Medicine Lodge Valley, Dillon, Montana

Learning to do the correct Posting / Rising Trot
from the ground.

The "Wall Post"

I just want to clarify that these images are not perfect to scale drawings. If the torso seems short or long compared to the legs and vise versa it is not to be literal. But one of these times I will get drawings that are to scale .

To begin get next to a wall in the riding position.  Side view shown. Your body will be aligned from the ear, shoulder pelvis and ankle. And feet shoulder width apart. The knees will touch the wall.  Feet will be pointed at the wall.

When we look at the person next to the wall from the rear we do not want the person in the position that is illustrated on the left. We do however need to see the person as illustrated on the right.   Which allows the knees to stay on the wall and allows your to post forward.  For the sake of "what if's" do try both positions.

As you rise the knees need to stay on the wall.  As you notice from the knee down to the feet nothing has changed.  In fact for this drawing I copied a pasted the knee to the feet from the first image on to this image. And from the waist to the head it does not change.   What will change is the opening of the hip and knees. The hips(pelvis) and upper thighs  will be the moving factor forward.  

When you try this exercise it is not uncommon that your knee will come off the wall.  When this happens it means that you are pushing from the feet and standing straight up. The hips did not open freely , but were "locked" to not move. Since we can not push the floor down and forward (or back) like we can in our stirrups / irons in a saddle we see that we are standing up and plopping down instead of a forward rise using the hips to move us as the horse moves under us.

© Donna Hildreth 1998 - 2009
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