Fixing Late Changes

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Ellie2893

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Hi all, I'm looking for some tips to help fix my horses changes which are chronically late behind.

A bit of background, my boy is 13yo, established at medium, training weekly with my trainer. We started teaching him his changes towards the end of last summer but really started concentrating on them during lockdown however, he is still late behind despite our best efforts. One thing that doesn't help matters is that he can be really hot and I can't carry a whip so doing them repeatedly on patterns makes him anticipate and tense, become hollow and then can't change.

I've tried counter canter with quarters in then asking, asking on small half 10m circles and doing plenty of exercises to sharpen the hind leg. They are getting quicker but still about 1/2 stride late behind.

Side note - saddle, teeth, farrier, physio, vet etc all checked very regularly and I've been assured there are no physical barriers.

Any help or advice is very welcomed!
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Truthfully how good is his canter?

For me it is all in the canter and then in the timing of the aid, we're still slightly hit or miss but it always comes back to her canter not being quite there and my aids not being quite on it.
 
HufflyPuffly said:
Truthfully how good is his canter?

For me it is all in the canter and then in the timing of the aid, we're still slightly hit or miss but it always comes back to her canter not being quite there and my aids not being quite on it.
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agreed, I also think the ones that anticipate and get tense can be really tricky but you really need to try and address that because you will eventually need to have control to tell him when to change with him being patient about waiting (if you start tempis for instance)

have you been able to ride changes on an established horse? I have one that found them naturally very easy, but after riding my other one who struggled (due to size of canter and submission issues ;) ) I ended up breaking the easy one. Then I figured out that my timing was slightly off, and that fixed both of them. I was giving the aid about half a beat too late. Almost imperceptible to the rider but makes a big difference to the horse!
 
In all honesty? The canter is not something anyone has picked up on (regular trainers or trainers in clinics) he's got a clear three beat and jump, ability to lengthen and collect etc and is sharp off the leg with his simple changes.
Don't get me wrong they're heaps better than they were three months ago (imagine taking three laps of the arena to get one change, which was late or disunited and then he'd bolt off) but annoyingly half a stride is still late! Argh!

The one thing I am concerned with is that it is, me as Milliepops says. I've asked my trainer this but she says my timing is fine. I'm just so worried I'm not doing him justice and that we won't ever get it right unless I can fix whatever is causing it.

@milliepops did you get on a Schoolmaster horse in a lesson? We have Prestiege Training (Summerhouse) about 4 mins down the road, I've had a session there before but they put me on a 17hh horse and my legs barely went past the end of the saddle so quite reluctant to spend £90 if the same will happen again!
 
My one who struggled did more or less that - buck, leap, charge off, eventually change behind!

I didn't have a schoolmaster specifically for changes though I did ride one to start tempis. My problem sort of resolved itself because my 2nd horse really finds changes easy.
Actually starting tempis made me address the submission/hotness issue with the tricky one. We didn't start them thinking "oh we'll have 3s and 4s and go and do a PSG" ;) but the need to control and place the changes specifically made me get on top of the problem and ride decisively. I think I had got into a bit of a "please change!" desperation mindset.

OK try the other way, has anyone else ridden your horse in the changes?
 
They can have a good canter but it still might not be quite engaged/ collected enough for a clean change, is he engaged, hind leg reaching, sitting behind, in self carriage and being obedient to the aids?

For Topaz all of that needs to happen and then I need to ask right :p for it to come off, she also had a pretty rubbish canter to start with so clean changes have taken an age!

A nice exercise we did (as Topaz was very keen for changes, just not in a 'dressage' style lol), is counter canter down the long side, put her in shoulder-fore positioning and wait until they really, really want to change are pushing off the hind legs and then move your aids over and allow the change to happen almost. Sorry not explaining that well, this is why I have to pay wonderful people to help me lol. Sometimes they get their front legs in the way of the their hind legs coming through so can block themselves, the shoulder-fore helps them get the right positioning.
 
Ugh! One of my hardest things to fix....Agree with above posters re the quality of the canter (also rider timing - this is my problem, also I can't count), but have you tried under riding the aid? I mean doing less and just letting them happen. Also make really, really sure you're not blocking the hind leg with the rein on the "new" side. Good luck!
 
Agree with everyone else, canter quality and rider timing are key to a good change, also agree with Cortez thats its very easy to inadvertantly block the new inside hind coming through.

Straightness is also very important, if the horse is even slightly crooked it can cause the change to be late behind, also if you get panicky because they are not happening and start over riding and flinging yourself around too much this can cause the horse to swing and then the change becomes late.

If the lateness is due to the horse just being a bit too slow with the hindleg, in general, not just in the change, then a really helpful exercise is rapid simple changes eg get a god canter, then walk two/three strides, canter two/three strides and repeat, this quickens the hind leg and then just replace a simple change with a flying one. But if your horse is prone to getting very hot and the hind leg is generally good, then dont do it, you'll end up sitting on a time bomb!
 
On site instructor has ridden him a few weeks back and got a similar reaction to me although she did get a few clean ones, I've just messaged her to see if she can get on this week and I can watch to see what the timing is that she's doing and if it differs to mine.
You've got me thinking about me blocking him with my inside rein as well as the actual timing of my leg aid, a few things to think about and work on when I'm back onboard this week before our next lesson & I'll look at getting a schoolmaster lesson booked in if they've got a slightly smaller horse!
:)
 
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