At 10:36:55 on 09.05.10, Sophiee wrote:
My horse is 5 turning 6 this year and I have spent ages trying to teach him how to do a flying change to make showjumping courses easier. I've tried: - Doing a figure of eight in canter, coming back to trot in the middle and reducing the number of strides we come back for. But when the stride is reduced to 0 he either doesn't change or just changes his front legs. - Using a pole to change but he either ignores my leg aids or doesn't change on the back. - I've tried just heading him straight down the school and giving the aid, sometimes he will change on the front. - when doing a course of jumps he will almost always change on the front, or perhaps land on the right leg but I really have to exaggerate when asking for the correct leg over he jump :/ so i normally have to brig him back to trot and ask again. He just hasn't seemed to learn yet he is a superfast learner in everything else, he will change perfectly over a jump or if he's let loose in the school. But as soon as I climb on board and lower the jump to a pole, he just wont do it! I'm confused, any suggestions?

At 18:59:45 on 09.05.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
At first change the bend over a long diagonal and this should encourage your horse to cchange lead without confusing him with the signals yet, if your horse doesn't understand you can come back to trot in plenty of time before the corner and strike off on the correct leg when you can, shorten the amount of trot time and keep trying, when he does the flying change from the change of bend add in the leg commands and eventually you won't have to change bend at all and he will do it himself,, if this doesn't work then counter canter for a while and eventually he will either change or break back to trot, if he trots counter canter again. If you still have no luck do it from the ground, get him to do a really slow collected but energised canter that you can walk or joj next too and tap his fflank with a schooling whip lightly and turn his head in the direction of the lead you want (use the bridle)... Also make sure you have the lightest bit possible in so you are not pulling him back and make sure your change in bend is very clear and obvious at first, suttleness can come later. Make sure he is bending and round but not behind the verticle or unbalanced so he is listening and intune as the change of bend will affect him more. Hope this helps. x

At 08:39:47 on 10.05.10, Sophiee wrote:
Thanks, I'll try the first one although before, just changing direction would put him into counter canter and he wouldn't attempt to sort himself out, he'd just keep going around the bends and not try to change o.o As for running beside him, well I don't think thats such a good idea. Pop is very playful when loose and tries to jump on top of me haha, also he will barely trot with me on a lead rope for some reason but will happily gallop up the school after me and rear pretty muc on top of me D: I don't want to shout at him for playing but he's a big lad to be trying to play with me haha. He might get the jist though from changing direction although if I'm in a jump he tends to change on the tighter turns. Last time I tried that was a few months back. Thanks for your help, I'll guve you an update :)

At 09:48:03 on 10.05.10, Dazzle wrote:
There are lots of reasons why horses will not change or change late. The principle one is the quality of the canter. The canter must be collected with the horse taking more weight behind and stepping further underneath himself this is done by riding masses of half halts. Horses that are on the forehand will not change cleanly, equally horses that speed up as you ask for a change are again usually on the forehand and either produce no change or are late behind. You must ask at the moment of suspension, making sure you are not tipping your body in the direction of the change or using too much rein. You need to be balanced and straight whilst releasing the new inside leg. NEVER bend the neck in the new direction, the horse must be STRAIGHT, the hinds landing in the tracks of the front feet. It is a big misconception that flying changes are ridden with the horse bent, for a correct change the horse's body must be straight. When I first teach changes either to a pupil or a young horse I never worry at the beginning if the horse is not on the bit, most horses will raise their heads when first asked to carry more weight behind. However, when he understands what is being asked and he is happy and relaxed the head carriage will change. Teaching changes is frustrating at the beginning, but believe me they will come in time.

At 18:24:23 on 10.05.10, Sophiee wrote:
Thanks for your advice I will try this too :)

At 19:38:11 on 10.05.10, TammyRocks4eva wrote:
I Have The Same Problem, My Horse Will Change When She Wants To In A Course On A Good Day, But If You Ask She Just Changes Her Front End Not Her Back End, Will Have A Go At Some Of Your Ideas x

At 20:22:57 on 10.05.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
Haha i didn't mean loose its weird i do it all the time it took time to teach but any horse can learn if your patient ;) what i am on about is near the end of the video around 3:30 i think, maybe after lol...

At 20:25:31 on 10.05.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
i lied 2:30ish lol just after that 2:55 is a good example of what i mean

At 21:48:45 on 10.05.10, farasi wrote:
Why would you ask a horse to counter canter to make it change on to the correct lead? A horse should canter on which ever leg it is ask to canter on and change the bend (through the middle not the neck while remaining upright) until it is asked to change, this is done when the horse is straight. A unbalanced horse will rush when it is on the incorrect lead, this is different from counter canter, just because your horse is cantering round the school on the wrong leg does not mean it is in counter canter. You should be able to ride across the short diagonal ride a circle and ride back across the short diagonal, with the horse remaining upright and on the same lead and the rhythm never changing. If you can not do this you are cantering on the wrong lead, not riding counter canter.

At 09:56:39 on 11.05.10, Dazzle wrote:
I would not teach or train flying changes from a counter canter starting point. Before teaching a change, horse and rider must be able to do a simple change. This is cantering across the diagonal, at X walk, no trot steps, the walk should be for no more than 3 or 4 strides then ask for for canter in the new direction. If you can cut the walk steps down to 1 or 2 so much the better. The aids for a change are: half halt to tell the horse something is going to happen. The rider's new inside leg comes back behind the girth and the new outside rein supports this. The new inside leg will move forward to the girth to engage the new inside hind. Lastly, the rider gives with the inside rein to allow the new leading leg to come forward. This is all done in one movement. The flying change is done at the moment of suspension, but really you want to ask a split second before this so the horse has time to register what you want and has time to change. The rider must be straight, no twisting or wiggling in the saddle will help, it'll only cause the change to be late or non-exsistant. In the beginning I would only attempt changes at the end of a schooling session. If the horse has done plenty of transtions both upward and downward and is listening to you, it all becomes a lot easier. Even then I would only ride a couple and rather then start at the beginning of the session when the horse may be tense and not paying attention.