I have a choice of horrendous footing (truly horrid) in a sand ring or riding on a grassy area outside the ring (mostly what we do). There are times I lament the fact I have such crappy riding surfaces until I go somewhere to compete and either the footing is lousy, and its still better than mine so its fine or its great footing and he immediately becomes the fanciest horse ever because he has such great footing… Its the only way I can make peace with my riding situation 
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In the interest of FCH transparency/ avoiding curses, upon review of the video, she was late in front - so smoothly the judge somehow didn’t see. 
She does get the R to L clean at home quite often or late in front, which is on the right track. The L to R is … not there yet. We’ve qualified now for regionals but I’m putting showing away with her for another few months to work up her hind end strength and go back to training / improving canter generally, to smooth out these changes for next year and hopefully Fourth. Anyone else have a horse with a PSG trot but barely Third canter? Learning learning
I’m so impressed by everyone’s progress! Also jealous
I got out of the pool for MONTHS because a vet check and some clinics indicated that neither my horse nor I were using our pelvises (pelvi?) correctly, which seemed like an important thing to back up and fix. So no changes, just a LOT of wtc work for both of us with a PT program for strengthening the right muscles.
With that progressing well and some very encouraging additional second level scores/comments, we are back in FCH. So far we have prepped by working canter halt canter, then backed up to “sometimes we collect but DON’T drop out of the air into a standstill” and as soon as I can organize my brain enough to keep my pelvis right, AND keep him soft, AND do the change of lead through the halt, I think we’ll be able to make some real progress!
Stop making me laugh at work!!
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Me, Me!! My trainer jokes that my horse could do the GP…except for changes…I am embarrassed to say that we are in year 2 of FCH…like you, we get R to L clean mostly, L to R…not so much…
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I’m taking a break from FCH too, on the advice of my trainer. I finished up the spring show season at Third Level in April and have been focusing on the basics since then. Lots of transitions, shoulder in (which is it’s own hell right now), travers, renvers, reinback, and circles.
My last lesson was over a month ago because I was sick over the 4th (not Covid but some upper respiratory crud). That took 2 weeks to get back to 95% of my normal. And now I’m going on vacation. My boy is not going to know what to do with himself with another 2 weeks off! But we’ll pick back up after I get back and my plan is to be ready for Third Level again for the fall/winter show season. I figure I’ll get back to FCH in early September.
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During a jump school last Thursday, I was pleased that my R to L change mostly translated to the jump saddle too. A couple changes were late behind, but admittedly I wasn’t doing proper set up, collect, straighten and ask… it was “the corner is coming and you’re on the wrong lead so CHANGE” and it was 50/50 if he did it back to front, or front to back. But in 2pt in a jump saddle, I’m ok with that (previously only 1 out of 50 would be back to front on a jump course). Also while jumping, the L to R change was mostly there-- again, decidedly front to back, but it HAPPENED.
Fast forward to a short flatwork session today. Short because a storm was imminent and I only had about 12 minutes of good weather before it was time to run for the barn. But in that 12 minutes, we did three nice R to L changes, one on the quarter line going right.
The balance felt good in the left lead, so I motored across the diagonal, kept him straight, and asked for a change as if I was in my jump saddle. He stuttered, swapped in front, and four or five strides later changed behind. I immediately let him walk and gave big praise. I am on the fence about this…I don’t want him to think that changing late is what I want, but he usually has a HUGE mental block about even trying the L to R change that I wanted to reward (any) minimal effort. I tried the left change again, and again he was late behind, but only two or three strides late. Again, walk and big praise. I am trying to focus on asking for the hind change, and ignoring the swap in front; I’m not sure if he understands that yet, but I’m trying to reward him for changing behind in hopes that he recognizes that’s what I want, and will begin to offer it appropriately from my cue. The good news is that he didn’t get excessively worried, I didn’t override, a
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Yeah. This is our not so good changes test. The L to R one judge said she trotted but looking at the video I think it’s just late behind with flare. The R to L is late in front but an easier fix/ usually clean.
I need to get her off diagonals and just keep building her strength in canter I think (counter, voltes, half-pass to leg yield, haunches and shoulder in, simple changes etc), before continuing on changes. Also I tense up myself now and get crooked, worrying over the change aids…
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For whatever reason, this plays in short spurts. I can never get a clear view of the changes. But y’all look wonderful.
I can’t get any video posted on COTH to actually play, so you’re ahead of me 
it just loads forever.
Me too, videos are blank and buffering forever, rarely one goes on to play.
For me, is my connection, awfully slow.
Last evening testing was 0.56 download, 0.55 upload.
The equal of pony express riding donkeys. 
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You describe a very interesting thing which IMO should not be overlooked…. For the last year I struggled to ride really reliable changes with my mare although she knows them quite well. I always blamed the quality of the canter for this.
2 months ago I moved with my horses to the most perfect facility I have ever boarded at. It’s a jumper barn but the pro who used to run it left and now there are just a couple of people left and most of the time there is only one person in the ring. They have a huge outdoor jumping ring with perfect footing and a huge indoor with perfect footing as well. If you canter around the outdoor ring it’s close to canter on a ½ mile race track.
And now for the first time in my life I don’t need to worry about approaching corners or get stuck in front of a jump or something similar unwanted like a bad spot in the footing. I simply canter plan my next step and if something goes wrong I simply refresh my canter and start all over again to plan my change…. today I got 2 perfect changes to each side and my horse never questioned me or hesitated. I gave the aids and she did it 
.
So the footing and the quality and size of the ring does make a difference!!! I am starting to believe that all these amazing riders who train in these amazing facilities only achieve their quality because of these amazing facilities . A lot of people told me that I should not go to this facility and I am a little worried about the future plans of the owners, maybe they will hire a new jumping pro to make the barn profitable but in the moment there are only a few extremly friendly boarders and everyone simply enjoys this situation. Obviously even the owners do not miss this pro who left….
I am praying that it stays that way because then I will stay forever… I think having no trainer but an amazing facility may even be better than having an amazing trainer but a meh facility
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Aw thx! We had a very helpful clinic today - doing some long side gallops helped her reactivity. We had good success half passing followed by medium canter, then change - getting her so quick she didn’t have time to tangle up her legs as she does.
(This clinician described her L to R thing as “trotting half a step with the front legs while still cantering / changing in the hind legs - it’s really weird, I don’t know how she does it exactly” 
).
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Mine did the same thing at one point. I have video somewhere. It was a bit weird.
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Guys guys guys
I got 5 clean 4-tempis today.
Hope lives!!
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We are at the point now where my trainer is saying things may need to get worse before they get better. 
In other words, now we can’t just get a usually clean change in the approximate area I want one, but it needs to be round, clean, straight, and on the aids. Um, what? 
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Wow your trainer is really harshing the vibe of this whole thread. Rude.
I mean she’s right but still.
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You’ve all seen that Peanuts meme with Lucy on a background of snow saying “This is BULLSHIT” right? Yeah, every horse and every rider new to changes reacts that way. Hee.
And update on mine - we’re officially out for a bit between allergies not as controlled as I’d like and going back to fix a rather giant training hole* that I knew was there but kept brushing off for another day …
*code for GRAND FREAKING CANYON AND IT’S ALL MY FAULT
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…so how did you train out of it? 
My ranch horse just figured out, about two months ago, that ridden flying changes are A Thing.
He carries a lot of worry, in his left hind leg. If I can get him swinging tha LH, and powering LH a RH equally, his gaits get really nice, but it’s been a several years process. I almost never ride in an arena, and we always have something we need to do with the cows when I ride.
Coming home from several miles of trailing cow calf pairs a couple of months ago, he finally let go, completely, of that LH…and did a flying change…and then realized, hey, we have LEADS! Plural ! And gave me such a series of changes, I was laughing out loud.
So we’ll join the group, ride along with the FCHSG
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