Flying lead changes?

Question

I ride a lovely quarter horse cross gelding named Hobbes. All we really know about him is that he's old old old [like 25, but he acts like/has the energy of a 5 year old] and that he has some nice dressage training from someone. He does w/t/c, no jumping, can do lots of fancy dressage stuff. The only problem is that when I ask for a flying lead change, he gets angry and excited. He does it the second I ask, pins his ears back and swishes his tail, then goes extremely fast after that.

He knows it's coming when we go across the diagonal at the canter, so I've been trying to teach him going across the diagonal at the canter doesn't always mean a flying lead change by maybe halting or doing a transition to trot or walk when we go across the diagonal. But he still gets angry when we do one. Is it because it's hard for him? Any tips?

Answer 1

My guess would be it has nothing to do with "anger" as horses don't really express anger as humans understand it.  That is not a part of their emotional gene pool.  He is probably, at his age, having a physical difficulty.  I  would check him out to try and find if he is in pain?  are his teeth OK?  Is the saddle fit OK?  Ear pinning is a definite sign of resistance but it doesn't tell you what the cause of resistance is and you need to know that or you do not have a chance of correcting the problem.  If he has a lot of training, he knows what you are going to ask before you do and he is letting you know it is not OK for some reason.  Help him and don't ask him to do things that are too difficult for him at this point in his life.

Answer 2

I would say hes just getting frustrated at the task your trying to get him to do.  Flying lead changes really make a horse concentrate on his balance.  Plus think about it, your asking him to do something else almost before he finishes doing what you told him to do first.  Try slowing it down.  Ask for lead changes every two strides.  Then when he gets really confortable with that, have him to try for a change every stride.  Then eventually when he seems to be able to do this without even thinking about it, try for the flying change.  If he has trouble, go back to what he knows and try again later.  If he tries to speed up, give him a few strides, pull him back in and go through a few half halts.  He just has to get confortable with the speed of flying changes.  Some people think that if a horse can do a lead change every few strides, they should be able to do flying changes.  Its not a movement that horses come by naturally so it takes time and patience to make it seem like second nature to them.  And just to keep him on his toes, change up the pattern every once in a while in training.  Make each manuver a seperate challenge, and then when he's got them down seperately, work towards making everything one continuous motion. Good luck!

Answer 3

Oh, I just read an article on this. :) However, it kind of applies to western horses, but I'm guessing if you tweak it a little you can apply it to dressage. Just for practice, as soon as you ask your horse for the lead change, if he speeds up, smoothly bring him down to a halt, then back him up a few steps. Repeat this everytime he speeds up and you will eventually have taught him to keep his pace slow as soon as he lead changes. As for the anger, see if there is anything causing him discomfort. Where do you press your leg against him when you ask him for the lead change? Check to see there is nothing you or he is doing to be causing him pain. Also bring this up to your instructor. She might have guesses on something that happened in his past that could be causing this.