Lead Changes
I want to do lead changes with my horse since im doing poles and barrels with him. I wont lope or anything faster than that yet because He will turn on sharp turns and Im afraid he will slip because his shoulder will fall in at a barrel. One time i did poles and he tried to go into a canter during the pattern and tripped and regained to a trot. How can i do lead changes. I cant do figure eights because he wont switch them in the middle.
Answers:okay, do simple lead changes with him. ask him to lope and when you are doing figure 8 when you get in the middle and need to change pull him down to a trot just for a moment then ask for the canter again. also when you do this you will notice your leg position and one leg will probable just slightly farther forward so switch your legs like scissor your legs so that the one that was forward is more behind and the other is in front. it will be the outside leg that needs to be forward more and probably will naturally be for balance. it will help your body move out of his way so that he actually can use the muscles needed to change. just do simple lead changes and everyonce in a while ask him do a normal change and if he doesnt or cant do it keep on doing simple lead changes.
i hope this helped you out:)
Well when doing figure eights you should start out by asking him to do a simple change in the middle of the eight - not automatically expecting him to lead change in the middle. Some horses are just really not capable of doing the flying changes - could be a musculature problem, or maybe a coordination thing - but I know plenty of horses that just have never been able to do them. Have you ever seen him doing them on his own? Like out in the pasture or anything?