The Horsewoman: A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed.

by Alice M. Hayes

THE TROT.

When learning to ride, ladies should endeavour to be thorough, and should not proceed to study a new pace, before the previous one has been entirely mastered. If the body is nicely balanced at sharp turns at the walk, with the weight evenly distributed on the saddle, and both legs kept perfectly steady and in their right position, a great deal will have been done towards acquiring a firm seat.

When the pupil is able to ride with ease and grace at the walk, she may receive a lesson in trotting. I think it is best to teach the trot before the canter, because the majority of horses trot a few steps before they strike off into the canter.

As an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory, the instructor should first of all show her pupil how the trot is correctly executed, either without a skirt or with one pinned back, so that the position of her legs may be seen. She should try to make her practical demonstrations perfectly clear, and should encourage her pupil to question her concerning any points in this difficult pace which she does not understand. It is a good plan to trot both with and without a stirrup, in order to show that the weight of the body during the rise should be placed on the right leg, and not on the stirrup. Reference to Figs. [79], [93], [94], [98], [99], [100], [102] and [104] will show that the right leg remains in precisely the same position at the walk, trot, canter, and leap. The great difficulty in trotting is to keep this leg absolutely steady, and to prevent it from working backwards and forwards with the motion of the body, which can be done only by maintaining a steady pressure against the upper crutch with the right knee. When this has been obtained, and the rise can be made with the right leg held motionless, the rider will find herself able somewhat to relax this pressure, but in a mild form it is always necessary to press the right knee against the upper crutch in trotting, so as to aid the balance and to avoid putting too much weight on the stirrup. The right leg from the knee down should lie flat and in a slanting position against the horse’s shoulder ([Fig. 79]), the movement of the animal’s limb being distinctly felt by the rider’s leg which is resting against it. Having ascertained that the stirrup is sufficiently long to admit of the flat of the hand being placed between the left leg and the leaping-head when the rider is not exercising grip ([Fig. 82])—which will allow the lady to clear the leaping-head when rising at the trot—she should take rather a short hold of her horse, and induce him to bear on the snaffle to aid her to rise; for a horse which will not bear on the reins is not a comfortable animal to trot with. A lady should lean slightly forward and rise when the animal’s near fore leg comes on the ground. In [Fig. 93] we see the horse’s off fore on the ground and the lady preparing for the rise with her body inclined forward. [Fig. 94] gives us the position of the rider at the rise, and that of the horse’s near fore leg. As a well-executed trot can be acquired only after a great deal of practice, a lady should not be disheartened if she makes but slow progress. She will find it difficult to time the rise accurately, and until she can do this it is best for her to sit down in the saddle and bump up and down à la militaire, keeping her seat by the aid of her crutches, and occasionally making an effort to rise. If she rises at the wrong time, her effort will be productive of a churning movement, which should at once be discontinued, for that slipshod style of trotting is not only incorrect, but is liable to give the horse a sore back, and will prove very tiring to the rider. In making the rise she should straighten her left knee as in mounting, and bear slightly on the stirrup, executing her upward movement by the aid of the ankle-joint and by simultaneously pressing the upper crutch with her right knee, when she will return to her former position without being in any way jerked during the movement. The stirrup should always be kept in one fixed position at the ball of the foot, and both foot and stirrup should act with automatic precision, without the slightest jerk or wriggle, exactly as though the lady were making an upward step from the ground. The pressure of the foot should be directed on the inner side of the stirrup-iron, in order that the leg may lie close to the flap of the saddle. She will not require to lift herself from the saddle, for the horse will put her up to the necessary height, if she straightens her left knee and prepares to rise at the right moment. The height of the rise will vary according to the size and action of the horse. An animal of, say, 15-3, with a long, swinging trot, will cause his rider to rise higher in the saddle than a smaller horse with a short, shuffling gait. Many ponies have a short, quick trot requiring a hardly perceptible rise from the rider; but they are not, as a rule, comfortable trotters. The lady, as I have already remarked, rises when the animal’s near fore leg is placed on the ground, and remains seated while the off fore leg rests on the ground, but the height and duration of the rise will depend on his power of forward reach. Some ladies exert themselves far too much in rising, and flop down on their saddles with a noise which attracts attention to their faulty riding, and which must be very uncomfortable both to them and their mounts. The chief cause of this faulty style is the adoption of a long stirrup (Figs. [95] and [96]), by which the weight of the body is brought so much to the near side that the rider can rise only with great muscular exertion, and with the risk of giving her mount a sore back, by the downward drag of the saddle to this side. If the horse were to break into a canter, the lady with a long stirrup would obtain her grip by bringing back the left leg as in [Fig. 97] and pressing against the leaping-head high up on the thigh, which would give her a very insecure and ungraceful seat. I have seen ladies trying to trot with the left leg, from hip to foot, swinging about like the pendulum of a clock, as if they had no knee-joint at all. When we see an effort to trot with a stiff left leg swinging along the horse’s shoulder, we may safely conclude that the rider has her stirrup too long, and knows nothing about the art of trotting, or that the leaping-head of her saddle is placed so low down on the near side that she is unable to ride in it, and has to stick on as best she can. As we do not use the leaping-head in trotting, its position on the saddle may appear unimportant, but this is not the case; for, even if a lady has her stirrup at its correct length, the fact of the leaping-head being placed low down on the near side, compels her to ride with her stirrup longer than she would have to do if this crutch were properly placed. The farther it is away from the upper crutch, the greater difficulty will a lady have in rising at the trot. I have tried to ride in saddles in which I have found trotting such a tiring business, and requiring so much muscular exertion on my part, that it was much more comfortable for me not to rise, but to bump in military fashion. Many ladies, probably from the same reason, never rise in the trot. It is both wrong and unkind to put girls on bad saddles and then reproach them for not sitting straight at the trot, for I have found it absolutely impossible to do so in some saddles. Much of the soreness and misery which ladies suffer in their efforts to trot, would be obviated if the leaping-head of their saddles were placed as in [Fig. 16].

Although a well-executed trot looks nice, it should be only sparingly indulged in, because it is more fatiguing to the rider than the canter and is particularly liable to give a horse a sore back; for, do what the lady will to sit “square,” the saddle, supposing she rises, cannot fail to have some side motion. Of course the rider should walk or trot, and not canter, on metalled roads and hard ground, but she should always take advantage of any bit of soft “going” and indulge in a nice easy canter on it.

A lady learning to trot will require to do her hair up securely with plenty of hair-pins, pay attention to the fit of her hat, and see that it is provided with elastic an inch wide ([p. 114]), because she will find her head jerked about a good deal during her first lessons. The trot should be properly studied in a school or enclosure before a lady is taken out on the roads, for she can learn nothing by “slithering” along anyhow, and will be liable to contract a bad method of riding, which will probably prevent her from ever becoming a good horsewoman. We must remember that the trot is the most difficult of all paces, and can be correctly acquired only after much patient practice; but it is worth doing well. Very few ladies excel in this art, for the simple reason that they do not care to go through the drudgery of it. Some ladies are so impatient that they give up the study of a pace as soon as they can stick on their saddles. How few who hunt can really ride well! In Leicestershire a fine horsewoman remarked to me that several ladies ride hard who are indifferent horsewomen—a fact which I think we may see demonstrated in every hunting-field; but what is worth doing at all is surely worth doing well, and a lady should strive to be a good horsewoman as well as a plucky rider. When a horse increases his pace without being ordered to do so, he should be at once checked by a pull, not a jerk, on the reins, which should be accompanied by a word, such as “steady,” uttered in a warning, determined tone that he will understand; because he should never be allowed to take the initiative, which he would do by breaking into a canter. The trot should be slow at first, until the rider is secure in her seat, when it may be increased gradually to its fullest limit. The faster a horse trots, the stronger bearing should we have on the reins, but when we find the pace degenerating into a rocking movement, the animal should be steadied and collected, because he is exceeding the limit of his speed, and is probably trotting with his fore and cantering with his hind legs, as we may frequently see with horses which are being overdriven in harness. After practice has been acquired in trotting in a forward direction, and the rider is able to sit with ease and grace, she should trot in a circle to the right, taking care to keep a good grip, incline her body inward, and guide her horse with precision. The circle, which should be large, may then be made to the left, which will more strongly test the rider’s seat, and particularly her command of her right leg. If she does not ride correctly, this circling should be stopped, and the mistake rectified by more practice in a forward direction.

If a horse, during the trot, suddenly breaks off into a canter, the rider should sit down in her saddle as in the walk, and grip her crutches as may be required. She should not be the least bit alarmed at this new pace, supposing that she has not been taught to canter, for all she will have to do will be to sit down and allow her body to follow the movements of the horse by the play of her hip joints, as explained in the first lesson ([p. 159]). The lady who has practised leaning back ([p. 158]) will be able almost at once to adapt herself to the requirements of the canter; but as the trot is the subject of her study, the horse should be instantly pulled up. In order to do this safely, she should lean slightly back in her saddle, and stop him gradually, employing her usual word of command, and, while keeping her hands low down and well apart, exert a firm and fixed pressure on the reins. The rider must never allow herself, however disobedient her mount may be, to “job” his mouth with the reins, or to use them at any time as a means of punishment. Also she must not try to pull him up suddenly, but always gradually, in order that he may not strain the ligaments or tendons of his legs. If a horse hears and understands his rider’s word of command, he will pull up in a manner most easy to himself. In practising the trot, the pupil should try to look between her horse’s ears, and should keep her elbows as close to her sides as is comfortable, for she would lose power over her mount by turning them out. If she interferes with the horse’s mouth, and does not keep her reins at one fixed length, the animal will naturally become unreliable in his paces. If she feels a pain in her side or gets a headache while trotting, the lesson for that day should be at once stopped, because she will not be able to ride properly if she is enduring any kind of discomfort. Parents should pay great attention to this matter, especially if the riding instructor is a man, because a girl would naturally be disinclined to mention any personal ailment to him. Whoever the teacher may be, he or she should always humour a nervous pupil, and not, as many do, start with the idea of getting her “shaken into her seat,” at the risk of ruining her riding nerve for ever and causing her to loathe her lessons. If a pupil during her first trotting lesson suffers from nervousness, it is best to discontinue the trot and finish the lesson at the walk, in order to settle her nerves and not frighten her out of her wits. Her next trotting lesson should be commenced at the walk, and an occasional effort be made to trot a short distance, so that she may gradually obtain the necessary confidence, and an encouraging word should always be given her when she does well.