February 2008 • VOLUME 30 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Trotting and Blocked Hips

You know, one of the things that you really need to watch for and reward when you are lunging or free lunging your horse is the movement in the back at the trot. You want to look for two distinct movements in the two different sides of the back.

“You know, I have been meaning to ask you. I started feeling that at the trot and I have been having a problem. I wanted to know what I could do when I felt the one side of the back coming up what I could do to try to get that half of my buttock out of the way? I’ve tried tensing my stomach muscles to raise that seatbone out of the way but...”

But that just makes your buttock muscles hard when you tighten them.

“Exactly!"

"But what else can I do?”

Well, one of the things that you need to realize that this isn’t about your hips; it is about your shoulders.

Let me explain.

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