Teaching "flying" lead changes

We are mostly ready for third level, except that we are missing flying changes. (OK, we also need better SI, and a real extended trot and canter, a legit TOH instead of a reining spin, and Taran STILL doesn't back, but whatever. Focus on the important stuff here.)

Fun fact - I've been riding almost 30 years, and I've never learned how to do a change. I mean, I know how to do them *in theory*, but I've never actually done one. I can ask for leads over fences, but the closest I've gotten to doing a change on the ground was last summer on a friend's horse, and then I only got the front. Taran doesn't have a clue how to do them either, so together we are obviously going to be awesome at this and get everything the first time. Har har har.

It never ceases to amaze me how many hunters have such amazingly easy, clean, smooth changes even as very young horses. In the dressage world, the thought seems to be that you need to have a really solid counter-canter (it's ALL OVER second level) before you teach a change - in part because horses who know how to change will sometimes flip when asked for counter-canter, because changing is easier. However, I've also heard of folks (ahemCharlotteahem) putting changes on a 5 or 6 year old and then leaving them alone for several years. Regardless, both T and I are way behind the curve here.

There seems to be lots of ways to teach changes. Figure 8 with canter/walk/canter is popular. I watched Alfredo teach them by doing canter/counter canter/canter on a 20 m circle. You can leg yield down centerline and ask for the change right when you make your turn. You can use a pole on the ground. I'm sure there are plenty more, too.

The thing is, Taran has gotten VERY GOOD at counter-canter. Like he can do a 10 m half-circle in cc. To him, a more balanced cc is always the right answer. That made my amateur attempts to try changes rather comical - he had no idea what I was doing flailing around up there, and simply tried his best to do what he thought I wanted. So we did a lot of very very collected counter-canter, and I lamented my lack of knowledge and thought that maybe I'd trained CC a leeetle too much.

Enter the pole. I had tried using it at home, and we'd gotten 3 nice changes over it, but I wanted to wait for my trainer before I did any more. So at our clinic last weekend, on the first day we worked a ton on getting more jump in the canter, and then we got out a pole.

It's probably important to mention that Taran is not much of a jumper. I can count on one hand the number of times he's been over a jump in his 15 years, and none of them were more than logs or crossrails. He's skeptical about jumping at best, and at worst will refuse to cross a downed fence pole that's 6 inches off the ground, despite there being a pasture full of green grass on the other side.

So. As we cantered down (shoulder UP!) to the pole for the first time, I focused on keeping my aids super clear with a tiny bit of shoulder fore, then straightening him and switching my aids, like I was asking for a walk-canter transitions the moment I was over the pole.

I should have known that a pole on the ground apparently needs A Great Deal Of Respect. 

Definitely got the "flying" part of the change. My trainer nearly fell out of her chair laughing, because she's helpful like that.

We got the change despite Taran's overachieving leap, so we made a huge fuss of him and quit for the day on that.

For some reason, day 2 Taran warmed up super spicy. This meant he spooked at EVERYTHING.

HOLY SHIT THERE'S A FLAT SPOT IN THE ARENA. Not even joking, this was where someone had left a few footprints while they were mucking.

He shook his head when I asked him for some leg yield (omg!), and even pretended to buck when I tapped him with the whip to ask for a bigger medium trot.

You should be impressed with how naughty he was.

BUT, his shorter steps (think precursor to half steps) work was SUPER good. He's really getting the hang of sitting down a bit, and I'm getting better at asking for it with my seat/body while keeping my hands light and forward-thinking. Actually feeling collection is kind of an amazing thing, y'all.

We also put in some killer shoulder in to trot half-pass. Ok, our SI on the center line still looks drunk - there are a lot of body parts to keep track of and you can't use the rail for support (not that I would ever do that, of course). But our half pass felt legit! It's so easy to get the haunches leading and/or let him fall over his shoulder, so I'm slowly coming to understand that half pass requires a ton of inside leg. More stuff to work on, but a good start!

Annd then we went on to do changes. Once again, the pole required a healthy dose of respect because it's actually an alligator or something.

The commentary from the peanut gallery (aka my trainer and my dearest darling husband) is amusing and worth the 18 seconds to hear. But if you don't want to watch the video, here's the important still:

Probably you shouldn't see knees and feet flailing when practicing lead changes.

He was late behind on that change and uh, expressive up front, but you can see how he really gets lighter on his forehand two strides out. Good boy! The next pass through he offered a change (front only) about 3 strides out from the pole, which we gave him a lot of pats for because it's the first time he's tried to change in his entire life. We came over the pole a few more times, and he got the change every time, so we ended on a really good one:

My trainer assures me they won't be so... expressive... without the pole. But still! It's a solid start, and using a pole lets me work on timing my aids, and practicing my two-point. And here I thought my jumping days were a thing of the past!

Shoulder in is hard, and I suck at it

We've been breaking down the pieces of second level in my regular weekly lessons. Sometimes it seems like there are so many things to work on, we'll never get through them all and be able to put together a decent test. Last time it was canter/walk/canter transitions, this time it was shoulder in.

I don't know why SI is so hard. It's like a leg yield down the rail, but not, because you're on 3 tracks instead of four. So you kind of have to keep your outside leg on so that the haunches don't escape, but not too much or you'll end up straight. You need bend, but not too much or your horse will just fall on his outside shoulder, and/or you'll shut down the inside hind (and you neeed that inside hind because that's what's doing all the carrying work in SI). 

Speaking of falling out on his shoulder because I'm pulling his head to the inside...

Annnnd again...

Bonus if you pull on the inside rein to get that bend, because nothing shuts down the inside hind like pulling on the inside rein. In fact, sometimes it shuts down the inside hind so much that you just end up with the neck bent and the rest of the horse straight.

Like this

Or this

Nope, still going straight. ARGH!

Taran has just given up on interpreting my cues and is just trotting nicely because he's good at that.

Maybe a tiiiiny bit of shoulder fore?

The most common way to school the shoulder in is from a 10 m circle or volte. But tracking right, I often fail to ride the last quarter of the circle, so T throws his haunches in and shoulders out, which is basically a recipe for how NOT to set yourself up for success. So instead we did a 12 step program for shoulder in:

• Turn onto the quarter line (because if we're on the rail, I forget to use my outside leg and let the rail do my job for me).
• Get him straight. Straighter. STRAIGHTER. Maybe a step or two of leg yield to engage that inside hind.

A step of leg yield. This we can do.

• When he is REALLY REALLY straight, move BOTH hands to the inside. Your hands control the position of his shoulders.
• Turn your shoulders to the inside so that they are even with the angle of your hands.
• (Note: the rest of this is theoretical. I sort of flop around and lean and collapse and flail.)

I don't even know what I'm doing here. Poor Taran.

• Apply inside leg to keep the bend and engage the inside hind.
• Apply your outside thigh to push his shoulders to the inside.
• More inside leg.
• MOAR.
• Don't forget your outside leg.
• Check your angle. 

WAAAY too much angle. Also, nice job leaning.

Still too much angle (4 tracks), but hey, Taran is straighter! (Unlike me)

STILL too much...

Nope.

• Don't forget to straighten before you run out of arena.

I finally gave up and we went to a walk to try to get it sorted. I'm just not fast enough with all the body parts to make it work at a trot yet. It also helped when we changed direction, because he's WAY better to the left. I was able to feel what we were going for and then apply it to going right.

Straighter (both of us), AND (mostly) on three tracks. You can see how hard the inside hind has to work here and why you want to avoid shutting it down.

Getting the hang of it!

Maybe?

We need about a million more lessons on this so I can get the feel of what's correct, and I need a LOT of practice setting him up - and sitting correctly - to make it happen.

What are YOUR favorite tips for riding a good shoulder in?