RISING TROT WITHOUT STIRRUPS

SAY WHAT?

Riding without stirrups is unlikely to be your favourite exercise. In fact, most of us dread a stirrupless session. And yet, we do it because we know it helps - riding without stirrups helps our seat and builds our strength for future riding endeavours.

But what do you do when your instructor tells you to do rising trot without stirrups? Is that even possible? Here we look at this challenging exercise and see that it isn’t QUITE as bad as it sounds…

The exercise

Rising trot without stirrups will feel pretty weird to start with, but it’ll help you take more control over your riding, lengthen your leg and improve your balance in the saddle. Further, it makes you more aware of your body and builds different muscles, which will really help with whichever disciplines you compete in. So cross over those stirrups and follow these steps:

1. Trot large around the arena focussing on sitting tall and leaning back very slightly until you feel your core muscles engage.

2. Relax your legs down and keep your knees away from the saddle.

3. When you are ready, make tiny rises as though you are doing a squat. You’ll need to engage your glutes to push your hips forward and lift them slightly out of the saddle.

Troubleshooting

• Take care not to grip with your knees, as this completely defeats the purpose of the exercise!

• If you can’t seem to lengthen your legs, practice bending your knees and lifting them up and away from the saddle before letting your legs go loose and hang down. This is tricky but does help you to stretch out your legs.

• If you are struggling, make sure you are not trying to rise too high. The rises of the rising trot without stirrups are really very small, so don’t panic and just keep going.