Flying changes?!

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paddypat123

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Hi guys,
My horse Paddy and I event together and in the SJ he always changes in front but goes disunited behind? I know some horses get changing easily but Paddy doesn't and I wondered if anyone knew any exercises to help him get used to it? It's just that if you are being timed it is way easier to be on the right leg rather then having to text and change. Thanks Xx :)
 
practice changing over a pole on a figure of eight (pole in the middle) so he has to engage his hind end more :) my horse manages fine if I treat it like a jump on the approach and change the flexion on "landing" he still won't change when I ask but will do it when needed on the course !
 
A 'true' flying change comes from behind rather than in front. Is he balanced or on his forehand? He really needs to carrying himself from behind to be able to execute a flying change easily.

I would start be focusing on getting him to land on the right lead - you can help here. Try to look in the direction you are turning over the fence and bring your 'new' outside leg ever so slightly back over the fence to prepare him for your change. See how he goes with picking it up on landing.
 
Yes I agree work on landing on the right lead! Will make life so much easier and most horses do it automatically if you look in the direction you want to go.

Bad flying changes can put quite a lot of strain on the back (I should know, mine flipping swaps legs whenever I ask him to go past something scary) so it's best to leave them as late as possible (til the horse is strong) and work on them with an instructor! :)
 
Pigeon said:
Yes I agree work on landing on the right lead! Will make life so much easier and most horses do it automatically if you look in the direction you want to go.

Bad flying changes can put quite a lot of strain on the back (I should know, mine flipping swaps legs whenever I ask him to go past something scary) so it's best to leave them as late as possible (til the horse is strong) and work on them with an instructor! :)
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I sometimes neck rein my horse in a jump off. Sometimes its not immediately obvious to the horse which direction he will have to go next if he is towards the centre of the arena for example and not against the side of the arena (when it is obvious the direction of travel). So when I take off and want to go right for example I bring my left hand across his neck slightly till the rein touches (like the cowboys do!) to indicate the direction of travel upon landing. He is used to neck reining and does it really well in walk and trot whilst in the school without jumps and I have been doing it recently for flying changes in the school which he is now able to do on both reins without a problem using the neck reining method, which I hadn't thought about until a few days ago. Sometimes I get comments about him turning on a sixpence in a jump off as more often than not when we get placed its because of his tight turns than his speed (I am a complete wimp when it comes to approaching a fence at speed, it scares the life out of me!)
 
nato said:
A 'true' flying change comes from behind rather than in front. Is he balanced or on his forehand? He really needs to carrying himself from behind to be able to execute a flying change easily.
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As NATO has pointed out, the change is only as good as the canter. I would therefore go back to flatwork and work on improving the quality of the canter and have him working really through and into the contact. Don't slow the canter into the change. It must be forward. Think about the change like the approach to a jump, forward with the hocks under, and remember to ride away from the change with the same forward movement. A flying change is just another transition, so also work on sharpening up direct transitions and simple transitions.
 
I taught my horse changes in the hope he would do them SJ. They are good enough that he got 7's in his first Advanced Medium for them yet he would still rather go round disunited or on the wrong leg in the SJ arena. He just gets a bit on the forehand and struggles to bring the change through once we get going round a course. I find it much more useful with him to think about landing on the correct lead after each fence. Just open the new inside rein and he lands on the correct leg. I just have to remember to think about where we're going next while we're in the air!
 
I taught changes to horse by myself - having never actually ridden them before or taught a horse before it was quite fun!
I couldn't work out how to use a pole to change over and tried it once but got very mixed up. Instead we started with simple changes (canter walk canter) over the centre line in a 2 loop serpentine so the change of direction was very obvious. Once he got the idea of coming right back to change over the centre I was able to ask for a change of lead in canter which he picked up straight away. Think I was very lucky in having a horse that tried :p

But once he learnt the aid for change I was able to reduce the angle of direction change and amount of changes in a line etc. they are correct as I got my instructor to check while at a jump lesson so I just continue to advance and improve the quality of them :) strangely enough doing it this way we never lost the counter canter which instructor found quite odd!

Try it that way, I never got the pole method tbh and I've heard it can make them late behind. Depends on your horse though. Would it be easier to make sure you land on the correct leg over the jump rather than ask for a change after?
 
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