Trot With Your Elbows Or Through Them?

[1 morejump]

I had a lesson a few days ago and my trainer kept telling me to post through my elbows and not bring them foreward with the rest of my body.  I never really thought about it before and now I am constantly correcting myself with it but I am wondering which is correct?  Or does it even matter?  

edited due to inability to spell    

[Murphysmum]

Something I have never thought about this.

Surely you must post through your elbows or else loose your contact, if your elbows kept moving forward you would get loopy reins, I'm having trouble trying to visualise this......experts please.

[Heather]

Hi 1morejump-

If you let your hands move back and forth, you will have as Murphy's Mum says, loops in your reins then tightening again, resulting in a very uneven contact. If you rise correctly, your hands should stay still.

Heather

[*BB*]

Can anybody remember how to 'Do the Locomotion'

Am I showing my age here :blush:  

[Pam K]

People who take their hands up and down with them at trot and jab the horse in the mouth as a result are a pet hate of mine I'm afraid   :blush:   As Heather says, if you do it correctly your hands don't move - much nicer for the horse.

[1 morejump]

well, the funny thing is that my hands don't move at all.  My lower arm is steady but she thinks that my entire arm needs to be stock still with just my body moving through my arms.  It is rather difficult to ride without any arm movement at all and I have no idea why she says it.  Without bringing my upper arm with me I feel like I am thrusting my stomach out way too much in order to rise.  
I keep trying to rise and make an arch with my pelvis but you can't do it this way and I end up just popping up out of the saddle.   :blink:
Trust me, my hands don't jerk him or he wouldn't let me stay on .  I just found it very odd that she wants no arm movement at all. <_<    

[Murphysmum]

My lower arm is steady but she thinks that my entire arm needs to be stock still with just my body moving through my arms.

I think your arms would have to be detatchable to do this  :lol: .

Perhaps you could ask her to demonstrate (could be interesting   ), becouse I just cannot see what she wants   .

 

[1 morejump]

becouse I just cannot see what she wants.

Me either, everytime I try to do this it feels like my belly button is going to fall out! :lol:  I keep trying to swing my pelvis but I can't do it like this and I hate popping out of the saddle.  :(
I have been beating my brains out to find a classical trainer near us but it is impossible!  
 

[Murphysmum]

Just had a thought, is she saying then that your shoulders should be in the same place and your upper back vertical and the only movement is to come from your hips/pelvis/lower back    

[shoveltrash]

IMHO you only need arms that are steady enough to maintain consistent contact (not jabbing a horse in the mouth with the rise of posting trot, etc.).

perhaps you should work on sitting trot in these lessons?
 :lol:  

[1 morejump]

is she saying then that your shoulders should be in the same place and your upper back vertical and the only movement is to come from your hips/pelvis/lower back

That might be it, but it is awfuly uncomfortable and Lance has a hard time staying in the trot when I do it.

[Murphysmum]

If thats what she is after, she is so wrong  :( .

[1 morejump]

I have seen her ride and she is a wonderful rider.  But I think she is one of those trainers that teaches "by the book" but doesn't ride that way.  

[stranger]

Lots of good riders can't explain to someone else what it is they think they do.

TELL her that you don't think that what SHE says and means is what you understand by it-or better yet-ask her for a demo.

She may need to find a different way to explain what it is she wants you to do.  

[baggywrinkle]

Is she saying to keep your hands still with respect to the horse's mouth? Perhaps try looping a flashband or string thru the saddle D rings and LIGHTLY hook your little fingers thru that.......that helped me get an idea of how to keep my hands 'still'.......but with respect to the saddle, tho, but at trot that's nearly it!