Teaching flying changes?

MissSBird

MissSBird

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Hey guys. Posting on behalf of my sister (Fuzz on here) as her computer is being silly.

Some of you guys may know that she has a little fell pony that she jumps. The pony is 17, and we've had her for 3 years now. When we got her she had no idea what flatwork was, having been brought up in a point at the jump and kick home.

We've been working with her patiently, and she now works off the leg in basic lateral work, is obedient to turn, moves up and down a pace when asked and bends in the turns. She also engages and uses her back end quite well. She doesn't really go 'on the bit', but thats probably more to do with her confo than anything.

So, as we're kind of out of things to do and she's generally very good, we're looking for something else to progress to. As she's a showjumper, flying changes seemed to be a good move to make.

Niether of us have ever done/taught flying changes before, so looking for some basic advise. I assume you wouldn't jump right in on them, so what would you do to begin to work towards doing them? And do you think she'd be ready to learn something like that?
 
Hi,

Difficult one, as my current show jumper taught them to herself on autopilot! You need to make sure the canter is very short and bouncy, lots of energy. At home try putting a cross pole at X in the school and coming in canter on a 20 m circle, jump the fence off the circle and as you go over change the bend so you land on another circle going the other way and hopefully on the other lead. If she hasn't picked it up come straight back to walk and do a walk canter transition to the correct lead and try again. You can also use poles on the diagonal. As you ask for the change ride a half halt and then switch the bend to the new direction. What you have to watch with teaching changes is that the horse won't hot up after the change (many do as it's quite exciting). Think steady canter, sit back on the hocks and wait. You can also teach it by doing lots of walk to canter and you shouold be able to get this first before even really trying, think walk to canter, canter to walk across the diagonal slowly decreasing the walk part. Some horses do struggle with them, I have a 13 yr old pony who I've had for years and schooled to elementry who when jumping will only do them if allowed to sort himself out round a corner as he's going round a course, he is difficult to get to change just on the flat while schooling.
 
Im currently teaching my 5yr old, and have had some very good advise which has made it easier! Firstly, teach your horse walk to canter, and how to shorten and lengthen well enough to do canter to halt. Teach your horse to canter just off your outside leg, no inside leg at all! Then do simple changes, canter to walk, then to canter, slowly reducing the amount of walk steps. Then ride it the same, but ask for the change of leg,and make sure you're not blocking with your new inside hand. Doing 10m loops back to the track with a pole where the bend changes will help to!
 
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Thanks guys! That's exactly what I was after.

We'll have a go with some of those building up to exercises and see how she takes to them. She's pretty good at her walk to canter these days, but doing different exercises around it will be a good place to start.

Thanks :)
 
Mine I did just go straight into it..I started showjumping my 6yo ex-racer and she told me to 'change rein with a flying change next to the drums'. We'd never done them before but decided to give it a go..all i did was just get his canter quite nice and bouncy, got to the centre line on a figure 8 then just changed his bend and my legs and he switched. Easy as.

Having said that, he could already do simple changes on circles and diagonal, and could counter canter too, and lengthen/shorten.

You can try over a pole at X on a figure 8, but poles sometimes seem to make it harder when you take it away. We use it occasionally for the pony though (just in normal canter) as he used to disunite randomly and going over a pole he'd switch back, but without the pole he wouldn't.

Can also teach it by cantering across the diagonal then changing the leg as you go round the corner. :)

Hope there's something helpful there!
 
Thanks JustMe, something else we can do.

It's not essential she learns how to do them - she's one of those pony club type ponys that will happily turn and jump off the wrong leg during a course. It'd just be useful for her to learn, and something new to do to keep things interesting :)
 
Hi,
I taught my 4yo how to do flying changes last year with the help of two other horse owners. It was great because my horse is a very quick learner.

But anyways, the way i was taught is to get a nice steady canter in a corner ( make sure your on the correct leg) then as you cut across the school from either B - E or E - B direct your horse a sthough you were going to do a 20 metre circle but as you reach the E or B (depending on which way you came again!) shift your weight to go the opposite way and give your horse a quick nudge then check to make sure you are on the correct leg again, if you are then great he's done it but if not oh well and keep trying!!

This probably makes no sense what so ever... but i hope it helps!!!

:p
 
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