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[RC] Endurance Equitation: The Rising Trot Part3 - Duncan McLaughlinThe Seat and Upper Leg To achieve a biomechanically correct rising trot, it can be helpful to think of your knee as the centre of a circle and your thigh as the radius of the circle. As you rise, the bony knobble at the top of your thigh, the greater trochanter, describes a part of the circumference of that circle (see Figure 2). In the rising part of the motion your pelvis sweeps on a forward and upward arc. The emphasis should be on forward, not on upward; it is as if you were going to rise on over the front of the pommel. The larger and longer the forward sweep of your pelvis, the longer your horse?s stride will become. As you rise, the angle of the hip opens up, almost to 180 degrees. Your kneecap will rotate slightly downward and the lower leg will remain still, with next to no change of pressure in the stirrup. It is as if you could continue to rise to the trot with no difficulty if someone amputated your legs just below the knee. Figure 3 demonstrates a good test of your ability to rise correctly. While kneeling on the floor, rise forward and up, while keeping your upper body on, or even a little behind, the vertical. You should be able to achieve a fully extended rise without having to lean forward at all. This exercise does require significant effort. Of course, it is much easier when riding your horse due to the vertical forces that arise from the motion of the trot. If you do need to lean forward in front of the vertical to rise up in this exercise, then it is most likely you are pushing off your stirrups when actually riding your horse. By raising your heels, you have lost the primary means of shock absorption and, as a result, your hip flexor muscles have become contracted as they try to compensate. Rhythm and Tempo One of the reasons we riders feel safer when riding at trot, when compared to riding at canter, is due to our neurological wiring. Humans evolved with a two-beat locomotory pattern, either walking or running. Our horses are much more complex with two, three and four-beat locomotory patterns. It is the two beat rhythm of the trot that meshes most easily with our own evolved locomotory patterns. We also find it easiest to establish rhythm in two-beat patterns. Rhythm is the evenness of beats. Rhythm requires balance, while a lack of balance, in horse or rider, suggests falling. For example, think of the traditional stockman?s position with a long, straight leg and heels pushed out in front: the rider?s seat and upper body, without any support from the legs below, fall back in the saddle every stride and the trot becomes irregular. Tempo is the interval between beats. You will find particular tempos feel harmonious and your body will relax and participate easily in the motion of trotting. If the tempo is faster or slower than this resonant tempo you need more energy to keep rising effectively, your body becomes tense and discordant, and rhythm is lost. Your horse is the same. He works in an efficient, ground covering trot at one tempo but looses efficiency at faster and slower tempos. Tight structures resonate faster than loose ones. To accommodate a fast tempo (or a non-rhythmic rider) your horse will have to stiffen his muscles ? clearly this is not desirable. It is obvious by now that balanced riding is the best way to develop a rhythmic trot and allows us to take control of our horse. To slow our horse?s trot we need not pull on the reins, nor adjust the ?rings? very short. Instead, we slow him by adopting a relentless rhythm with a tempo slower than that which our horse offers. How we slow the tempo is important. If we simply try and slow our rising down, we will emphasise the down beat in the up/down action of rising trot, with detrimental effects on our horse?s stride. Instead, what we should do is, after our pelvis sweeps forward and up, pause for a moment, at the top of the rise, before coming back down. ................ Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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