Hi and thank you for joining us. This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh riding our new project horse Zoolander. We had a request for a video about the rising trot, so I thought we would talk about that for a little bit.

The main point I want to make is that the rising trot is never going to feel right until you get the horse working through the back, because that is really what the rising trot depends upon. Now if you watch Karen riding here, if you watch how when the horse’s back is springing how she sits in the saddle for just one second and the spring of the horse’s back pushes her right back up. When she comes out of the saddle that hind leg is pushing forward and pushing up underneath her, that is what is pushing her out of the saddle. So many people have difficulty rising to the trot because their horse’s backs are hollow, so they are really just falling back into a hole and there is nothing to push them back out of the hole. If you see a horse that is working correctly over it’s back, as you see this one, it becomes effortless to rise to the trot.

I am teaching a woman right now who is seventy-four years old who was having so much difficulty. Now we got her horse’s back up and she can ride her horse for an extended period of time because she is not having to do all the work. The horse’s back does the work by springing you back up.

Some other points on that, notice how Karen is letting her leg relax but lifting her toe up but not pushing her weight into the heel, letting her weight be received down into the heel with her toe lifted instead of pushing down on the heel. So as she is rising, she is actually letting go at her knee as she comes back down into the saddle and never grips with the knee because when you grip with the knee it makes a pivot point that if something goes wrong it actually throws you out over the top of the horse’s head. So you want to keep your knees basically relaxed and let your weight sink down into your heel with your toe lifted and your back straight.

Once again, your rising trot will never feel right until your horse’s back is up because it is the back that really makes the rising trot work. Just like in the example that Karen gives us in the video, watch how the back just springs her right back up effortlessly. This is Will Faerber, Karen Loshbaugh and our new horse Zoolander from Art2Ride talking about the rising trot today. We hope that helps a little bit. Get your horses working through the back and all of your rising trots will improve immensely, and you will work a lot less hard. Thank you very much for joining us today!

back classical foundation Karen Loshbaugh rising trot San Diego horse training spring Will Faerber