Are you unsure how to check your trotting diagonal? Do you always find yourself on the wrong one, or is your instructor always asking you to change it? Why is it important to be on the correct diagonal anyway?
I’ve been asked all these questions so I’m here to clear up the confusion about trotting diagonals today. First up:
What are trotting diagonals?
Trot is a two-beat pace. Horses move their legs in two diagonally opposite pairs separated by a moment of suspension; beat one: right fore and left hind move simultaneously, followed by beat two: left fore and right hind move simultaneously.
Your trotting diagonal in rising trot is dictated by which of these two beats you are rising on, and on which you are sitting in the saddle. So why does it matter which one you’re sitting and rising on?
Why it’s important to be on the correct trotting diagonal
When we’re riding a horse, we are adding our weight to its natural weight, and that weight is distributed down through its four legs. When standing still, more weight is distributed over the front legs. The horse’s centre of gravity is slightly in front of the middle of it’s body, due to having a neck and head sticking out in front of the front legs. Laterally, the weight should be distributed evenly though. In other words, there should not be more weight over the left side of the horse than the right.
Once the horse is under saddle in an arena, this lateral weight distribution changes. An arena is a reasonably small space with relatively frequent requirements for turning at the four corners, before we even begin to consider school movements such as small circles, for example. When a horse is turning right, it steps underneath its body with the right hind leg and bears more weight on this leg.
When this is happening, the rider wants to be in the saddle, balanced and secure, not up on their stirrups being thrown to the outside by the forces of turning. Therefore, we sit on the beat when the inside hind leg is underneath the horse.
So how do you check your trotting diagonal?
To check you are sitting when the inside hind leg is underneath the horse’s body, you can look at what the horse’s outside shoulder (and therefore foreleg) is doing. When the inside hind moves, so does the outside fore. When the inside hind moves forward to take the weight, the outside fore is simultaneously moving backwards. So you need to be sitting when the outside fore is moving back.
You can see this happening. When the outside shoulder is going back, you should be sitting, when it is coming forward, you should be rising. Every time you change the rein, you also need to change your diagonal, by sitting in the saddle for an extra beat.
