddle before I could sit well and effectively. In an attempt to appear elegant, I stopped letting my body move with the horse, and effectively became a giant human half-halt - useful at times, but not all the time. When I was finally convinced that I wouldn’t look like a monkey humping a football if I let my hips move in the sit-trot, life got a lot better for me and my horses.

Is there a way you can be lunged for a few minutes of every lesson? That way you can begin to find these joints and learn what muscles you need to engage without worrying about steering or connection, etc.

[joiedevie99]

It takes a tremendous amount of movement to sit the trot - the pelvis moves front to back and side to side. The nicer the mover, and the more the horse uses the back, the more you have to move. The stillness is relative to the horse, not to the outside world.

One option if you want to try something a bit outside the box, and off the horse, is Dave Thind’s Feldenkrais class on improving the sitting trot. I found it useful, in part because it takes the focus off muscle/strength and onto mechanics.

[Mondo]

I have found that the best way to teach the sitting trot is to put the student on the lunge line. You then take away the irons. Student should be holding onto a grab strap or the front of the saddle, pulling their seat deeper. Now if you stiffen against the trot, you are going to probably come off. You can’t hold your back as tight if you don’t have stirrups to brace in. The exercise for your coach to give you is have you sit the trot for a few strides as normal, then have you pull your legs as far out to the sides as possible. You won’t make more than a stride or two before you once again have to wrap your legs around the horse. If your legs are on the horse’s sides as they should be, then you are free to move your pelvis with the trot.

Another way to look at it is think about how you move in the canter. You move your pelvis in the saddle with the canter motion. It’s the same for sitting trot only more rapid.

[lorilu]

I am on a similar journey this winter. I recently read Anatomy of Dressage by H and V Schusdziarra. VERY technical IRT which muscles move in what fashion at all gaits; there is a trot chapter. For the first time I actually read that there is a “one side at a time” movement of the pelvis - which I have SEEN watching riders but everyone told me I was wrong. Anyway, might be worth a look, then think about how you are moving the next time you ride. Its not a big book - 140 pgs or so. Its required reading in the USDF judge program…

[eightpondfarm]

Yoga or Pilates might help you open your joints and stretch those muscles. I do yoga and tai chi. My yoga instructor is always amazed at how flexible i am at my hips. I keep telling him it is because i’ve been riding for 50 years but for some odd reason he doesn’t believe it could make me so. It’s kinda funny.

[Hej]

Well, this is a bit crude; but the image of

“Shoulders like a queen, hips like a whore.”

helps me keep my upper body quiet while my lower body follows the horse’s back.

[Wicky]

Try to find a Balimo/Wave chair (stool, really), which will allow movement in all directions and let you think about it and feel it and practice it off horse. A few weeks ago I posted about the new version.

Being lunged at all gaits, without stirrups, will improve your proprioception and control of individual muscles. Most of us tense up all muscles at the same time, which will bounce us out of the saddle.

[Feathered_Feet]

Catherine Haddad-Staller has a good video about how to sit the trot. She clarifies which body parts to move and how to cognitively recognize and start the motion. I think it was something along the lines of “you want to see your belt buckle move up and down,” so if you can do that motion, you are well on your way to isolating the right body part!

[Equibrit]

Whatever works for YOUR body - but BEFORE you can sit, your horse has to be round, back up, back legs pushing, and on the aids.
This is usually the major problem.

[eightpondfarm]

for my first few months starting dressage lessons i hauled-in a QH who is young, but verrrry slow. I had to drive him at the walk! with my hips…like almost 2/3rds of each class i was working him. So my introduction to dressage was a big wakeUp call to my hip joints/lower lumbar. After him, the other horses have been so easy. I have this big moving mare who, though her stride is huge, is actually easy to sit. (which is something the mechanics of i still do not understand, my coach has tried to explain it to me, but i don’t get it.) We are W/T only at this point, but she is smooth to sit the trot. Actually, it’s sort of a thrill to ride her.

[merrygoround]

The major problem with sitting trot is its name. When you sit, in a chair, you sit, you do not move your hips in a seductive fashion. At least not unless you are wearing spangles, and being paid to move thusly. :lol:

Therefore “HEJ” has nailed it.:yes:

“Equibrit” also makes a cogent point. The horse must be moving Forward, and be round, giving you a place to sit, Unless you are in an AQHA WP class where the horses barely move forward. In a dressage class that trot might get you a 4. ;), it would surely draw the comment, “Needs more forward”.

Sitting stirrupless, and reinless on the longe is the easiest way to not only learn to sit the trot, but to work within the sitting trot.

[sascha]

@Equibrit

Whatever works for YOUR body - but BEFORE you can sit, your horse has to be round, back up, back legs pushing, and on the aids.
This is usually the major problem.

This. This. And, THIS.

Any sound horse can be sat by just about anyone if the horse’s back is up. If the horse carries its own dang torso it will, by default, carry the rider’s torso. And both will stay sounder longer

[anon68314200]

@Equibrit

Whatever works for YOUR body - but BEFORE you can sit, your horse has to be round, back up, back legs pushing, and on the aids.
This is usually the major problem.

Yes, and I will add that it may help if the rider is aware (has feel) of what asymmetries are present in both the horse and rider. “Back Up” presumes (somewhat) ALSO an evenness of body usage, lift, and flexibility on both sides of the horse and rider. Without a handle on the lateral asymmetries, and how they interact between horse and rider, the rider will likely employ one side of themselves more strongly. And when one side of the body is doing the work/compensation, it can be nearly impossible to get the other side to participate in an equal/ideal manner.

There are many descriptive for this phenomenon. My favorite goes something like “one side of the body is designed to hold on to the tree, and the other to pick the fruit.” So the rider may have to address the usage of either side of themselves, and the horse, differently.

[lorilu]

@Feathered_Feet

Catherine Haddad-Staller has a good video about how to sit the trot. She clarifies which body parts to move and how to cognitively recognize and start the motion. I think it was something along the lines of “you want to see your belt buckle move up and down,” so if you can do that motion, you are well on your way to isolating the right body part!

Here is a clip of that one. I dont belong to DToL so I can only see the clip but it’s still instructive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tcB-71_B38&list=PLfqH5iV16u-I1yHj1_fegAhtyPcDmGXqv&index=1&ab_channel=DressageToday

[anon68314200]

@lorilu

Here is a clip of that one. I dont belong to DToL so I can only see the clip but it’s still instructive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tcB-71_B38&list=PLfqH5iV16u-I1yHj1_fegAhtyPcDmGXqv&index=1&ab_channel=DressageToday

WE could have a long discussion about that clip!! Not a fan of what it says.

[lorilu]

@Isabeau Z Solace

WE could have a long discussion about that clip!! Not a fan of what it says.

I actually would love that. I just read Anatomy of Dressage and the diagonal component fo the sitting trot they discuss is something I have seen but no one ever agreed that it is part of the sitting. Mostly what I see in the arena is mini-sit-ups which is what I think she is describing - more both sides at the same time. My guy is really hard to sit and, despite being an Iberian, would rather not engage his ass. I am better at the ST, but still have far to go to stabilize my hands and get my legs under me (not sure my saddle helps me here… )

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

What do you do if your back muscles seize up at the sitting trot?

[Rosewatt]

Honestly, it just takes a ton of practice to change your muscle memory. I had the same problem with one of my horses who was a bit choppy in full length of stride! Here a few additional things I did to eventually sit that trot:

1. Planks…lots and lots of planks :lol:

One thing that is enormously helpful in riding a sitting trot that can be bouncy is core strength. Sitting trot DOES take more core than many of the other gaits. This was the final piece I was missing and it truly made an overall difference. The need for core strength becomes even more apparent when you ride huge movers with lots of bounce. You need to remain toned enough to not ‘bounce all around’, but to so much that would make you rigid. The best way to go about this is to work on your fitness outside of riding.

2. Muscle warm-up.

Every ride, I pick a specific set of warm-ups that focus on a particular thing. This helps me maintain correct position and also retrain muscle memory.
For the sitting trot, it was exercises to center my seat bones, stretch my hips, including the psoas (attaches from the lower back, through the hip and onto the inner trochanter). The psoas is a muscle that can fight against a supple hip when riding. There are lots of different exercises for this which I would recommend to look up, but here are my go-to quick exercises for every ride:

• hip swings, focusing on hip flexor stretch and bringing knee down and back. Toes should be aimed straight.
• the “splits”. Basically, taking both legs out to the side, keeping toes mostly foreward. This stretches the hips laterally.
• knee lifts. This focuses on core, balance and centering the seatbones. Helps flex the psoas. It can be used in a less extreme way to re-center your seat at the trot.

3. Start slow and add only as much as you can handle at a time.

You need to give your muscles time to adjust. It’s okay if you can’t sit a full medium trot at first and it’s okay if the only trot you can sit right now is one that is super slow. Eventually, your muscles will adjust to the trot and you can start adding a bit more impulsion in.

4. Lunge line lessons and no stirrups. Someone already covered this, so i won’t elaborate.

5. Understanding the trot movement and how it is different from other gaits with respect to how your seatbones will move when sitting it.

6. a bucking strap. This one I didn’t actually use, but I know one instructor who has all her students have one and hook their index fingers under it when they start to loose relaxation to bring themselves back into the seat.

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

@Rosewatt

Honestly, it just takes a ton of practice to change your muscle memory. I had the same problem with one of my horses who was a bit choppy in full length of stride! Here a few additional things I did to eventually sit that trot:

2. Muscle warm-up.

Every ride, I pick a specific set of warm-ups that focus on a particular thing. This helps me maintain correct position and also retrain muscle memory.
For the sitting trot, it was exercises to center my seat bones, stretch my hips, including the psoas (attaches from the lower back, through the hip and onto the inner trochanter). The psoas is a muscle that can fight against a supple hip when riding. There are lots of different exercises for this which I would recommend to look up, but here are my go-to quick exercises for every ride:

I had spasms in psoas once, and it was so painful. It led to sciatica. Awful.