Happy Saturday! I hope you all are planning some weekend fun with your horses! On weeks when I am not too busy, I am going to start adding a Saturday video! Today’s video is on introducing the flying change.
The flying changes can be one of the most difficult things to teach the horse. While a flying change is a natural movement for a horse, getting the horse to do the flying change on command is really tricky. The horse must first feel and understand the aid from the rider for the change, and then organize all 4 legs in mid-air to land in the new lead. A lot has to happen in a split second for the horse to get the flying change. It is common that when teaching the flying change, the horse will run off, buck, throw their head up, only change in front and not behind, or do nothing and just keep cantering.
In this video I demonstrate an exercise to teach the flying changes. This exercise is particularly useful for a horse that anticipates the flying change or wants to run off and take over during the change!
