Riding Transitions

Although you can ride transitions within a gait, transitions are technically a change of gait, not necessarily a change of speed.

When riding an upward transition, you need to think about having a trot-able walk to transition into a trot, or a canter-able trot to transition into a canter, etc, and when doing a downward transition you need to think about having a halt-able walk/trot/canter.

A common mistake that riders can make is that they ride too slowly for a smooth upward transition, and too fast for a smooth downward transition.

Understanding the appropriate energy is the secret to effortless transitions!

A great concept I like to teach is “to do in your body what you want the horse to do in its body”.

Try to mimic the walk, trot, and canter in your own (upper) body. This will help you to stay upright and balanced, and prevent you from leaning too far forward, or too far backward. This will also help your horse to stay balanced and change gait in harmony with you.

At the Halt?— Sit still and drop your energy — mental and physical!

At the walk?— Point your tailbone forward, softly close your legs (but not your heels), and allow the horse to move your hips. As your right hip moves forward, follow it with your right shoulder. Nobody has to see you doing it, just do it in your skin! This allows the horse to move without being blocked and you will move like your horse — right hind, right front… left hind, left front.

At the trot?— Initiate the trot by softly bouncing your chest — again, no one should see it! Most people push their seat harder so the horse goes faster and tends to be more on the forehand. Keep your seat and hips soft.

Choose the rising trot as the most common and comfortable way to ride the trot. Sit the trot when it is a jog or more collected. This can take some skill development and there’ll be lots more riding tips coming your way.

At the Canter?— Initiate the canter by putting your outside elbow back and down (which naturally weights your outside seat bone and releases your inside seat bone), sit softly, and canter in your chest. Again, no one should see this but your horse will feel it. Don’t push with your seat, just follow your horse’s movement but canter in your upper body — lifting your sternum back, up and over as if doing a tiny circle with your chest.

For downward transitions, get tall in the saddle and slow down your body so your horse starts to feel a little resistance to his forward movement. Keep your heels back and down, and hips, belly button, and upper body all stay aligned as they slow. Your horse will learn to slow down with your body, but if he doesn’t yet understand, softly use your reins to help.

The best place to practice transitions is on a large circle.

When a transition is less than perfect, it probably means that you lost your rhythm and balance. When that happens you tend to get bounced around which in turn will cause your horse to lift his head, hollow his back putting more weight back on the forehand, and become unbalanced. Once he is unbalanced it’s harder for him to make the transition.

Another challenge is when we get tense before a transition. When we get tight in our bodies, our hips contract, legs become shorter as knees lift, feet come out of the stirrups…all kinds of things happen and the result throws the horse off balance.

Good transitions take practice, and the more we can mimic each gait, the easier and smoother they will become for both the horse and rider.

You can learn more about this in The Power Of Transitions” course at Happy Horse Happy Life.

Linda ??