How do you get your horse to do a lead change?

Question

Flying change..

Answer 1

change the lead for it duh...

Answer 2

To begin working on lead changes, you need to first get the idea of bending around your corners or on a circle into your horse's mind. So work on circles, use a lot of inside leg and you should feel his body bending around your inside leg. Work on this at all gaits, bending is crucial to flying lead changes. Once your horse has got bending down, work on figure-eights. Now, in the middle of the figure-eight, you ask the horse to change his bend so that    he's bending correctly in the direction you're going. Work on this at a trot. If you've worked on bending on figure-eights at a trot, try at a canter. At first, don't canter the whole thing. Ask for a simple lead change (trot-change) in the middle of the figure-eight, and make sure you're changing your bend as you ask him to depart onto the other lead in the middle of the figure-eight. If you work on this, your horse will probably begin to anticipate the change of lead as his bend changes in the middle of the figure-eight. If he seems eager to depart on the other lead once you've done simple changes, it's time to try flying changes. When you go through the middle of the figure-eight at a canter, don't do anything but apply the aids for the other canter lead (outside leg slightly behind the girth, inside leg on the girth, contact with the inside rein). Try not to lean forward at all, it'll unbalance him. You're just asking him to depart on the other lead. You might have to try this a few times, and if it's not successful go back to simple changes on the figure-eight. Your horse will pick it up eventually, but it could take time. Don't get frustrated, it's likely that your horse doesn't know quite what you want. Take it one step at a time, and remember that your horse can do lead changes. Changes are natural for them in the wild, but not so much with a rider on their back; it's more difficult to stay balanced. So work on bending on figure-eights at a trot and a canter and soon you'll have a lead changey horse!

If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me.

Answer 3

it depends on whether your horse has learned them yet. if you are just asking for a change and your horse already knows them, all you need to do is hold your horse straight with the outside rein, step out with your outside leg (applying a little pressure depending on the horse) and slightly lift your inside rein. your horse should change.

if you are teaching your horse changes, start off doing circles at the trot and canter. also practice halting from the canter. this gets your horse up into your hand which is necessary for changes. (1-2 weeks)

pick up your canter and cut across the ring in a diagonal line. stop keeping your horses body straight. pick up the new lead.  work on this every time you ride (2 weeks)

next do the same as above except instead of stopping straight do a simple change (trot between leads) be sure to pick up the new lead before the canter. ALWAYS get the new lead BEFORE turning a corner. a corner/ turn should not be used to get your horse to change leads

whenever you are riding, NEVER let your horse canter through a corner/turn on the wrong lead. that will teach them to miss changes in the future

Answer 4

what is a lead change?

Answer 5

The aids for a flying change are as follows...

Ideally, you want to ask when the striking leg is about to bear weight, as that will be the leg to begin the canter sequence of the opposite lead. Shift your weight to the inside and pick up the inside rein a bit while pressing with your outside leg. The horse should switch leads. sometimes they'll hop around a bit, but at first allow this and be sure to give them enough rein to make the change.

Answer 6

Ok, there's a lot of different ways that I've heard, so I'll do my best at explaining it.  The truth is, a lot of different horses respond to different things.  So...  if your horse was trained to do it already, it would be best to ask the trainer or someone else who had ridden the horse.  

If your horse hasn't done it before, you're pretty much going to cross the arena and turn the 'wrong' way (the opposite way than what you were cantering before) and make sure to change your bend and push with your (new) outside leg, and push your horse forward and usually they'll switch.  I would try cantering one way (lets say left, just to make things easier) and then cut across the ring, and just before you get back to the rail, pull up to a trot, then ask for the canter for the correct lead (...  in other words, do a simple change...)...  so do that simple change a couple of times.  Then canter to the left and take the same route across to turn to the right, and this time just pull your horse to the right and push with your outside (left) leg and kiss.

A lot of horses who have been trained to do flying changes react to your body position and leg aids and things like that.  With a horse that's trained for flying changes and does them quite often, if you have enough pace and you go straight to the corner and wiggle the rein for the turn... then those horses will switch with that.

--- note ---  My personal horse wasn't really trained for flying changes.  She really strongly preferred to canter her left lead (she was recovering from white line disease in her right foot, so it wasn't as strong as her left, so given the option, she'd always choose the left lead), so I decided to canter to the right, cut across the ring and push her over with my right leg and kiss.  And when we got to the turn, she switched to her left lead.  ---  ---  I rode a school horse for my horse show where I showed over jumps and learned that for him, when you have a diagonal line (2 jumps in the center of the ring...  you go into it with one lead, jump the first, and after you jump the second, you have to switch to the other lead)...  for him, when he has enough pace coming off of that diagonal line, so long as you aim straight for the corner, he's going to switch for you.  So going straight is very important.

Beyond that, these methods are just what I've heard, not what I've ever done...  but I offer them for you anyway.

At that show, I heard one trainer talking to a girl about flying changes and said that her horse needed her to sit to the outside around the turn for that horse to switch leads.  When that girl leaned into the center, the horse would continue on the wrong lead.

The trainer at my barn was working with someone and doing flying changes...  the rider didn't canter around any turns...  she started at one end of the arena right in the middle (not on either rail, but right in the middle).  she picked up the canter, switched in the center of the ring, cantered to the other end of the ring and stopped.  For that girl, the trainer said...  pick up the canter and then continue pushing with that leg until you're in the middle of the ring and then switch to the other leg and press hard with that leg and the horse will switch.  That was pretty impressive to me because that girl didn't need any turns or anything.  I've always needed a turn to get a flying change.  But she's a really excellent trainer, so it's not really surprising that she gets the horse to do amazing things like that.  And I'm sure that horse was a lot more trained then mine.

So those are my ideas...  I'd go try them one by one and pick the one that works best for you.  I'm sure you shouldn't NEED a corner for your horse to flying change, but I think that's probably the easiest way to get the flying change.  So that's what I'd try first.  Then experiment with shifting your weight and switching which leg you push with...  that sort of thing.  Flying changes are one of those things that I could get on the horse and figure it out and then tell you what you have to do, but it's really hard to explain without seeing how the horse reacts to different things.  Anyway, I hope these few ideas help you and your horse a little bit.

edit...  i realized that i didn't mention...  if you're trying the 'cross the arena and turn the other way' method, your body carriage and the way you hold your horse needs to change too.  You can keep your horse counter-cantering by keeping your body weight and your horse the same as it was before.  To get the flying change, you have to switch what your legs and upper body are doing...  you have to bend your horse in the new direction and your seat has to adjust for the new direction.  So don't just ask the horse to turn and expect it to flying change...  you have to turn yourself too.  Once you turn the corner and adjust your body, your horse will feel very uncomfortable with countercantering and it should flying change for you if you press with your outside leg and kiss.  But if you don't adjust your horse and your body, the horse might think you're just trying to practice the countercanter.

Answer 7

Three methods come to mind:

1) shifting your weight

2) using your stick to coax the horse to switch to the  

    desired lead

3) using your lines to throw a series of "crosses"