What Is Posting on a Horse? How to Do It and Helpful Hints

It's all about rhythm and timing... learning to rise up when the horse's back is helping you by lifting up and then coming back down in the rhythm of the horse's back being down—up when the horse's back is up, and down when horse's back is down. It is all about timing. Learning this timing is something that just comes with practice.

More Helpful Hints

• For some riders, learning to trot on a lunge line is beneficial if they are nervous about it. They will feel more confident in knowing you can help them control the steering and speed of the horse and be better able to focus on what they need to do with their bodies.
• A good way to test if your student is ready to try posting at the trot is to have them while standing still on the horse try and let go of the reins and keep their center of a balance with their arms stretched out to the sides.
• Eventually, once your student can post well, you can use the above exercise on the lunge line as a great confidence builder at the trot. The kids and even adult students get excited when they can say, "I did it with no hands!

• When you are emphasizing that the rider is following the motion of the horse's back as it lifts up, we need to remind our riders that we are not standing up and going as far as the horse's back takes us up, but we are trying to move with the horse's rhythm and movement. Later on, we can use our posting to influence our horse's stride, but that comes a lot farther down the line. For now, we want to post with our horse's natural gait.
• I have found that reminding the student to bring their hips forward to follow the horse's motion makes a huge difference. Again, because of the way the horse's back moves at the trot, they bounce us up and forward. To follow the motion of the trot, we need to lift up our seats from the saddle but also our hips will move forward since that is where the horse's trot is sending us in the saddle.
• When you get the hang of posting, you will realize that if you are riding in a centered position then once you start trotting, the horse is doing most of the work and we are just following with our bodies (making it more comfortable for the horse and ourselves).