Landing on correct lead: How much priority?

[Lusoluv]

I’ve been a dressage-only rider forever. I’m hoping to baby event with a saintly 6 yr old I got 3 months ago. Along with dressage, we’ve been schooling 2’ - 2’3" stadium fences the last 2 months, focusing on steady tempo & straight approaches. All is going well. But being the A type it irks me when I don’t get the right lead after a fence. From the days of tempi changes, counter canter on 10m circle or canter half pass, this ‘should’ be easy, but it isn’t

I’m not making a big deal of it to my horse because I know it’s my fault. She gives me the lead I want on the flat. My trainer isn’t making a fuss cuz she’s so happy with how relaxed and take-it-in-stride horsie has been. Never a stop or run out if we get a bad spot. Should I just make myself stop being so picky? How big of a priority would this be for you if low-level (starter ~ BN) was your goal for the new year?

[Huntin_Pony]

Not a priority at all. Rhythm and balance, rhythm and balance, rhythm and balance . . . Sounds like your trainer is on the money.

[fordtraktor]

I don’t care about landing on the right lead. I do teach mine to do lead changes much earlier than many eventers because I can’t stand to go around the corner on the wrong lead in perpetuity! My OTTB gets most of his changes when I ask, he had been OTT about a year. He will be doing starter/BN next year at shows because I am rusty.

[sunhawk]

I school for landing on the correct lead, and have some great exercises for that, but if I’m on course, and my horse lands on the wrong lead, I can balance him in the counter-canter to his next fence because we also school that, so not to worry.

[Risuena]

Ditto the above posts. Also, when I did a starter trial on my 4 year old last year, we just did simple changes as needed. No issues with time, and I just treated it like another schooling course.

HP, I think I’m going to make “rhythm and balance” my new mantra

[Lusoluv]

Thanks all! I will chillax on the lead issue. We get it about 70% of the time…knowing how these things go, I’ll probably get it more often if I stop worrying about it so much.

I’ll just concentrate on having a harmonious jump position and as Denny says, “that canter” to get us around safely

[Feliz]

As everyone has said, not a big deal for what you are doing.

The one thing that guarantees my horse will land on the correct lead 100% of the time is me looking at the next jump In The Air. This has been surprisingly hard for me to master grumblestupidbraingrumble

Have fun!

[Jenerationx]

Zero priority. If it happens great, if not a balanced canter works. If you can do the change, great, if not, school the changes and they’ll come.

Oh and if you’re getting the correct lead 70% of the time, that’s fantastic. More experience will make that even better. My last old schoolie would get it every time with just a little inside rein in the air.

Something to work on? Yes. Priority? Nope.

[fordtraktor]

Zero. you are going to have a lot more rails and the horse is going to jump less round if you mess around doing things that are not straight and soft in the air than if you keep your horse straight and sit quiet and then do a simple change in the corner. Then a flying change as soon as the horse is able.

I care a whole lot more about preserving my horse’s bascule and the shape of his jump.

Keep babies straight!

[Saskatoonian]

Since I didn’t stress about my prelim horse landing - and staying on - the wrong lead in stadium, I think you won’t be surprised that I fully support you in chillaxing! Have fun!

And FWIW, current horse will go BN this year and am doing the same.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Well I’ll be a slightly different opinion. I wouldn’t worry about to the point of drilling…but I do expect to be able to land on a chosen lead fairly early. I will note if they are always landing on a particular lead, and make sure that there isn’t something in my riding causing that. I will start jumping on a circle and make sure that we can hold both leads. And I will start asking gently for a particular lead. Not when they are just learning. But once we are cantering fences.

In a competition, I’m not concerned but from a training perspective…it all goes back to working on straightness and holding a line which I start working on right away.

[fordtraktor]

I agree that I want them to be able to do it, BFNE, but I don’t ask them to do it that often once I know they can until they are going higher than Starter. I think we are basically of the same mind, I want the horse to be straight more than anything and it ought to be able to land on either lead if you indicate you are going to make a turn soon after. I don’t do that in the air, though, largely that prep is just looking where I want to go after the fence about two strides before takeoff. That is all they need. I don’t like to do that with hands. Mostly because the vast majority of people do way too much in the air once they start having plans up there and it’s easy for a restrictive hand to cause a horse’s hind end to drop in the air and cause rails behind. Not at the Starter level of course but bad habits picked up young will carry over for years to come.

But I also don’t like to see people cantering around courses on the wrong lead without correcting it, either. It’s one thing in competition but there’s no sense in it in practice. I teach lead changes quite early, by BN equivalent most of my horses will get most of their changes pretty reliably so I don’t have to worry about getting them in the air. As a dressage person, OP, just teach the horse changes and you won’t have to worry about it.