My horse is really struggling with getting clean flying changes - She understands the aid for the change and really tries to do them right… However she has a slight hesitation in the stride in each change so the changes are not clean or jumping through correctly… My trainer refers to this as trot in the knee… We’ve both been working hard to fix them but have had no luck… Has anyone had an experience w/ this type of “drop change” and how to fix it?? Any input appreciated!
« Trot in the knee » What do you mean?
Could you describe a little bit better what goes on?
From what I can understand of your expression, I would think that your rein aids are too strong and that your horse is changing on that rein cue instead of a leg/seat cue.
The problem is the horse is not forward.
This is not a horse problem. This is a rider problem.
The solution is to ride FORWARD when asking for the change.
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A clean flying change is the direct result of the canter quality. I suggest that you go back to working on improving the canter quality and collection in the canter. Your horse must also be off your aids and forward into the change as mentioned above.
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We really struggled with learning changes initially. As others have already said, it was a lack of forward. Collection does not mean slow.
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One part of prep for teaching my horse changes was a lot of walk to canter and canter to walk transitions. These transitions included counter canter and simple changes on a serpentine or figure eight. In order to get a good solid canter to walk transition the canter quality had to be on point, and the horse had to sit more on his hind-end and bring it underneath him. I also found that I had to be correct with my timing, aids, and position. It was similar with walk to canter. We worked for an up and forward transition, no trot, running,strung out, etc. We also worked within the gate by extending and collecting the canter and getting a feel for differences within the canter. I did a few canter to halt and halt to canter transitions in there too. So I think really solidifying your canter and transitions to, from, and within the gait can help. This approach made sure the horse was on the aids, the aids were clear, and and the horse was responsive. I also felt his overall canter quality improve.
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Thanks everyone for your input - We’re doing our best to learn correctly! Let me see if I can clarify a little more – Basically what happens is she loses a clear rhythm in the canter. It looks as if she is about to break to trot for a split second but instead she does the change but the hesitation is quite visible as it disrupts the canter rhythm during the suspension phase of the change… Does that make sense? It feels as if she is sucking back during the actual change itself. I agree that this could be a behind the leg issue - Her canter quality is nice but there is room for improvement as far as response and reaction to the leg… I hope this helps clarify - It’s a bit hard to describe! Any thoughts appreciated - We will give all ideas a go!
Does she do clean changes when running around in turnout?
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Sounds like she doesn’t quite trust that she can carry the jump all the way through. This is partially a forward issue but it may also be helped by using poles or even cavelleti to help show her how to jump forward and change at the same time, since the physical jump will force her to maintain the rhythm better.
My boy got like that the first year we worked on changes. He lost some confidence and didn’t trust his own jump (which since he also was regularly jumping up to 4ft at the time was a little silly but oh well). What really helped was taking a break from it entirely. He got stronger and after several months of not doing changes, he came out and did them like they were nothing.
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You can develop the change via simple changes - shorten the period of walk until you change from canter to canter. Not quite ‘fashionable’ anymore in my experience but for some horses this works well and tells you a lot about the collection. And half pass can be very helpful for preparing flying changes.
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Take this with a giant grain of salt as I am just learning how to put the changes on my horse, so I have 1/1000th the experience of these other folks, but I did as suggested above and took a break from working on them…we were in a stage of sometimes it worked and sometimes it was a hot mess…fast forward 4 months and the canter is much improved…schooled yesterday half pass to a change and got no drama clean changes each time (and immediately called it quits with much praise). This is just a beginning but something had very clearly changed in his ability to execute when asked instead of freaking out and flinging his legs around.
Several things could be happening.
You could be holding your breath too long or deeply,causing too strong a half halt.
Your horse is not truly strong enough to keep the "jump"with enough oomph to get them through.
Remember the flying change comes from behind, not from the rein aid,which simply supports the flexion.
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Can your trainer get a clean change on your horse? If the trainer can, then it is a rider issue. If the trainer can’t, then it could possibly be a physical issue - some horses really struggle with the change, some may have minor injuries or pain issues, or just a mental (or physical) block. If the canter is good, the hind leg is quick, the simple changes are good, AND even the trainer can’t get one AND you haven’t seen a clean change at liberty - then there may not be a clean change in your horse…
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Here’s one option for a horse that lacks quality in the canter. It helps the horse figure out the right canter, while taking the rider out of the equation as much as possible.
Set 4 or 5 canter poles or raised cavaletti on the long diagonal. After you do the poles, immediately transition to walk and pick up the other lead. Then do extended canter across the other diagonal, transition to walk, and pick up the other lead. Once you’ve repeated the sequence a few times and reduced the walk as much as possible, ask for the change after the last pole instead of walking.
Another option that really clicks for some (but requires more careful riding), is to turn up the centerline and half pass to B/E. As you hit the rail, look across the short diagonal as if you were going to ride a zig-zag. This should bring the shoulder just a hair to the inside towards shoulder fore, and in that moment you change.
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One thing that has worked for my current horse, who is not predisposed to clean changes, is to essentially do a lot of the right kind of prep work before we start even working on changes. The particular exercise that has been most useful for us is this: walk down long side (you can do SI or HI if it helps), turn on haunches at end of long side, HP back to wall (if your ToH is big), then pick up canter on the correct lead and go as forward as you can while maintaining a sufficiently uphill balance. Transition back to walk wherever it makes sense for you, then repeat several times. When you’re ready to try a change, instead of cantering down the long side after ToH, make a (10m or 6m) turn (e.g. at E or B) to go straight across the center of the ring and ask for the change roughly across the centerline. You can add a stride or two of HP if that helps you straighten the horse or is normally part of your prep for the change.
This gave us the idea that we could do them cleanly, and I find it has made it easier for me to keep the horse forward than changing through the walk. Caveat being, it’s also an exercise that highlights rider faults. If I’m riding well, clean changes are trivial with this exercise. If my position is weak or sloppy one day for whatever reason, I just don’t bother thinking about changes at all (with this exercise or any other).
Changing from HP has also been good for us generally, but I’ve gone through phases where the horse has gotten tense and started rushing the HP. I’m starting to refine my changes for jumping this way - those are habitually not clean, but he’s got the idea enough now that I can put more effort into collecting and straightening before asking for the change, so maybe they’ll be clean eventually too.
I’ve also taken breaks and worked on conditioning/strengthening, as others have mentioned above. This horse has also had some physical/hind end issues, so paying attention to that has also been critical.
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I do not do dressage changes, disclaimer. A trainer has helped me put changes on my greenie. My pony started offering changes on his own on courses so we started asking on the flat. He has us canter, then canter MORE FORWARD then ask for the change. If we miss the change in back it’s because we are going too slow and he doesn’t have enough jump, so then we slow down the front end to allow the back end to catch up. Trainer says that with green horses you should always go more forward before the change to make it easier on them, once they get it they get it and you can slow down.
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Can you try teaching her over a pole on the ground? Horses see the pole and can themselves prepare to lift all of the legs. Can you try teaching your horse the pattern by trotting a figure 8 over the pole and then maybe cantering that figure 8 with simple changes AT the pole and then asking for flying changes over the pole? It might help your mare figure out what to do with her legs at the pole, and then she can associate those directional and lead changes with your aids with the pole. Some horses really benefit from a visual cue. Alternatively, you can use a set of cones that you ask direction changes between. You can use four cones to make a box or rectangle that you ask for directional changes within. Maybe this could help. Good luck!
Thanks so much for your input everyone! I am really looking forward to giving these ideas a go! I’m not great w/ using the quotes on here but just to answer a couple question - I have seen her do changes in turnout, which I hope is a good thing as they seem to be in there somewhere…
My trainer has not been able to get changes on her either… Every once in a while a clean one will slip in there but few and far between but at least there’s some hope w/ that! MysticOakRanch - I thought your comment about the hind leg being quick was interesting as we’ve struggled with that w/ school canter… When I attempt to collect her more, her hind legs slow rather than stepping under… Maybe that is part of the issue? Do you have any suggestions for working on this?
I’ve recently started working her over ground poles in the canter as some have suggested and I think that may be helpful as it gets her thinking to be more off of the ground. We’ve also started playing with jumping a bit to get her a bit more excited and forward-thinking in the canter. I haven’t attempted changes the past few weeks, hoping to work on canter quality and approach them again soon.
Thanks so much again everyone - I will give all of these ideas a try and report back!
This (in bold) is part of the problem.
As I mentioned upthread, this horse is not forward enough for the horse to offer changes
You are trying to collect a canter in a horse that is not prepared for collection. A “school canter” is a highly collected canter. You do NOT introduce flying changes from a highly collected canter as that is an advanced exercise.
If the horse offers flying changes at liberty, that is good. It indicates the horse is knows where its hind legs are, that it is coordinated and is not a klutz. Go back to basics and school “hunter changes” until the horse understand the aids.
I suggest following @enjoytheride suggestion in Post-16 for how to cure the problem.
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Does your trainer have a lot of experience putting changes on a horse? Are they providing unique and positive exercises to try and set the horse up for success or running through the same strategy over and over expecting different results?
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