To elaborate on my question, I was just interested to see if people sit the trot more often or if you rise/post to the trot more.
Being a dressage rider, I tend to do sitting trot for most of my rides with the exception of the warm-up (I do not sit on my horse's back until she is ready) and when giving my horse a break during the ride. I find myself to be more able to influence my horse when sitting.
Also a dressage rider. It depends on the level of horse that I'm riding. If I'm riding a youngster that hasn't have it's back as established as a more experienced horse, then I will rise for the majority of the ride until I feel that the horse is ready to take my weight completely.
If I am riding the more experienced horse though, I will rise for about 50% of my ride including my warmup, and the last few minutes of trot work when I allow the horse to go long and long.
As the OP said, in sit trot there is more control. It is far easier to control to tempo, you can feel slight variations in the gait and have more influence over the hindlegs.
It depends on the horse for me. My Toby has a very smooth trot that is easy to sit, so I usually sit his. However, my husband's draft cross has a horrible trot and his is much easier to post to rather than sit.
if i ride Swoop i sit mostly bc when he trots its like he's floating. when i ride Petey i tend to post more bc his stride is so big and choppy, until hes warmed up a lot and working nicely collected.
I'm definatley a poster more of the time. My horse has a very bouncy, pick up trot, thus making it difficult to sit. Although im trying to train him to collect. If it helps my diciplines are Dressage and Hunt seat.
I wasn't allowed to post with one of my instructors. 'What are you doing that up-and-down thing for? You aren't in pony club!' So he made me sit, and it made me nauseated!
I do like sitting smooth horses, but I much prefer posting.
I am riding two horses at the moment, one is my own WB and the other is a TB I am leasing for jumping lessons. I post the trot on both of them most/all the time. Mine because he is young and recovering from rollkur training from his previous owners, and the other because he is extremely out of balance because his rider is heavy handed. Whenever I ride quarter horses I tend to prefer sitting the trot.
I do either or. At the moment most of the horses I ride have issues, so posting is the safest and best thing for me and the horse, as sitting the trot confuses and upsets them more, since they aren't built up and ready for it. One horse in particular thinks that if I sit the trot, I want him to GO, and as he's a huge halter Quarter Horse, with an incredibly bouncy trot, and an inability to canter well due to his extremely large muscling in the wrong areas for riding, going is not a good thing because he is VERY unbalanced, and thus bucks to try and get under himself better. But I am riding one horse that is just a needs to get out ride, bareback more, to help me get back my seat and balance for sitting the trot, and balancing better on a horse.
It depends; I ride both english and western, and so I work on both; posting to a trot, even western can help a horse learn to rate his speed by your post 'rate'.
On my Curly X Arab mare, I post it because of her long strides that are too hard to seat comfortably On my gelding, I can sit it if I drive my pelvis really deep. If I get tired, back to posting lol
Being a western rider, I can do both. I prefer to post to Jester's gait because he has such a hard trot to sit. However, Annie's trot is hard to post to because she is so smooth that you have a hard time getting in time with her stride. Just depends on the hhorse I am riding ^^
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