Confessions of a Former Diagonal Overthinker
When “up, down, Up, DOwn” gets overcomplicated
If you take one thing from this blog, make it this: stop making diagonals a big deal.
Most riders don’t have a “diagonal problem.”
They have a confidence and timing problem.
The second you start telling yourself, “I can never get my diagonal,” you’ve already set yourself up to hesitate, second guess, and miss the timing. Diagonals aren’t something you are innately good at or innately bad at. They just combine the skills of feel, timing, and then trusting that feel.
What exactly is a diagonal?
A diagonal is simply the pairing of your rise in the trot with your horse’s outside front leg. In some disciplines people call it “posting,” others say “rising trot.” Same thing, different label, no need to overcomplicate it. You rise and sit in rhythm with the trot, and the goal is to be rising when the outside front leg and inside hind leg are moving forward together.
Now here’s a mistake I see all the time.
A lot of riders actually can feel the diagonal… they’re just late. They rise when they feel the leg already forward instead of when it’s about to go forward. That tiny delay puts you on the wrong beat. So instead of drilling the trot and frustrating yourself, let’s refine your timing and build your feel with 3 of my favorite exercises.
Exercise 1: The Arm Swing Trick
At the trot, hold both reins in one hand so you can free up the other. With your free arm, swing it forward and back in time with what you believe is the outside front leg. Don’t rush it. Let it be rhythmic, almost like you’re keeping time to a song. Up, back, up, back…
Then, without changing anything, begin to rise out of the saddle following the forward swing of your arm. The arm becomes your metronome. When it goes forward, you go up.
This helps a lot of folks because you’re no longer guessing randomly, you’re giving your body a consistent cue to organize around.
If you can, have someone on the ground confirm you’re matching the correct leg while you learn. If you’re on your own, you can glance over your shoulder to check, but use that sparingly. The goal isn’t to get good at looking, it’s to get good at feeling.
“Most riders don’t have a diagonal problem... They have a confidence and timing problem. ”
Exercise 2: The Check Yourself Game
At the trot, pick up what you believe is the correct diagonal.
No hesitation. Just choose and go.
Then ask yourself, “Do I think I got it?” Don’t look yet. Make a decision.
After that, switch diagonals and feel the difference.
One will feel smoother, more in sync, less bouncy. By switching your diagonal to check you set in your mind what the correct diagonal feels like and learn to trust your own self and feel what the correct diagonal feels like without looking .
The key here is committing to your first guess and then feeling each diagonal, instead of immediately looking over the shoulder to check.
@crystadbrown Check out our TikTok on this topic!
Exercise 3: The Magic Glasses
Put a strip of electrical tape along the bottom edge of your sunglasses.
Not enough to blind you, just enough to block that quick downward glance.
Then ride your practice as usual, walk, posting the trot, canter etc. you’ll quickly notice how often you glance down only to be met by black electrical tape. This forces you to rely on feel instead of visual confirmation.
It sounds simple, but it’s incredibly effective. Riders who break the habit of looking learn to trust themselves, and as a bonus, you avoid that dreaded penalty in the show pen.
At the end of the day
At the end of the day, diagonals are not about perfection. They’re about rhythm. When you stop treating them like a test and start treating them like a feel, it starts to click.
So trust your body a little more. It probably already knows the answer.
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