Yeah it’s interesting! When I was shopping for a project earlier this year I saw videos of a really really nice OTTB just a few months of the track. In one of the videos he was cantering around changing directions/leads, with the hind legs changing between one and five strides behind the front. With my dressage background, I was practically yelling at the screen for them to stop teaching this lovely horse to change late behind—but I think the seller is a HJ rider so it didn’t seem so counterproductive to her?
My jumping coach, an eventer, says she doesn’t teach changes until much later because you don’t need them for dressage until Advanced and it makes counter-canter more difficult. I do get the reasoning but I’m planning to teach my eventer this winter. I figure since we’ll never go Advanced there’s no pressure if I screw it up. He doesn’t have a natural change at all and I think it would be really useful in stadium jumping.