Horseback Riding - Trotting

Hi, I am Coney and this is Sam and Bobby and we are from Crestwood Farm. We are going to demonstrate the proper way to trot your horse. Sam is going to walk over to the rail and you use your legs and your reins to guide the horse. Taking your hand to the right will turn him right, taking your hand to the left will turn him left. You use your legs, your heels of your feet; you push with your heels or give him a little tap with your heels to get them to trot. Once you are walking, you just start pressing a little harder with your heels, pushing or giving them a little tap to get them to jog, to trot. The trot is a four-beat gait. Its like a person jogging. They have their front legs move in a 1-2, 1-2 motion and so do the back feet. So you have one, two, three, four beat to their legs. They move almost diagonally but not quite. The rider wants to sit up straight, keeping their chin up, looking where they are going. They hold the reins in their right hand and your left hand should rest comfortably on your left leg. You want to keep to your toe up and your heel down keeping your way in your heels, so that you have the stirrup on ball of your foot up by your toe. You stretch your way down through your seat, down the back of your legs through your calves into your heels and that is what holds you on the horse. You always want to keep one leg on each side of the horse and let your legs hang down and lengthen them as much as you can through your heel. You want to keep your back straight and your lower leg absorbs the motion of the bounce of the horses trot. To stop the horse you are going to pull back on the reins, use the word Ho. Once they stop, you release your hand so that you dont have a lot of pressure in the reins, so that they will stand. To get them to go again, you press with your legs give them a little tap with your heels and cluck to get them to move. Once you get them walking then you continue pressing to get them back into your trot. To do a turn at a trot you will take your hand to turn left, take your left and use your right leg, because horses move away from pressure, so your right leg will push the horse to the left and your left leg will push the horse to the right. So, you guide the horse with your hand and your legs together to make a nice turn, easy turn keeping the same pace of your trot so that you are not speeding your horse up or down in his speed. You want to keep a nice rhythm to your trot. Thats the proper way to trot a horse.