It's said to keep staying on horse back while riding (trot or cantering), we shouldn't squeeze with lower legs, since this will tell the horse to speedup.

Well, say I want to trot, if i didn't squeeze, how will i stay without bouncing? someone says, squeeze just with your thighs, that won't tell the hose to speedup, but it is an aid for slowing down the horse.

SO! if i squeezed or made pressure with the thighs to keep staying while in trot, will this make the horse slows down??? so I am out of the trot though I don't want to yet, and if i didn't squeeze, i will start bouncing!

My great aim during lessons now is to stop that hurting bouncing when starting to trot, my instructor just says, stay on, keep in contact with the saddle, I really try to, tensioning my muscles to stay on, which makes it worse.

Can anyone solve this for me and tell me what are the things that I need to fix, even if the mistakes were in the theories I mentioned.

My Dilemma in brief (How it says everywhere, keep in contact with the horse with your legs, and still saying, no squeeze with knees, shouldn't i keep my knees tight with the saddle) ??

Hope I described the situation clearly.

Thanks.

Just relax, don't tense your muscles that will make it worse and move with the horse, I promise you will get used to it. I think to be honest you are simply thinking about it too much. Sing in your head to take your mind of it and really feel the horse. You should just be feeling rather than thinking about what to do if your aim is simply to stop bouncing so much

I can be of no help! I learnt the wrong way - mummy sent me to a riding school to learn correctly but I never mastered the trot!!! despite the extortinate prices (in them days ten bob an hour) I left and when older went to a riding school that just hired out the horses (against mums wishes) with little or no instruction , The horse took off with me - galloped across a field following the others - jumped a small hedge with me hanging on for dear life - that was the day I learnt to ride - and had a last the perfect trot - gone was the bumperty bump! but whether I do it right or no I don't know I did have a saddle on that day but do tend to I grip with all my inner leg, maybe because I rode bare back much of that time so it's maybe its a bad habit thats stuck .
DT

Yes DT that is probably the best way to learn although slightly scary at the time!! What probably worked best was that you weren't thinking about it. When I was 12/13 we used to have an instructer that used to make us sing nursery rhymes - totally took your mind off it. I actually used to do show jumping so that makes you have a better seat as you have to have a good seat to be able to stay on.

I had the riding lessons when I was about 7 years old - totally went off it - that incident happened when I was around 12 years old - I was with my best friend at the time - who became sort of famous in the horse world !! She is still very involved in the horsy world aged fifty plus - despite suffering brain damage due to an accicent when she was 19 years old!
DT

And to add - you don't really see the dangers at 12 years old!!! was just hanging on for all I was worth!

Thanks all for your helpful replies,

Everytime I really don't intend to worry that much about bouncing, I just say to myself, when it starts to trot I will be fine and fixed in the saddle, however at the first second of starting trot I found myself bouncing off the saddle, the weird thing is that I succeeded to make a two-point position in my trot, but that was against the pace of the lesson.

Is it real that the horse start to trot and I stay in the saddle? I began to feel it's like a dream

What can really prevents me from bouncing in the very beginning of the trot, if this happened and i succeeded in bringing myself fixed for few seconds then I am sure I will get the sense.

Is it thigh muscles? lower legs squeeze? or what else that I can try in my next lesson that would keep me on the saddle without bouncing?

relaxing and stop thinking about it as a theory!!my kids taught themselves to ride by mucking about with their ponies in the field.have fun and stop making it so hard

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You are right, it's something that can come naturally. though I just came up with a new theory now it's the balance that keeps someone on the saddle when the horse is on trot or canter, though I am not sure what it exactly means, is it staying from falling, or staying without bouncing ?

so curious about my next lesson, really really don't want to bounce anymore

Seriously! I could canter before I could trot! The trot was the hardest to master in my opinion!
DT

I know what you mean, I did it myself and found that during cantering I am more likely to follow the movement of the horse smoothly, however, in trot, i always start my lesson with great frustration with the first bounce I make, feeling unable to fix myself in the saddle.

anyone here has any video showing how the body should react with the trot?