DefinitelyDressage.com

Ok, I'll start with the good news. My 11 yr old 17.1h Friesian/Perch gelding is finally doing changes!!

This is a long-ish post, so please bear with me.

The background:

In the summer of 2015, it seemed a like a pipe dream that he'd ever get connected enough to change behind. He always changed in front only, even in the pasture, and he got very good at cantering disunited instead of changing. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't asking all the time and I wasn't promoting a disunited canter. It's just when I asked - which was infrequent at best (because of this issue) - he simply would not change behind, at all, ever. I felt that I'd be destined to stay at Second Level forever on this horse.

So, my awesome instructor has helped me with this, and as of the spring/summer of this year, he was actually getting the idea. We used a variety of exercises to help him out, and he slowly went from NOTHING behind to late behind (which, I suppose, is the same as nothing behind which is a form of late behind). Then he started changing closer to cleanly or at least late but catching up within a stride or two, especially his right change (easier side).

The left change was still difficult, though, and his solution to my requests was to start giving these animated buckety-bucks and then change. They were not misbehavior bucks, they were clearly him sorting out how to manage his (rather large) hind end, and even more importantly they were evidence that he was trying to figure things out. He has two distinct bucks: the pre-change buckety-bucks, and the "piss off" or "too much energy" bucks. He isn't a bucky kind of horse most of the time, but in the last few months with his ever-increasing levels of fitness and with the work on his flying changes, the bucky-ness has become more prevalent.

The issue:

This evening when I rode him he was rather full of it but I made use of his energy to get some nice medium trot transitions and some walk pirouettes and a couple of mini half-step sessions. I figured I'd try the changes and he gave me a clean one both ways on the first attempt (normally, I still get one or two late changes before I get a clean one, so this was really super)! Woo hooo!

But, they didn't happen without a HUGE pre-change buck first. It was one of his biggest to date, and it had me right out of the tack. Thankfully I was lined up and balanced to land back in the tack! This buck was his most energetic yet. And, a bit worrisome (he's a big, powerful horse and I sure felt that power! LOL).

Much if not all of this is coming from him starting to anticipate the changes. My instructor has suggested an exercise to help with this where I canter to the long diagonal, adjust the canter for the change but then halt. I then promptly pick up the same lead as before the halt, and after 2-3 canter steps ask for the change. I did that this evening and he changed cleanly and very nicely in both directions. I stopped after one clean change either way and made a big fuss (which he loves!).

I recognize that this horse is not bred to canter much less to do flying changes, and I recognize that he is truly trying and is a very willing & obedient partner most of the time. What I'm wondering is how others have dealt with this sort of "flying changes exuberance", for lack of a better descriptor! I want to honor his "I'm trying" attitude, but I also want to stay in the saddle!! LOL

(P.S. I'm over the moon that this is a problem at all -- I truly doubted that he'd ever sort out his hind end to manage a flying change!)

Congratulations! I'd call this really significant progress, and I'm happy for you both that you are able to recognize each of these imperfect stages as moving in the right direction. He probably feels he needs more air-time in order to get all 4 feet sorted in a single moment of suspension, so he's working out how to do that. Therefore any exercises you can do that will increase his lift and suspension in canter will help him. Improving the changes at this point does not necessarily require practicing the changes themselves.

I have found that once flying changes are developing, perfecting simple change through halt is a huge key. Canter halt canter halt canter halt, three or four times on a diagonal or center line, mixing up which ever lead. you can go LLR or LRLR or RRR or LLL or RLR to avoid anticipation, develop straightness and the horse anticipating the correct thing, ie preparedness, not the change. then you can substitute any one of the simple changes for a flying change.

eventually this exercise develops well to introduce tempis

I had almost this exact problem with Willie when we started teaching him the changes. His were never late, but we needed to help him by tapping on the new inside with the whip and kicking changes turned to bucking changes in short order. I was told that fixing the bucking/kicking always doable and to not panic. It took about 3 months to quiet things down. It's a toss up for the horse if riding more changes helps or riding one good change in each direction and then rewarding helps - Willie was the latter until he got the idea.

So, the things that helped - keep the canter very small and very active. Think crow-hoppy feeling. Basically, you want to lessen the amount of space the new inside hip has to travel to make the change happen - this is for late changes as well. What you need for this, canter, collected canter, canter transitions.

Ride the canter down behind - part of this is making sure that the canter is sat down and small to make it easier, and I found myself instinctively lightening my seat to protect my back from the inevitable jarring that would occur. When I sat correctly, he was less likely to kick out/buck.

Demi-volte to hp, then change into the wall - this exercise was huge for us. I don't know if your horse has started on working pirouettes at all, but this exercise was a game-changer. Basically, regular canter down the long side. Demi-volte (either in haunches in or just a volte depending on what your horse is schooling, half pass to the wall, as for the change as you come up to the wall. Why it worked, really, really engaged the haunches and again, kept the canter stride neat and tidy and small so that he only had to do a small movement to bring the new inside hip up. If your horse isn't half passing in canter yet, then I recommend making the change either along the wall or as you are approaching the wall to put up a mental barrier for the horse. Things get less exuberant if they are not in free space across the diagonal.

Good luck!

Sounds like you are definitely on the right track.
My guy does bucky things during the change (only one side) and it took my instructor to get on and feel what was going on, and then some active riding to change what my horse was doing.
Yours sounds like it's the anticipation or him feeling he needs extra power to do the change?

I've seen recommendations to fix this two ways:

To fix anticipation of the change for me and my horse, I was told to do changes every ride until they became no big deal. One clean one each direction and leave them be.

For a haffie that did a lot of bucking, the exercise was HP quarterline to the rail in counter canter and then ask for the change right as the shoulder hit the rail. They did some rail to center line HP too. Basically, the mental exercise of the HP reduced the anticipation of the change and helped maintain the collection in the canter.

There are some good tips in this thread from last year: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=708

I've got a Tale of Two Horses with regards to bucking in the changes:
Horse 1: Big tall long 17.3h Dutch Harness-bred gelding. Very naturally "hocky", I think they call it, but I had a difficult time keeping all the pieces together. His bucking in the changes went away when I did big forward galloping canter into changes. The more I compressed the canter, the more disconnected his hind end got, and the more gymnastic effort he required to get a clean change (i.e. bucks for days). To this day I still mentally think of asking for changes from medium canter.

Horse 2: Short squatty short-coupled pony. Her natural go-to when you put the leg on is to cycle her legs faster, so adding a big forward canter added extra issues with getting the clean changes without dramatics. Her bucking changes faded away when I a) clarified the canter rhythm so that I never asked from anything but a great uphill canter, and b) introduced quarter-pirouettes and did changes out of a near-pirouette canter. She's a horse that needs to be stacked over her hind end to give a quality change.

I've also had a lot of success with [exercise] change leading to another exercise (halfpass, pirouette steps, etc.). Basically it shows them that the change itself isn't such a big deal, they need to be prepared for the next movement.

Thanks for all of the input & suggestions so far.

The weather here has been crappy for riding (blizzard on Sunday-Monday and I only have an outdoor arena), so I wasn't able to ride again until this evening. I tried a 10m half-circle at the canter to HP back to the rail, and when his canter felt maximally active (about 3-4 steps of HP) I asked for the change. First was the left change and ... CLEAN with no bucking! I then repeated the pattern in the opposite direction and ... CLEAN with no bucking! Woo hoooo!

Flight wrote:Yours sounds like it's the anticipation or him feeling he needs extra power to do the change?

This is definitely what's going on most of the time, but sometimes he's just pissed off I think! LOL

Yay!!
I just rode my guy down the road and he gave me 2 clean changes on his bad side! He has extra energy and I have more room to get it sorted I think.
Let's hope they keep it up

As an update, it's now many months later and I'm so pleased to report that in my last lesson (last weekend), we attempted five flying changes. Two left, three right (left is his hard side). And, for the first time EVER, he gave me five clean changes!! None of them were late behind ... NONE!!!

Oh my goodness, I was (and still am) flying high with so much happiness!! Changes are the #1 thing holding this horse back from moving to Third Level, and higher. And, he's figuring it out!!

Happy, happy, happy!!! I'll try to post a short video of one or two of the changes once I get it uploaded.

Doin' the happy dance for ya, DJR, but I am a tad jealous.

A couple of things: make sure the horse is more forward (think medium canter since the standard of collection is reduced for changes), and keep the horse up and open. Also, do counter canter and change at the end of a long side; or even do changes from true canter to cc at the end of a longside (also sets the horse up for tempi).

galopp wrote:A couple of things: make sure the horse is more forward (think medium canter since the standard of collection is reduced for changes), and keep the horse up and open. Also, do counter canter and change at the end of a long side; or even do changes from true canter to cc at the end of a longside (also sets the horse up for tempi).

We just started introducing changes on the long side. It helps a lot with straightness. The main thing for Jet is to have the hind leg activated (which is no small feat to accomplish) so that he changes through. So, I have to keep the canter moving forward, but not at all strung out (again, no small feat!). He's definitely understanding what the aid means now and is trying SO hard to get it. He's tries so hard for me, it's heartwarming!

That's a great update DJR. I think the bucking stage is pretty normal, but I'm sure it's nice to have "graduated" to a new set of challenges

Congratulations Deanna, that's awesome! It must be such a wonderful feeling.