Flying changes

Identityincrisis

Identityincrisis

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After 1 1/2 years of first trying (and failing!) to get a flying change, today i got 2 in a row!!!! I was literally whooping for joy!

My boy is a 10yr old arab and whilst athletic has taken a LONG time to build strength and muscle.

When I first wanted to start teaching him FC’s a couple of instructors said my canter wasn’t strong enough, they were right but i was gutted. I’ve been working away at improving his strength and the canter and he’s really started to bring his weight back. We’ve established counter canter and that has gone from a bag of hammers to established.

Today i was hacking him and he was full of joy and spice and we’d had a great ride but he was still full of beans so I decided to do a little bit of canter and CC work in a big field. He was really working well and I suddenly thought ‘why not give it a go’ and he did it!!! I was whooping when I realised he’d changed 🤣 i gave him big pats and some grass before asking again (had to check it wasn’t a fluke!) and he did it again, cue more whooping and cheering and lots of treats 🤣

I’d literally been thinking we hadn’t had a big break through for a while, but here we are and I’m absolutely buzzing with my little po!
 
I know what you mean, I’ve never ridden a flying change before so wasn’t sure i was doing it correctly but the power in his canter has improved so much I didn’t feel I needed to do that much today. I also allowed him a bit of speed too, and having the field to do it in helps, that’s how I taught CC as an arena can be quite restrictive for space. I’ve been working on getting him to bend his hocks and bring them underneath him (in trot) and I feel this has had a big benefit
 
Identityincrisis said:
After 1 1/2 years of first trying (and failing!) to get a flying change, today i got 2 in a row!!!! I was literally whooping for joy!

My boy is a 10yr old arab and whilst athletic has taken a LONG time to build strength and muscle.

When I first wanted to start teaching him FC’s a couple of instructors said my canter wasn’t strong enough, they were right but i was gutted. I’ve been working away at improving his strength and the canter and he’s really started to bring his weight back. We’ve established counter canter and that has gone from a bag of hammers to established.

Today i was hacking him and he was full of joy and spice and we’d had a great ride but he was still full of beans so I decided to do a little bit of canter and CC work in a big field. He was really working well and I suddenly thought ‘why not give it a go’ and he did it!!! I was whooping when I realised he’d changed 🤣 i gave him big pats and some grass before asking again (had to check it wasn’t a fluke!) and he did it again, cue more whooping and cheering and lots of treats 🤣

I’d literally been thinking we hadn’t had a big break through for a while, but here we are and I’m absolutely buzzing with my little po!
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Well done to you both 😍

One of my Arab's (Louis) finds them easy and can do counter canter all day long.

Arabi just wouldn't do them tried for ages but his like no that's the wrong leg and gets himself in a state so I gave up with him 😆
 
Some musings that I would appreciate thoughts on please!

We are now getting a quite reliable change from right to left.
However they aren't always clean, sometimes a smidge behind and sometimes a stride.
I'm also moving his quarters to the left a few strides before the change aid, which is helping.

I am praising for every change at the moment whether it is clean or not. The only thing I don't praise is if we completely don't change behind, I just ignore that and we try again.

My hope/presumption is as he understands the aid to change more, we can 'polish' them up and make them sharper and straighter.
Is this right?
Or should I be asking for straight changes from the start? And only praising straight and clean changes?

I don't want to cause myself an issue down the line however I DO want to praise his efforts and make it easy for him to understand what I am asking.

So in summary, do we ask for a more perfect change immediately?
Or accept and praise a scruffy change and the effort now with the view to improving it afterwards?

We aren't aiming for the Olympics, I'm doing this for fun and because it is improving the rest of his work so much. I'd love to do an Ad.Med or Advanced next year but really for fun rather than aiming at Nationals.
 
millitiger said:
Some musings that I would appreciate thoughts on please!

We are now getting a quite reliable change from right to left.
However they aren't always clean, sometimes a smidge behind and sometimes a stride.
I'm also moving his quarters to the left a few strides before the change aid, which is helping.

I am praising for every change at the moment whether it is clean or not. The only thing I don't praise is if we completely don't change behind, I just ignore that and we try again.

My hope/presumption is as he understands the aid to change more, we can 'polish' them up and make them sharper and straighter.
Is this right?
Or should I be asking for straight changes from the start? And only praising straight and clean changes?

I don't want to cause myself an issue down the line however I DO want to praise his efforts and make it easy for him to understand what I am asking.

So in summary, do we ask for a more perfect change immediately?
Or accept and praise a scruffy change and the effort now with the view to improving it afterwards?

We aren't aiming for the Olympics, I'm doing this for fun and because it is improving the rest of his work so much. I'd love to do an Ad.Med or Advanced next year but really for fun rather than aiming at Nationals.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you are in the same place in the process as me, I am doing exactly the same as you and praising so long as both front and back change, even if slightly late.

My horse gets stressed quite easily so I try to praise for trying as much as possible. I do what I can to set us up for success but we are both learning together. Like you, I have no Olympic aspirations and would just like to have a crack at AM in the spring.

I figure that all the work started off being a bit hit and miss and everything is improving all the time. Surely changes are the same?!
 
Thanks @Matafleur, hopefully we're both bumbling in the right direction!

Mine is the opposite of stressy, however if he doesn't feel appreciated he can switch off completely under pressure and just give up, especially if something requires effort.
So I have to be mindful to keep him feeling motivated and like he wants to keep trying.

My trainer said even if he doesn't pick changes up well, as he can be a bit cold, at least it gives me experience at riding and teaching them, ready for my next horse. That helps me keep the pressure lighter for both of us!
 
When I was training them (feels a thousand years ago now), getting the penny to drop of the change to the aid was the first point of call. After that, cleaning up the changes to make them reliable and clean, was all done to improving the quality of the canter. The better the canter, the more on the hind legs, the more engagement and the softer over the back and the more 'on the aids', the better the changes came.

However, my horses had naturally weaker canters (carriage bred so their trots were fabulous lol), so that advice might not apply as much to other types of moving horses.
 
Definitely a well walked path! It always makes me laugh that people think the advanced stuff is so complex but you’re still there doing transitions and the basics to get the gaits better in order to make everything better!

We discovered at the flying change point of training with Topaz that actually she was subtly blocking me at every transition and that’s where the block was coming from. So out at medium and there we were right back at the start of how to do a nice transition 🤣🙈.

Keep going though, if she could make it to PSG anything is possible ☺️.

Edit: as I remembered wrong, it was training the tempis we discovered her subtle block and that’s why I was struggling as I was still needing to set her up for each change and you can’t do that in the tempis they just have to go on the aid!
 
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