This is the first horse that I am every teaching flying lead changes to. We have of course been working on bending both ways, changing direction at the trot, and more recently simple changes. She will get the simple changes every time I ask her now. How do I transition from asking for simple changes to a flying lead change? I know some people say to use a pole but I have heard that teaches them to transition from their front rather than from their hind. Any tips?
A very BNT helped my trainer teach one of my horses (that was having a tough time with lead changes) to come across the diagonal at the canter, break to the trot and lead yield back to the rail going in the new direction. This would teach them to put their weight on the āoldā inside leg or ānewā outside leg to prepare them to hop off the old lead onto the new lead. They canāt not get the ānew inside hind legā under themselves unless they carried some of the weight on the ānew outside hind legā.
I also was riding a horse that people were having a heck of a time getting lead changes on and what I found was this horse was pushing into my leg rather than moving away from it. I went across the diagonal a few times, did some leg yields and within two ridesā¦this horse was doing lead changes and I am an amateur!
If you think of lead changes -they are like a skip that we humans do. We have to push off hard to get some elevation to āswapā to the new lead. Same basic principle. So try skipping down the Barn aisle and then swap leads and feel what your body has to do in order to accomplish this and you will get an idea of what a horse has to do. Shift weight and elevate to changes leads.
I have never found the pole method to work well, cuz if you miss at the poleā¦itās a mess.
Once you get themā¦donāt practiceā¦it panics some horses. And also donāt try a lead change unless you really feel you are going to get it. Practicing bad changes just makes for more bad lead changes. And try not to break to the trot for the horse to catch up behindā¦that just teaches that they can break behind.
The most important thing is make sure your horses is strong and straight enough to accomplish this task. It is a strength and balance issue. Trying when a horse is not strong or trained enough is setting them up for failure.
Good luck.
2 Likes
Mine took a long time to get his changes. What really clicked for me and him is āride the hipsā! The changes should just be move the hips out and then move the hips in. It was like magic for my big moose!
2 Likes
your hips or the horseās? 
FWIW - if you canāt move your horseās haunches, you will be in trouble unless they are just naturally prone to want to change. You need to be able to keep the haunches from drifting out or you will just get the front and not the hind. And let the horse keep going forward.
My one horse needed the whole thing to be really broken down - diagonal, trot, leg yield, new lead. Over and over and over. We slowly shortened the amount of trot steps and then there it wasā¦well, with a smack once or twice at first to elevate the hind endā¦but that was only needed for a VERY brief period. Then it was some practice and then never again practice changes because he would do tempis at any shift in weight. 
1 Like
Place two ground rails about 18" apart and come in on one lead then pull them the new direction as you leave the ground. The two poles help them āskipā onto the new lead.
1 Like
I do this, but I start by leg yielding at the walk. I donāt really like doing much of a quick simple change through the trot. I think it teaches that half-trot change sometimes. If you get the leg yields good and your walk-canter transitions good on the rail, then you can move onto simple changes on a serpentine through the walk. If all 3 of those things are good, then the flying change shouldnāt be a huge deal. If it is, then that means you are still losing them in the half halt into your new outside rein and thus ready to lighten up the new inside hind.
1 Like
Counter canter and do lateral work (haunches in/out) until you are blue in the face. I do young horses/ponies and never teach across the diagonal.
4 Likes
Yes. This is the correct way.
1 Like
Iāve had a lot of success with using ground poles. I place two poles 11ā apart in the center of a figure 8 and start by trotting over and asking for the canter to the direction that I am circling as soon as we get over the last pole. I break to trot and change directions over the pole and pick up the other lead. Do that until the horse is comfortable. Then we canter through the poles on a circle a few times in each direction. To change lead, just canter through the poles and over the second pole ask for the new lead just like you are picking up that lead from the trot and steer to the new direction. Assuming your arena isnāt exceptionally wide, the horse should sit back a little because he is heading toward the rail or the arena wall. This way you get some collection without having to fuss with the horse too much, so you can focus on the aids for the change. And the two poles make sure that the horse is picking his feet up and his stride isnāt too flat. When you work anything on the diagonal, the horse tends to get heavy and flat. The mechanics of working on a figure 8 create a much more balanced, collected horse.
Dressage riders donāt do flying changes until third level because of the extreme collection necessary to teach the horse to change lead while on his hind end. For a jumper, there is nothing wrong with teaching them how to do a flying change over poles because, while they may be on the forehand at first, once they get the motion coordinated right, working on getting the horse to sit back and change from their hind end is much more simple and much less likely to get them flustered.
1 Like
