Riding position and aids for beginners: seat, legs, hands and rising trot

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Good riding is mostly about position. A balanced position lets the horse carry you comfortably, and it is what makes clear aids possible. Aids are the signals you use to ask the horse to go, stop and turn. Here is what your instructor will be working on in your early lessons.

The basic position

Imagine a straight line running from your ear, through your shoulder and hip, to your heel. That line is the target.

Seat: sit in the deepest part of the saddle, with your weight evenly on both seat bones. Do not perch forward or slump back.
Upper body: tall and relaxed, shoulders back but not stiff, looking where you are going rather than down at the horse.
Legs: hanging long around the horse, knees soft, the lower leg resting lightly against the horse's side.
Feet: the ball of the foot on the stirrup, heels slightly lower than toes, toes pointing roughly forwards.
Hands: carried just above and in front of the withers, thumbs on top, elbows soft and by your sides. There should be a straight line from your elbow through your hand to the horse's mouth.

The natural aids

Riders talk about natural aids, the ones you make with your body, and artificial aids, such as a schooling whip, which support them.

Legs: ask the horse to move forward, keep going and bend. A squeeze with both legs asks for more energy; one leg slightly behind the girth asks the hindquarters to move over.
Seat and weight: a relaxed, following seat allows movement; sitting taller and stiller helps ask for a slower pace or halt.
Hands: guide direction and regulate speed through the reins. The contact should be elastic, never a hard pull.
Voice: used calmly, especially in early lessons and on the lunge.

The key idea is ask, then release. When the horse responds, soften the aid immediately. That release is the horse's reward and how it learns.

Walk

Walk is a four-beat pace. Let your hips follow the horse's movement, as if you are walking with it. Your hands follow the nod of the horse's head forward and back. To ask for walk from halt: a squeeze with both legs, with soft hands that allow the horse forward. To halt: sit tall, close your legs, and close your fingers on the reins until the horse stops, then soften.

Trot and rising trot

Trot is a two-beat pace in which the legs move in diagonal pairs. It is bouncier than walk, so most riders learn rising trot first.

In rising trot, you rise slightly out of the saddle on one beat and sit lightly on the next, using the horse's movement to lift you rather than pushing up from the stirrups.
Keep the movement small, and let your hips go forward towards your hands rather than straight up.
Count "up, down, up, down" in rhythm with the horse.

Diagonals

In an arena, you rise as the horse's outside foreleg (the one nearest the fence) moves forward. If you are on the wrong diagonal, sit for one extra beat and rise again. It feels baffling at first and becomes automatic. Sitting trot, where you stay in the saddle, comes later, once your seat is relaxed enough to absorb the movement.

Canter

Canter is a three-beat pace with a rocking feel. Most schools introduce it when you are secure in rising trot.

It is usually asked for in a corner, with the inside leg on the girth and the outside leg slightly behind it.
Sit deep and let your hips swing with the movement, keeping your upper body tall.
Do not lean forward; it tips you off balance and can make the horse go faster.

Common beginner problems

Gripping with the knees: it pushes you up and out of the saddle. Let the legs hang.
Looking down: your weight follows your eyes. Look up and ahead.
Hands too high or busy: keep them quiet and level.
Heels creeping up: often from tension. Breathe out and let your weight sink down.
Pulling to stop: use your seat and body first, with the reins as support.

A few lunge lessons without reins or stirrups, under an instructor's control, are one of the quickest ways to fix these. Which part of your position is your instructor always reminding you about? Share it, or ask a question, in the comments.