EC Question of the Day- How to Get Those Diagonals

Recently, we asked our readers in our EC Question of the Day how they practice their diagonals so they get them right! Wow, did they have a lot of great ideas to share! Check out all their answers:

Karen Ricketts:  I have to feel them in my calves as my horse’s ribcage pushes my leg. I still don’t trust myself and peek to make sure I got it right. But I haven’t ridden English in a few years, so I’m going to have to practice all over again.

Breanna Holmes:  I was taught in one session to feel the left and right swing in the horses shoulders and rise when I feel the inside swing to end up getting the correct diagonal and rise with the horses outside leg. Before learning to feel I could only focus on the up and down bounciness of my horses trot but soon learned how to sit the trot better from feeling the left and right movement.

Bree Stack-Cooke:  For me, I only just recently “learned” my diagonals! I was at an NSBA Boot Camp when I realized I had been looking at them my entire life. I was about to get my amateur card back and knew I needed to be able to feel them. That was when Stephanie Lynn and Carla Wennberg pulled me aside during lunch and forced me (ha!) to ride with my eyes closed and tell them when my horse’s outside leg hit the ground. I sat the trot and waited to feel her throw that outside shoulder and the second I felt her outside foot touch I had to be “down”. So I think I really do it backwards! Instead of saying “up”, it is much easier for me to feel that foot hit and say “down”. What Carla and Stephanie helped with the most was riding in a circle and keeping my eyes closed. It reminded me to feel for those subtle movements, the ones that we get so accustomed to as riders, we forget to feel for them. Take your eyes out of the equation and you’ll feel each shoulder move forward and each foot hit the ground.

Kelley Simonsen:  I do the same thing as Bree Stack-Cooke, but with the opposite front foot. I know I have to be “up” when the inside front hits the ground. If I’m showing and nervous, I still fall back on closing my eyes, but still focusing on the inside foot. Just heading out to ride so I might try her approach and see if that’s better.

Laura Owen:  1) practice feeling individual foot falls i.e…..can you feel when a back foot steps down, 2) close your eyes and try to feel it.

Blaise Runyon:  I used to sit trot and watch my horses shoulders and think about how what I saw was being translated into what I felt, which is a good way to start. Then once I could get it a bit better I would ride around a couple strides sitting, pick up my diagonal for a few strides, then two point for a few, then pick up my diagonal from the two point, then sit again. I’d do that a lot right before I showed or at the end of my rides at home. From the two point, you have to feel when your horses foot is in the air instead of hitting the ground and so it’s important to practice that also.

Also, picking them up without stirrups seemed to help me feel it since my lower body was more engaged.

Kat Draughon:  Feel the weight in each stirrup – when practicing initially, exaggerate the shift in weight side to side to help you feel it.

Mikey Trueba:  When I was a kid I had to ride bareback with my eyes closed and feel, right left right left. To this day I’ve never missed a diagonal.

Taylor Deppen:  The same as Mikey Trueba, I would feel it, post, and then check if I was right. Trained my seat to feel it so now I never have to look.

Lyndsey Mooth:  Lots of sitting trot to feel what’s underneath you. Practicing over poles will amplify the footfalls, too! It’s also worth noting that if a horse isn’t “up” in its shoulders, it will be harder to feel-but I understand not every horse is there yet!

Hattie Erickson-Smith:  Relax your pelvis so you can feel the footfalls of your horse’s front feet. Mark several areas in the arena to practice changing/picking up different diagonals.

Start at a sitting trot and choose a diagonal to pick up in the marked area. Challenge yourself to feel the horse’s shoulders with your hips–you should feel the “pull” of each shoulder reaching forward. Pick up your intended diagonal in the marked area (it’s ok to look to double check when you’re practicing!) Then return to a sitting trot and try again, alternating which diagonal to pick up. You can designate certain areas of the arena to pick up specific diagonals or specific areas to return to a sitting trot.

The biggest thing is to remember to relax your lower body and imagine moving with the horse so you’re better able to feel the horse’s footfalls.

Augusta Nanney:  I find transitions down from canter hard in equitation because often times the call is right lead to right diagonal. It is awkward and I have learned to sit the trot an extra stride to properly get the diagonal as I haven’t mastered that first footfall out of the canter. It has cost me many times. However proper posture does help. If you lean forward at all and you look down at the same time you will miss it and now my horse is out of rhythm.

Kaity Arthur:  Like Augusta Nanney, I’ve practiced this transition of same lead to same diagonal a lot! I have to say to myself out loud “one, two” and then I let myself post.

Jordin Edwards:  For me, going when you feel the leg go “up” never worked I was always too late to make it in time. Instead, I figured out how to feel the correct let go “back” or “down” and then I could sit back/down with it and follow the leg up with my post.

Tammi Wilson Heditsian:  Feel your hip pushed to the outside, come up on the next stride and you’ll be right every time.

Maddi Edwards:  Longe line lessons, closing your eyes and lots of no stirrups. Feeling the left and right in your seat and learn how to follow your back legs rather than getting so hung up on outside shoulder.

Christal Sivils:  I can always pick up my right diagonal. So I sit one stride to pick up my left.

Becca Funderburk:  I feel it in the shoulders of the horse. Left…right…left, then go up accordingly. Switching is sit, two steps, go.

Kim Hibdon:  Feel and footfall.

Kathy Darnell Lee:  I feel my knees coming forward.

Karma Swanson:  Jennifer Lynn Lisson taught me to ride the hip not the front so the diagonal always came naturally.

Alex DeWitt:  In, out, up, and there’s rise and fall with the leg on the wall.

Brenda Ogden:  Close your eyes, have someone lead you as they trot your horse to feel the movement of the horse’s shoulder.

And the most humorous response goes to:

Alexis Solakian:  I go until Sonnesa Gooding stops yelling at me.

 

Thank you for everyone’s responses and stay tuned to our page for more EC Questions of the Day!