Teaching Flying Changes

By: Sue Franks - www.suefranks.com - From the March 2014 Issue of Local Horse Magazine

Sue riding Gracie, registered name Mondure Chics & Chex.  She is a 3 year old filly that is currently preparing for the Gold Buckle Futurity in Tamworth this coming September (Photo: Jolene King - Hold Your Horses Photography)

Before we start asking for a fly change we need a few prerequisites. There are some things you and your horse should know and be able to do with ease before you ever ask. We must make this as easy and stress free as possible for both your horse and yourself.  These things include:

1. Is your horse soft in the bridle, does he travel in a soft round shape?
2. Can your horse reverse arc and have you got good lateral control, that is, can you move your horse’s whole body or move his hind or front ends independently. Exercises needed before you start; reverse arc, correct straight leg yielding and quarters in.
3. Have you got a good counter canter and can you change the bend in your horse at normal canter and counter canter with ease?
4. Does your horse move off your inside leg at counter canter and can you leg yield or push him towards the outside of the circle without stiffness anywhere in his body?

All these things are important because they not only help you fly change but they help you to stop your horse from changing leads.  Horses taught to fly change without these prerequisites can be hard to control, to stop from changing leads when they feel like it, or when you change direction. You must be able to counter canter without anticipating a fly change. In other words, you need to create an off button before you create the lead change button.

For now, we will assume your horse has all of the above firmly established.

We will use the counter canter to lead change in this article as it is one of the easiest ways for your horse to learn this great manoeuvre,(definition of manoeuvre is; perform or cause to perform a movement or series of moves requiring skill and care, or to carefully guide or manipulate, in order to achieve an end). We use counter canter because your horse will be used to doing circles so is comfortable with this already and a circle goes on forever and this means that there is never a rush or too much pressure to get the job done. It gives you time to wait on your horse for the correct response. It is also mentally easier for your horse as most horses will want to be on the correct lead and will look for the change.

You will need to have enough room to canter two larges circles side by side, I hate saying this because I don't change my horses in the middle of a figure of eight unless I'm showing, but this is what I mean by side by side. You will also need room to move in and out of these circles. I cannot give you the size of the circles because all horses are different, some will need more room to change in the beginning than others.

So we are cantering with good forward movement, let’s say on a left hand circle, on the left lead, check  your horse is soft and travelling with a good rhythm, check you can change the bend over the leading leg or to the outside of the circle without your horse lifting his head. Once you have all this established and before you come to the middle where both circles meet change your horses bend to the direction of the new right hand circle. Keep your right leg on strongly, or with enough pressure to maintain the left lead on your horse, your right leg will be back towards but in front of the flank, holding the left lead, now turn right.  Ride strongly right, ride straight then a small change of direction right, then straight, then small change of direction right until your horse accepts the new direction.  Have your horse looking right, travelling right but on the left lead, maintain the same speed and tempo of the left hand circles.  When you come back to the centre, change back to the left hand circle, still keeping your right leg on and holding the left lead. You may need to drive a little more when you come back to the left.  Establish the forward movement and rhythm again and repeat the sequence until your horse is comfortable with the change of direction and bend.

Of course what we do to the left we also do to the right. So reverse the exercise and do the same thing to the right, counter cantering with left bend to the left, holding the right lead with left leg and riding with the same forward drive.

When your horse accepts this we can progress. Now when we are counter cantering start to push your horse in toward the circle with your outside rein, not too far into the circle that he is uncomfortable, just enough to make sure he moves off the outside rein. So if we are travelling on the left lead, to the right, horse slightly bent to the right, we will push him in with our left hand rein, holding the leading leg with our right leg firmly on the horse.  Now we can start to move our horse back to the outside of the circle with inside leg, (right leg). Make sure you have a nice rhythm, when you push stay in time with the canter.  This is leg yielding toward the leading leg. This is a very important part of the exercise because this builds respect for your leg cues and allows you to stop a lead change as well as ask for a lead change.

Again, what we do one way we do the other way, in other words reverse the exercise. So we will move our horse in counter canter into the left hand circle, the outside rein, now the right rein, will push your horse toward the inside of the circle, the leg holding the right lead will now be your left leg, now with rhythm push your horse back out to the outside of the circle with your left leg. Practice this until you, the rider, is smooth in the way you move your horse. Very important! Make sure you use your inside leg to move your horse out, not your inside rein!

Now your horse is in counter canter, moving off your leg and rein and travelling forward with a good rhythm and bounce in his stride. While doing the sequence written above, you have your inside leg on pushing your horse to the outside of the circle, when   you reach the outside of the circle, smoothly change your legs, by that I mean release the inside leg and lay the outside leg on, pushing the horses hip towards the inside of the circle. Think about pushing the hip in and forward, you will need to keep the horses shoulders upright with his front feet on the original tracks. Remember to keep drive and forward motion in your horse. Don’t give up if he doesn't change straight away just  keep your outside leg on and keep pushing his hip in.  I have had horses that got this straight away and some that took half a circle, others a whole circle. Horses are all different and learn at different speeds, just like us.  When he changes leads let him canter on relaxed and pat him. If he speeds up don't make a fuss about it, he's learning, when he is relaxed, stop him, let him air up, and repeat on the other side.

Note: not all horses can lead change easily, some are more natural than others. Changing in the front only is not half a lead change, it just means you need more work on moving the hips and shoulder control. Lead changing isn't hard, it takes co-ordination from the rider which helps the horses balance, and co-ordination. Also, when you have your lead changes, go back and practice everything before the lead change but don't change every time.  If you are in doubt about anything, or have never done a flying change before, I would recommend you seek out a good trainer to help you. The eyes and advice of a good trainer are invaluable.  You will find a trainer near you on the Reining Austraila web site.

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