I have had the opportunity to teach numerous horses lead changes and also been on many horses that were pros at lead changes. My goal with writing you this is to give you an authentic point of view to the mistakes I made and also the great successes on even the hardest horses. I will explain in detail ALL the requirements of lead changes, what can go wrong, how to help a certain personality of horse and some random tips that come to my mind. I am not a writer, but, I feel it would be a shame for me to not share my countless hours training horses successfully. I hope that this will help anyone out that may be struggling through a problem with this movement.
PREPERATION
Whenever I start a horse with lead changes I make sure I have a number of movements confident in the canter. These things are going forward, collecting off the seat, counter canter, haunches in, shoulder in & out, leg yield off each leg and easy simple changes (walk canter, canter walk). You also need to be able to hold your body in position in the canter for each specific lead and have a seat that can stay steady/follow the horse.
THE BREAKDOWN OF THE CANTER AND YOUR AIDS
Most important before we get into the specifics of what your horse needs to know for lead changes is how the canter stride works and the position your body need to be in for the canter & lead changes.
When we ask for trot you always use your leg at the girth at the same spot to slightly squeeze and ask the horse to trot. Same thing for if you want more forward in the trot. The trot is a symmetric two beat gait. You use your legs symmetrically to influence the horse in the trot. The canter is an asymmetrical gait that is three beat. It is a rocking motion with a moment of suspension. The left lead canter is the right hind first then the left hind+the right front following with the left front then lastly the moment of suspension. The right lead is the left hind first, then the right hind+left front following with the right front then lastly the moment of suspension. When you see a horse canter the easiest way to spot if a horse is on the left or right lead is one side of the horses limbs will be more forward than the other side. If the horse is on the left lead the left hind and left front leg will be more forward than the right hind and right front. And, vise versa for the right lead.
When you aid a horse for canter you will need to be specific about what lead you want the horse on. So, if you want the left lead canter, you will need to have your left leg at the girth and your right leg slightly back behind the girth. You want to keep your upper body straight as you do this and make sure your hips are following the placement of your leg. I like to imagine my left hip coming towards the front of the saddle and my right hip going towards the tail for the left lead and vise versa for the right. You can imagine if you were working out and doing lunges the left lead would be as if you did a lunge with your left leg forward and your right leg behind you and vise versa for the right. This is an exaggeration of the placement but a good visual to think on. The leg placement is a really good place to start but also imagining your hip placement like this will really help you in the future for multiple lead changes. For the right lead we want the right leg at the girth and the left leg slightly behind the girth. The right hip forward towards the front of the saddle the left hip towards the tail.
WHAT YOUR HORSE SHOULD KNOW BEFORE YOU DO LEAD CHANGES
Your horse should be able to go forward easily in the canter towards a medium canter. It should not take 10 strides to make your horse go forward but rather it should take 2-3 strides to go easily forward from a squeeze by the lower leg.
Every person collects the horse or half halts a horse differently in the canter. It's ok to be unique and do what works for you. This is what has worked for me.... I like to engage my core and squeeze a little with my upper thigh/upper half to half halt or to collect a horse a few strides in the canter. The reason it is important for the horse to know how to collect a few stride in the canter from your seat/leg (or other cue besides your hands) is because that means that your horse is not relying on your hands to compress. The more refined you can get your half halt by using your seat the better attention your horse will give to you in preparation for the lead changes. In its basic form you need to use your seat, hips, thigh, lower leg and core to ask the horse to collect for a few steps and the minute you feel him sit a bit more behind while keeping the activity in the canter you need to reward the horse and relax. You use your hand to guide the horse and release at the point when your horse tries to listen to the seat. When you can do this the horse can use their back more freely in a half halt.
You will need the lateral work to make sure your horse will give you their body parts so you can line up the changes correctly and/or help fix the horse in the moment of the lead change if the horse becomes crooked. You need to make sure your horse easily moves off both your legs sideways, be able to do a shoulder in/out and a haunches in all available in each lead. You also need to be able to flex your horse easily on each rein
I make sure I can get simple changes (walk canter, canter walk transitions switching leads) in a straight or diagonal line in a dressage arena switching leads each time. If you can get three simple changes easy on a line the length of the dressage arena you know that your horse is coming back to you easily and also cantering and knowing which lead you want them on. I become very specific about how I want each simple change done. The horse needs to be able to canter off of a very light aid and walk off of a very light aid. The way I go about teaching the horse to be sensitive to both aids is by creating a path of least resistance for a horse to listen to a light aid.
One of the biggest mistakes I have made over the years is using too much lower leg and not enough seat bone even when just picking up the canter from the walk. How you pick up canter from the walk is how you are telling the horse you eventually want him to change. I never really thought I was using too much leg because I never used spur and it was only a light lower leg aid, but, what I realized over time is that you don't need to use much lower leg at all. I do use my thigh and upper calf to help out my seat bones. I do not have my lower leg off just draping along the horses side. Note: I have many horses in my barn that prefer only seat and a draping lower leg when changing the lead but there are some that like when I have more lower leg on. Play with it and see what your horse does best with.
THE MOMENT IN THE HORSES STRIDE THAT YOU SHOULD ASK FOR THE LEAD CHANGE
The easiest way to know the time you should ask for the change is when the mane is laying flat on the horses neck. This happens on the down beat of the canter stride. When the inside front leg hits the ground. This is because the next step of the stride is the moment of suspension. When the horse is in the moment of suspension then the horse can switch their lead. This is the moment the horse is in the air and has the opportunity to switch their legs to the new lead.
THE MAGICAL EXCERCISE I USE TO TEACH THE CHANGES
Starting at A in the dressage arena I do a half ten meter circle and let's start on the left lead. On the half ten meter circle you will be on the left lead in a shoulder out. Over center line walk and make sure your parallel to the short side then pick up right lead canter to do a half ten meter circle right in a shoulder out to the left. You keep continuing to practice this then try a lead change instead of a simple change. You are staying between the quarter lines of the arena.
On each half circle the horse should be rocked back, soft and keeping a jumping rhythm behind. The horse needs to be in a shoulder out on the circle so the inside hind leg is closest to the inside of the circle. It is really important that the horse respects the outiside aids as the horse is turning on the circle. A visual to think about is having the shoulder of the horse slightly to the outside of the circle line and the haunches slightly to the inside. The horse can be straight in the neck or a little bent to the outside. I say shoulder out to make it simple. You can play with this exercise until it's really easy to do a simple change in between. Then ask for a change. If the horse doesn't change in a few steps then just do a simple change. The moment they try to change reward them!
Remember to think shoulder out into the new lead when asking for the change! If you are on the left lead in a shoulder out then the second you change to the right lead and change directions you should the position in shoulder out the new way until the horse changes.
A LOT OF RANDOM TIPS
Tip #1 I wrote out a very systematic way of teaching lead changes for you to have the best chance at teaching your horse the changes, but, I ask for changes all the time without any preparation. I'll randomly just see if I can get one on a young horse. If they offer it I really reward them.
Tip #2 If a horse ever offers a lead change when you don't ask never make them feel wrong for it. Pet them, walk then pick up the lead you originally wanted them on. You want them confident about switching their lead. Remember, it's a much easier problem to fix if the horse accidentally changes on you vs a horse that won't change. You have a horse that has a much higher chance of making it to the upper levels if they feel confident, happy and relaxed about lead changes.
Tip #3 Every horse personality is different. Some horses are on the lazier side and some will be in the hotter side. Stay very calm and forgiving on both types of horses. You will just reward the different personality of horse differently. For example, if the lazy horse jumps a bit quicker in the canter and responds quicker to an aid you will reward that. For a sensitive horse you will really reward them for slowly responding to your aid without tension. Tension will cause so much upset in a horse.
Tip #4 Something I tell all my students is that tension blocks the energy and softness coming through the horses back. I like to tell my students to imagine a bridge on the horses back and that if there is tension the energy and softness through the back can't connect to the horses hind legs. The energy is blocked. There is no bridge with the free flowing, relaxed energy. Remember, if you make anything a big deal when training horse it becomes a big deal!
Tip #5 One of the most common things a horse will do when learning lead changes is buck or kick out. I don't get upset when a horse does this IF the horse tries to do the lead change. But, I do correct it as time goes on. The easiest way to correct this is to ask yourself which leg the horse kicked out to and make the horse yeild to that leg until they give you a better response. For example if the horse kicks out at your left leg then I would walk and yeild the horses hindquarters until the horse moves away from that leg. A turn on the forehand yeailding the hindquarters from that leg would be a good exercise. Essentially you are programming the horse that if they kick at a leg the pressure goes away when they yield and then there is a release. They will start to realize they need to soften their body to get the leg to come off rather than tense and kick to it.
Tip # 6 I have been told in the past that you never want to end on a lead change being late behind. I completely agree that you want to try not to. But, in the very beginning I don't worry about it. When the horse is confident about my aid for change, my magic exercise usually helps the horse get it from behind. The moment a horse offers a change from behind I make it a huge deal. In the Hunter/jumper world it's not as big of a deal for a horse to be half a stride late behind for the lead change but you really want to reward the dressage horse when they change from behind since that is required at shows.
FINAL TIP! The Magic Exercise is used to help the horse start the lead changes. I also use this exercise if I lose quality on the lead changes. Once the horse knows how to do the lead change I work on going straight. You will refine things as the horse learns and will not push the horse into a shoulder out. You will just ride straight. There are many, many exercises to get a horse to do lead changes. I encourage you to try all of them, this is just what has worked for me!
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