Flying lead change problems

[DappleGreyDaydreamer]

Struggling with my rising 6 year old and his flying changes. His previous owner had started to teach him and I've kind of picked up where he left off, but he only knows to change his front leg, not his back leg, so we go from a nice canter to a disunited one every time. He does the same thing on the lunge as well when he strikes off on the wrong leg and goes to correct himself. He has the understanding of correct leads, but is it my signals that are causing this problem or is there an exercise I could use to help him change the back legs too? Or is it too soon to be attempting this with him? He doesn't get anxious or flighty when I ask him to change.

 

[Equi]

Have you tried asking for the change over a pole on the floor?

 

[shortstuff99]

How are his simple changes and counter canter? Are they nice and balanced with correct strike offs? Can you ask for a specific canter lead no matter what rein you are on? If so then it might be how you are asking, if not he might not be ready for changes yet

 

[Tiarella]

Judging from your previous posts he is no way ready to attempt and sort of flying change. On the 29th Feb in one post you say he has barely done any flat work at all. It's a long slow correct process to teach a horse how to change correctly and changes do not appear until medium tests (please correct me if I'm wrong - haven't done dressage for ages!) so is he established at elementary level movements? He is young too. My connie is 5 in April and we are just getting our transitions more balanced and lots of walk hacking!

 

[only_me]

It sounds as if he isn't ready to attempt a flying change, as in he isn't balanced in normal basic work. If he can't get the correct lead when cantering normally in one direction then he really isn't ready for a flying change. Plus becoming disunited gives impression that he is just running forward and can't hold himself in balance.

i'd focus on him getting the correct lead when asking to canter normally & if needed make the aids for canter really obvious and then make them less obvious as he improves. And then work on walk - canter - walk transitions. Once these are really good then he should be ready to change leads imo.

 

[Goldenstar]

To do a flying change correctly the horse needs to be straight , even in both canters ,able to do the canter to walk transition well and be confident anf correct in the counter canter .
The fact that he is disuniting on the lunge is a big indicator that he's not ready .

 

[smja]

Teaching flying changes too early is one of the easiest ways to mess up a horse's canter, and it's very difficult to 'unteach' if not done correctly. You won't need them for SJ yet, so why not wait until the flatwork is more secure?

 

[FfionWinnie]

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...e-right-time-to-teach-my-horse-flying-changes