Lead changes

[bitranchy]

These are, inarguably, the #1 thing my horse and I are struggling with. They’re also the #1 thing I want to somehow tackle. I never had troubles with flying changes when I rode English, even with my younger horses. Some horses are more willing to change, just as some can be more willing to learn any other maneuver. I don’t think horses genuinely want to do the wrong thing, they want to do the easiest thing, and I doubt any enjoy getting “in trouble”. I don’t think my horse’s problem is physical, I believe it’s mental. We have all the working pieces separately: shoulder control, hip control, bend, softness. She can simple change very easily. Her lope departures are great 98% of the time, the other 2% she tries to trot first and we correct that. We work plenty on lateral work, lead changes at the walk, lead changes at the trot.

I know I’m not the only person to struggle with lead changes on her. I’ve watched a couple trainers try, some with more and some with less success. The way she seemed to most often get the change was to yield the shoulders away and push the hip through to the new inside direction. It’s not always successful, at least not with me, and it’s quite a bit of work. I don’t know that it helps her mentality about the change, so much as it puts her in a position where changing is physically the easiest.

I’m sure there is something lacking in my riding, perhaps it’s compounding with her feelings about changing. Maybe it’s that I’m not as quick as a trainer may be, or as clear as they can be. However, I do also have the thought that I’d like her to change, stress free, without having to make the change happen one singular way, when it’s hot but not too hot outside, and, and, and. The goal is to ride her one handed in a bridle, which means the use of direct rein to aid in setting her up for a change won’t be there anymore.

Perhaps through repetition, even if it’s a lot of bridling and a lot of moving body parts around, will mean she’ll “get it”. But I also wonder if all the micromanaging and setting up may mean without the rider always asking the same way, every time, she won’t. As I said, it seems all the parts are there. It’s at that one pivotal moment when the lead change is cued, that the head comes up, the neck gets stiff, and the body control goes. I think, though I could be wrong, if she were relaxed and that stiffness didn’t occur, she could get the lead changes quite readily.

So, after this absolute novel (yikes, sorry! - trying my best to paint a picture)… Any suggested exercises? Folks who have experienced similar? I know many horsemen, ones with good reputations too, have admitted to struggling with changes. Many have said that lead changes are an art form. I like to think these things when I’m feeling especially down about this topic. Part of me feels we should have gotten them by now, though using "should"s is not always the best thing to do. It is starting to get to me because I haven’t struggled to this extent with this before, and feel it brings my entire riding ability into question. Probably another poor train of thought.

[beau159]

I probably feel very similar as you.

My horse Red does absolutely beautiful simple changes and he can easily pick up the lope from a standstill on cue. But we’ve been working on flying lead changes for a good 3 years and we are NOT show solid. Part of it could be me as we really don’t show that often (we barrel race more than we show) so I probably don’t work on it as often as I should.

But I will say that he does get better each year. He really really likes his left lead - so naturally he is better at doing a flying lead change from right-to-left. And thus has a very difficult time going from left-to-right because he doesn’t want to leave that left lead. And there is differences in his “problem areas” when we are making the transition. I really have to watch his shoulder when we are doing his harder change because he will tend to drop/lean it to the right which then makes him cross fire.

Another thing that made it more challenging for us is that he used to get very worked up for flying lead changes. I suppose that is because he is a hotter-type horse being bred for barrel racing. I usually only ask for one good change in each direction and then I go work on something else – the more I drill him the more upset he would get because he would anticipate what we were going to do.

So maybe one piece of advice I can offer that I have learned myself through all this. Red seems to do better if I push his hip over the wrong way first with the wrong outside leg, and THEN ask him to change when I switch legs and ask for the flying change and push the hip in the correct direction. I’m not sure why but it seems to work. I also use a “kiss” verbal cue for (1) cue to lope (2) cue for flying lead change. I do not use a kiss cue any other time so he knows it means something when I do it.

I was watching a Racer’s Edge episode (barrel racing show) earlier this year when they were talking with a reining trainer and what he said made a lot of sense. It sounds like he does something similar when he asks for a flying lead change as far as switching your “outside” leg. He said use your legs like a pendulum. Push them one way and then push them the other way with the same timing that a pendulum would swing across.

I often feel discouraged with where we are in our flying lead changes … especially after watching the Region 2 AQHA web stream and everyone is nailing their flying lead changes like its no big deal. But then I remind myself of what we CAN do and remind myself that everyone (and every horse) progresses differently. Red had a difficult time picking up the flying lead change on his own on the barrel pattern too when I trained him – so I think it’s something that is just tough for him.

My younger horse picked up flying changes on the barrel pattern on his own SO easily. We’re still mastering simple changes on cue but I’m crossing my fingers that he will take to flying changes on cue easily as well.

Just keep on keeping on!

[bugsynskeeter]

I find once they learn to do a simple change really easily and quickly, it is much harder to teach them to do a flying. I don’t allow my horses to do a simple when I’m teaching them to change.

[Palm_Beach]

Andrea Fappani said that for every lead change you do, you need to set the horse up and NOT do a change 30 times. I allow them to pick up speed if it helps. Once they are relaxed and consistent, you can work on changing at a slower pace.

[bitranchy]

@beau159 it’s nice to hear I’m not in the same boat! It can be so discouraging when it seems to come very easily to other folks. It starts to feel like your personal Mt. Everest :sadsmile:

@bugsynskeeter part of me has contemplated if the simple changes have made it more of a task to get a flying change. Initially, she was, and is still, super at lope-halt-lope simple changes. I’ve gone back to doing a variety of simple changes, through halt, walk, or trot, because of the issue in the flying change. But I do wonder if she hadn’t learned a routine of changing through the halt at center initially, they may have been easier for her.

@Palm Beach to understand: is his method done at a lope? Or at a slower gait? For instance, if you are traveling on a left circle, left lead, would you set up to change right (yielding shoulders towards the inside of the circle and bringing the nose right? Do you push the hip right off what would be your new outside leg or no?) but continue on your left circle? Would you hold that position or simply set up and then return to your left arc? Certainly something I’d be willing to try with her, the repetition without the expected or historical end result may take the anxiety out of the equation.

For the past few days I’ve been working a lot on a variety of body control and lateral exercises to really enforce what I know is already there. She seemed very responsive through all of them, so I thought I’d “check in” by using the counter canter to flying change exercise. A couple of disunited strides, then the change. I went back to our exercises to end on a better note. Clearly more work to do. Racking my brain for more exercises for us to supplement with, that are within our skill set, stress-free. It’d be nice to also be able to have someone out to our “home barn” to instruct, but that seems to be tricky. The trainer I haul out to will inevitably be underwhelmed with our lost in translation non-change. :sigh:

[bugsynskeeter]

Simple changes are much easier than flying and she has learned that. I know many horses that learn to just do a really fast simple instead of a true flying lead change. I’ve never heard of doing a simple change through a halt - only walk and trot. The loss of forward motion is really hurting you in those changes. So needs to move OUT. Learn to change at speed (which is easier for them) then to change in a slow lope.

I recommend working with a trainer before this becomes an issue you may not be able to correct.

[bitranchy]

I hadn’t before, either. I think the stop from the lope to setting up the opposite lead and the departure may be to replicate the stop and lope off that some reining patterns call for.

Certainly agree with you re: trainers. I am attempting to decide how I could find someone to supplement the program with my trainer who lives in the next town over. Sometimes hauling out that distance won’t fit in a day. The hope I have with finding more exercises around lead changes without working through the actual flying change, is that when the change is tackled in a lesson, we’ve done homework surrounding the necessary components to hopefully, maybe, make it an easier thing to do.

[CHT]

Western Horseman came out with a good reining book (I think Bob Loomis is the trainer featured) and he shares both the prep work he does before expecting a lead change, plus multiple exercises to train the flying change.

[Spotless]

Yesterday morning I was reading this thread and texted my instructor asking if we could work on lead changes for yesterday evening’s lesson, as I’d gotten several greenies close but they ended up sold before I could really work on lead changes. My gelding had never learned, and he doesn’t do lead changes out on pasture, so I was pretty skeptical we’d be able to get it at all. My gelding tries hard and is agreeable but is definitely lazy by nature.

We got lead changes the first several times I asked!

My instructor said that to have a hunter or eq (flat) horse with a really great change, they need to do three things really well:
-pivot on the forehand
-pivot on the haunches
-good, balanced counter canter

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So, this is what we had set up, hopefully it makes more sense than anything I’d try to type out. The — are ground poles. Let’s do left to right flying change, since that’s what I drew up. Come off the rail about 90*, nice and forward to give the umph to do a green lead change. Some people think you can yank their heads over the pole to change, when it’s all about the leg. You’re going to have a nice, forward left lead, left bend, until you get after the > < and then you’re going to dramatically change the bend to the right and have a nice, forward, dramatic counter canter toward the pole. Lots of inside leg to keep the bend, outside rein to keep straight. Right before the pole, keep the right bend but LOTS of left leg, you want to seem like you’re bouncing him off your left leg. If he has a “better” lead, practice on that lead first. You can do multiple lead changes like this, but to switch directions, go over one pole and then back to the rail. Come off of the rail at a 90*, go around the bend and set up the counter canter for the next pole.

Hopefully this makes a little sense!

[beau159]

Personally, I find it much easier to do a flying lead change on a straightaway than trying to do a real figure 8 like you normally do in a reining pattern. The straighter you can keep their body, the easier it is to get their legs in order.

I agree with the other posters to be careful of simple changes. My trainer has seen horses learn to do a false flying change by breaking down to a trot just for a split second. Some people might not even catch it but a good judge will. I know there are people out there that will teach a flying lead change by doing simple changes (and decreasing the trot distance until it’s “nothing”). But my trainer won’t teach it that way, and it makes sense to me.

Red can do a flawless lead change out on the trail when I ask him, but we struggle when we get into the arena! @Palm Beach You are so correct on doing 1 flying lead change and then do 30 NOT flying lead changes!! Red anticipates like crazy and he’ll start swapping when I did not ask him to, so we’ll spend lots of time NOT doing a flying lead change so he learns to wait.

I know that lots of people use ground poles for lead change practice – I personally don’t. That would make Red’s anticipating problem worse! He does better when I’m picking totally random spots. But if ground poles work for you, go for it.

[Showbizz]

If my horse can lope a half pass both directions, my horse can change leads.

[rockymouse]

OP, I don’t know if this will be helpful, but I’ve got a friend who’s a top trainer for Extreme Mustang Makeover events. He doesn’t spend a lot time schooling changes - he just throws it in every once in a while and if he gets it, he doesn’t try again for quite a while. He tends to ask for a bunch of speed in the straight-away of a very large figure 8. He makes sure the horse is traveling dead straight - traveling straight is important. Then he asks for the change and immediately begins to circle the opposite direction. He says going at speed is a a lot easier for them to make the switch. In the beginning, if the horse does it, he pets, slows and gets off the horse for the day.

Of course, this guy has tons of super human horse mojo. He makes everything on a horse look natural and easy. YMMV.

[jonem004]

The way you say your mare is most successful changing, moving her shoulders in the direction of her current leading front leg and moving her haunches in the direction of the desired new lead, is physically setting her up for the lead change. Changing that was isn’t going to hurt her training. Once she is changing more consistently you can start to simplify the cue. Changing leads requires balance and may require her to use muscle that isn’t particularly developed. The harder something is, the more evasions a horse is likely to come up with. Or it could be that she isn’t translating your cues into what you want unless you are really loud with them. Either way, make it as easy for her as possible so she doesn’t have any excuse!
I like to use a pole in the middle of the arena with its tips pointed at the short sides, so the pole is laying parallel to the long side. In your case, because you’ve been working on this for a while without much success, lets make it really easy for her and raise the pole into a little jump. Little like 12" off the ground. Really it’s a cavaletti, but let’s not get hung up on semantics. The point of this pole or jump is just to get her canter stride to come off the ground enough for her to reorganize her feet. She needs to be relaxed so she can use her back/neck/core to balance. Trot the pole or jump until she’s super comfortable with it. Take a couple of days if she needs it and then start cantering over it on a big circle staying the same direction. You might find that she tries to switch leads going over it even on the circle. Don’t fight with her, just go back to trot and fix the lead and continue. Once she is super relaxed loping over this little jump on either lead, use it to do a change. Just lope up to it relaxed and balanced like normal and when she picks up her front legs to go over it change the lead of your legs (put your new inside leg at the girth and new outside leg behind the girth, or however you want to cue a flying change) and open your new inside rein just enough to change the direction of the circle. As you practice this exercise more you can start to neck rein the turn, lower the jump to a pole on the ground, and eventually remove the pole altogether.
This isn’t something you want to do in one session, or even one week. Take at least a month and just work on it a little bit at a time and focus on keeping her relaxed. She will WANT to change over the jump. Of course one side will be easier, but if she really WON’T change from one lead to the other, even over the jump, you might want to have your vet or chiro check her out for soreness.
I hope you have great success with your flying changes!

[IndysMom]

You are not alone. We’ve been struggling with this for years. I make a joke that Ben only changes leads in alphabetical order, left-to-right. Right-to-left not so good. We are showing improvement. What’s been most important is; balanced in the middle, correct lift through the shoulders, straight before/after the change, don’t do them too often so that he doesn’t anticipate. One more thing-more leg than you would think necessary. I discovered this by accident when my foot slipped from the stirrup and I poked him a good one with my spur and got a really really nice change! (right to left). I’d been being much too indecisive with my change request. I’m still not consistent, but the more decisive I am, the better change I get. Hope that helps.

We tried the pole thing, but since we do trail, I didn’t want him to get the idea to change when loping poles. I tried it on one of my other horses and never could get it to work. Just call me an old white lady with no sense of rhythm! LOL!

[bitranchy]

I had considered using a pole to help with the lead change. That seemed commonplace for a lot of H/J riders and coaches, but less so in the discipline I’m doing now. I do still use poles in our warm up sometimes to give her something a little out of the ordinary and get her thinking about her feet.

Probably unsurprisingly if anyone’s gathered a gist from this thread, we’ve kept working on a lot of body control and taking the anticipation out of certain maneuvers yet and still over the past month. Yesterday we got a few successful lead changes in a lesson after doing some trouble shooting and brain storming. It did have to do with my new outside leg being a bit more ‘clear’. The cue and timing was correct, but we had to tamper with it a bit.

[saddleup]

One of my horses does killer lead changes…I change my feet and he changes, effortlessly, smoothly, horizontally. So I thought that was just the way it would always be. Wrong. I got another horse, and it’s a whole new ball game. He leaps into the change, and accelerates out of it. Not good.

With him, I’m working on body control. And on him waiting, not anticipating, the change. I will lope him in an hour glass pattern, coming in toward the middle of the arena, then back out to the rail and around the end, down the opposite side, come back toward the middle, then out again. Don’t ask for the change, but ask him to move off your leg in and out. When he’s soft, and not worried, accepting that we’re just going to keep doing it, I’ll ask him for the change when I get back to the rail by changing my feet when I have him straight and can just see the inside eye.

There are times I do this ten times and never change. Other times I ask after a couple of circuits and he’ll give me a soft change and we’ll we done. And sometimes I’ll ask for it in my warmup, without any exercise, and no warning, and he’ll change happily. I’m still trying to find the magic formula!

He seems to “get it” more readily when there’s a reason for the change, like an obvious change in direction, but that’s not what I want. He has to wait. It’s a work in progress, and I’ve had him for five months. It’s been hard for me because I tend to get uptight about it, and frustrated. That transfers down to him, of course, and it doesn’t help. But…we’re getting better.

Good luck.

[bitranchy]

I do think sometimes the trouble can be with it being done on cue as opposed to the horse balancing itself naturally. Some horses accept it quite effortlessly, like all my previous H/J horses, and then my current horse just didn’t take to it so readily. I imagine I’m in the same boat as you, saddleup, with getting frustrated or uptight. For me, it was frustrating because I felt, and sometimes feel, like I must be missing something and I should be better about it. I imagine it’ll be a combination of things that ultimately lead to success down the line, but figuring out those particular steps for that particular horse is sometimes the difficulty.

Good luck to you, too

[sorrelfilly721]

@Showbizz

If my horse can lope a half pass both directions, my horse can change leads.

I recently taught my mare to change, but now when I ask for half pass, she starts hopping anticipating a change. I’ve been just asking for 3 or 4 steps of half-pass and cantering on to get her head out of that loop, Seems like once I get her to stop anticipating, the next time I ask for a change she ignores me. A bit frustrating.

[Punchy14]

I like my horse to be comfortable loping a half pass in both directions, and to have a competent but not spectacular counter canter when I first start teaching the change. Competent, in that if I cue a change and they miss, it’s not a big deal to lope a teardrop shape and get back to the “correct” lead, to clear the air and try again. (A few times, then do something they know/ get- I’ve ridden my share of horses who are PANICKING about the lead change because they’ve been mashed and drilled on it when they aren’t strong enough) And, if a horse has never been asked to change leads, I’d also like the walk-lope transition to be there.
I find for my current horse, who has a nice little change now, it’s as simple as, lift the hand (in a shank bit), go STRAIGHT, change the bend (neck/ shoulder) off the new inside leg, and use the new outside leg to guide the hip into the new direction, and he changes back to front. He was not an automatic lead changer- took some time to get the strength trotting half passes- I like setting 5 cones on the center line of a 40m arena and making sure at the walk and trot, we can half pass between them, alternating sides of the cones.
If a horse won’t fence (lope straight up to the wall and stop straight if I don’t say to do something else), I like to get that working pretty well before I change, to help mitigate the anticipation.

[Bluey]

The trouble with lead changes is that they are college material for the horse and rider and many still in horse grade school think they can just wing it and keep practicing without any idea of what they are doing, off sound bites read or heard here or there, not having the concepts or skills yet.
All the practice will never make it work if we don’t know what we are doing, all the many steps we don’t even know are there.

Every time someone brags they are self taught and never had lessons?
They just don’t know what all they don’t know and will never learn.

Same with just anyone getting on a horse without any idea of how to bring a horse or themselves to proper lead changes and think it is just a trick, do this and that and the horse and rider will now know how to change leads.

Just think, the best trainers when showing still make tiny mistakes that loses them points in the changes.
That alone ought to tell us it is not so easy.

That is why explaining lead changes is futile if the basics are not there.

Many here come from English, jumping disciplines.
One example would be someone so proud of getting their horse in the backyard jumping over a pole between two chairs.
She runs the horse to the jump, horse stops in front of the jump, then pogo sticks over like a deer, inverted, no bascule, all four legs dangling and landing with a jarring thud on the other side, the rider smiling from ear to ear and so proud of her great jumping horse she taught all by herself.

Want to be a good rider and have a well trained horse?
Get a good instructor that has students competing and doing well.
That is one that knows how to get the horse there, the rider there and prepare all well to be able to do what is requested properly, lead changes just one more of much that makes horse and rider know what they are doing.

When you have those, when you are learning and know what you are doing, that is when you have troubles, videos, forums, friends, seminars are where you really can refine what you already know.

Now, all this is general, not directed to anyone.
All of us have been there, beginners at some time at any and all we want to do.
We had to work hard to find the right person to help us keep advancing, the right horses to let us become better.
That includes lead changes.
A good instructor will put the student having certain problems on the horses that will help illustrate what to do and not do to get them over that hump.

I have one such reiner, he will give you the change you ask for, when you ask for it.
If you ask one stride before you meant to ask, that is where you will get it.
If you are slow getting it together and ask one stride past, that is where you will get it.
If your timing is wrong and you ask late, he will happily change in front first, that is what you asked, right?
If you ask timing it right, where his hind leg is still down and not starting to lift yet, he will float you a perfect change.
All that without changing expression or speed, fast if you are going fast, slow if you are going slow.
That is the kind of horse that shows you the finer details, with an instructor helping you right along so you know why you got what you got, that may not always be what you were after.

To keep practicing what is not quite working is hoping to get lucky thru trial and error, if we are that lucky.
Try getting instruction that is working to make you better.

When we are talking the more technical points of riding, in any discipline, it takes knowing what you are doing.
Knowledge which today especially is important.
Many are so good today, horses and riders and getting better.
That is the way life is supposed to be.
We really need to get expert help, if we want to ride, not by the seat of our pants, but consistently and correctly.