The Trot: Influencing it's Energy(Part 2 Sitting)

In some ways the posting trot is similar to sitting trot and in just as many ways they are quite different. One thing is clear, however, and that is the sitting trot is probably one of the hardest things a rider will need to learn to master. To sit the trot well is all a question of how able you are to take charge of your body when all forces are working against you.
To fully develop horses you will absolutely need to be able to sit the trot for the mechanics of the posting trot limit the rider's subtlety of influence. To begin, it is helpful to have read the article on posting trot if for nothing else but to gain additional perspective on how to feel for the energy and work with it. It is also helpful to have mastered the posting trot to gain its value in developing better tone in the thigh muscles and the torso.
When you learn something, generally it is unhelpful to learn what it is you DON'T wish to do. But in this case I feel justified in doing just that! What the sitting trot is NOT is a sort of hula or shimmy or belly dance in the saddle. What I have found is that the more upholstered a saddle is with its fancy knee and thigh rolls and depth of seat, the more likely it is that the rider will try to master one of two ways of sitting, neither of which are right in my opinion. One is this wiggle I mention above and the other is the 'wedged' seat where the knee and thigh are held in a vice-like hold to clamp the rider's seat down against the saddle. This latter method is possibly the worst mistake of all. It produces a visual picture of stillness but it completely blocks energy flow to the horse. What ends up happening is the rider then kicks or squeezes on the horse to generate what he THINKS is missing....forward motion! What is actually stymied is energy flow! Until saddle makers finally figure out that riders can only make their horses happier when there is full energy flow, we will continue to see a flood of these type saddles in the market. I recommend to all my students that they remove knee and thigh rolls from their saddles. Most are skeptical at first but when they follow through they are eternally grateful for what 'sitting ability' they recover by having done so!
The hard part, however, is that without help from the saddle, the rider will need to use himself in a very special way that requires thought and effort and maintenance. The best way to understand how to sit the trot is to start out with the intention of influencing the horse. If you begin with only the intention of following the horse you are more likely to miss the secrets of success! So let us start by thinking of a basketball player dribbling a ball. The hand of the player remains virtually 'attached' to the ball as it bounces up and down. The back of the horse does not actually bounce----it rather undulates rhythmically in a wavelike motion. But the forces that travel upward from the ground as each of the horse's hind feet touch down send a sensation to the rider as though the horse is a bouncing ball. Now imagine the ball is travelling forward as it is bouncing. The hand of the basketball player needs to move, shift and mould accordingly to stay with the ball and influence how powerfully it bounces.
Essentially, the rider imagines that he is sitting on a big round ball and he is bouncing it without falling off the ball. What allows the rider to bounce this ball? If his feet touch the ground he can use the touch down of his feet to spring off the ground, bounce the ball and then advance the ball forward. Once the ball is in motion, now he can employ the folds in his seat----groin, hip, waist, knee----and cause them to act as springs or levers, opening and closing to activate momentum in the bounce and the advance(forward or sideways) of the bounce.
Practically speaking then, in the saddle the rider uses the angles of his legs and the gentle curves in his torso to absorb the shock of the concussion of the bounce as well as to influence the intensity of the bounce. In order to minimize the amount of motion in the rider's body so that this motion does not get out of control and/or irritate or hinder the horse in his job to deal with the wobbling weight on his back, the rider learns to bolster his body through an intricate orchestration of isometric holds and releases. It is these holds and releases that are the basis for energy management. Breath control exercises, especially as they help you learn to lower the diaphragm and use expansion of the chest to still the torso, are very helpful.
Just as in the posting trot, the rider needs to focus on directing energy the horse sends up into his buttocks and lower back forward and through into a distinct spot on the withers(the hopper). So, without actually hoisting the body up out of the saddle as in the rising trot, the rider uses the angle between his thigh and hip as a sort of pin to 'attach' to the saddle, receive the horse's energy, process it in his 'oven'(or dan tien as in Tai Chi) and then open the angle to release and send the energy forward to the withers....dropping it down the hopper. Very quickly, as the wave of motion continues, the attachment 'pin' closes to catch the next installment of energy from the horse. This 'pin' cannot be held too tightly or the flow will be blocked. The tension on the 'pin' is very carefully regulated by the rider to assist him with stillness and to catch and hold the energy and to then release it.
In addition, the hip bones will spark energy into the elbows and send it forward in a 'push-like' action down the lower arm and into the rein. And in another way energy travels fluidly down the thigh into the knee and the knees spark to the horse's shoulders to move ahead. There should be an even tone in the thigh between hip and knee and even touch against the horse. The very upper inner thigh acts by pulsing energy inward and forward. The ankle should have a looseness as should the toes which touch the stirrup gently. The action upon the stirrup, not by actual pressure on it but by the springing action off it, can enable upward lift of the horse(something to be described later). The heel of the rider feels back for the energy of the horse's hind feet bringing power up from the ground-----sort of a reverse gravity pull! So the springing open and closed of the rider's ankle as he touches lightly upon the stirrup feeds energy up into the rider's calf which naturally becomes hard and soft....hard and soft....in a pulse-like action of its own. This pulse is so remarkable. It does not need to be deliberately generated by the rider. Simply allowing the springing action on the stirrup enables the calf to do this. The horse is so sensitive that he can feel this pulse through the stiffest hardest leather boot. As all these sparks and pulses harmonize with the beat of the trot motion the horse becomes pumped with energy which he is just bubbling over with desire to release in beautiful soft forward and upward motion. The hallmark of good trot motion is the gentle articulation of the horse's joints. This can best be facilitated through the movement of free flowing energy(or chi) through the rider which he releases to the horse who then sends more back which the rider takes in.....the cycle of repetition is aligned to the beat. The harmonious taking, mixing, and releasing is the exchange that makes the trot come alive and aids the rider in his ability to sit effectively.
One more word, the subject of which I will take up in another article, is that the sitting trot will truly make sense to the body and form real neuro-connections that turn sitting into something that feels more comfortable and natural when the rider starts to grasp the concept of 'follow through'. If an effort to sit the trot feels particularly difficult, I am certain it is the result of held back energy which you were not aware you were stifling. Think like this: when you throw a ball, you must let go of the ball! Let go....and catch another....throw it....and let go. Do this in a pattern of regularity and watch amazing things begin to happen!