Q&A for How to Post While Trotting on a Horse

Get one of those big yoga balls, squeeze it between your legs, and imitate the posting movement. It looks really weird, but it definitely builds up the muscles that you need!

Make sure that your knees are bent and your legs are back. If you bring your lower leg forward, your stirrup will slowly slip farther back.

Point your toes up. A good exercise is to put spurs on your toes and not let them fall off when you ride. It's difficult but it works.

When the horse slows down, lean back in the saddle and slowly pull the reins back to slow the horse. Once he/she slows to a fast walk, sit straight again and loosen the reins.

The wall leg/the horse's front leg that is closest to the wall of the arena.

You have a few options here: Assuming you're taking lessons, ask your instructor for tips on how to post. You can also see if your instructor has a less-bouncy horse for you to learn to post on. Make sure you're posting on the correct diagonal. If you're messing this up, it could be causing you and your horse to feel more off balance. You can also learn to ride with a sitting trot, which is a much smoother gait, or you can ride a gaited horse. Ultimately, practice makes perfect. Posting can be exhausting and frustrating when you're first learning, but once you get the hang of it, it's like riding a bike.

You have to look at the appropriate leg and be up when it's up. Count 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2. Your trainer should tell you when you're wrong.

Adjust your stirrups down so you don't stand as high, and time your posts to the movement of your horse's outside shoulder. One post per stride.

Try just doing a half-halt. A slower trot might work. It's usually a bit less bouncy when the horse is going slower.

It's not recommended that you kick while posting. Kick first to get the next gait going, and once he/she is trotting, you start your post.

I struggle with this as well. After every ride, while cooling down and walking, try lifting your legs completely off the side of the saddle so they don't touch the saddle, engaging the muscles on the top and side of your legs. Hold this as long as you can and try to hold it a bit longer every day. This helps strengthen the part of the leg that helps keep it back and in the right spot. You may also be tight in your hips. To help this, if your horse is calm enough, stretch one leg at a time while you are walking around during your walk warm up by bringing your heel towards the cantle and grabbing your foot. Try to stay balanced while doing this. Always hold on to the reins with the other hand!

Put your heels down as far as you can. Sit back in the saddle and use your ring finger to slow down the horse.

Pull on the reins as if you were stopping or, for a more gentle manner that may work with some horses not used to sitting trot, sit back down in the saddle and lean back a little.

Try to keep your heels down and your toes up. An exercise you could do to help with this is put your toes up on a step with your heels on the ground. Then bend your knees slightly and push all of your weight into your heels. Do this for twenty seconds each day. This will help!