[QUOTE=Ceylon Star;7686930]
I found (well, more like his main rider found) that it was a lot easier to teach my guy his changes after working on the counter canter. Getting him balanced on the “wrong” lead made it a lot easier to teach him that it’s only okay to do a flying change when we ask for it. He has almost seamless natural changes and when he was learning how to canter (at liberty, as a 10 year old. He’d lived in a small paddock that was mostly large rocks for almost 9 years of his life, so hadn’t had opportunity to develop a natural canter) he would swap leads every couple strides, and it was only noticeable if you watched his legs closely.
He’s making his dressage ring debut at a “show and tell” on Sunday. M is doing First Level Test 2 (the Canadian one. I’m not sure if they’re different in the US and Canada). This show is the best venue for a first timer because the way it’s run you can ride up to 2 different tests (M’s only doing 1 with the pony) and you ride each test twice. after you ride it the first time, you get 10-15 minutes of feedback/coaching from the judge, and then you ride the test a second time. The average of your two scores is your score for the test. The show also happens to be held at my old stomping grounds, so it’ll be neat to take my pony there for the first time. I haven’t ridden out there since my coach moved from just down the road [from the ring].
For those who also jump your morgans (or who jump exclusively), do you find that they’re extra super wiggly when trotting into a jump, even with several trot poles leading up to it? My guy will NOT go over a jump (even a 12" xpole) if he trots in, but he’ll get his distance every flipping time if he canters in. He IS green over fences, so we’ve decided to forget about trot jumps for a while and build his confidence by doing canter fences, and when he has a bit more experience we’ll revisit trot fences. I find that for a lot of things, we have to do them backwards. But I’m not sure if that’s a Morgan thing or if it has more to do with him being (according to the vet) “the horsey equivalent of autistic”. Morgans aren’t common on the island, so I’m not entirely sure if it’s a Morgan thought pattern, or if he really is a little extra special?[/QUOTE]
When I started jumping my morgan, I never had an issue getting him to trot over fences. A trick you can do is have 4 trot poles and then a cross rail with 2 wings on both sides of the cross rail so there isn’t anywhere to go. If he still stops you can have someone follow behind him with a whip. Knowing how to trot jumps is a crucial step in their jump training. I would also suggest grid work. It kept my morgan busy and made him more confident.
I’ll make my profile picture a jumping one. 
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