Trainers' challenge - flying change

[suewhitmore]

Rider pre-requisites combined list


This group has a number of trainers posting, and the fact that you post denotes you are pretty articulate.

I am *really* bored with arguing about "classical" so I thought we'd get down to specifics.

I'm going to give you a training scenario, and I would like you to write down exactly how you would instruct the rider. It would be better if other people could resist saying "What do you mean" or "No, do it this way or that way" until everyone has defined their method.

You get extra points for overall brevity. Lets see how many descriptions we can get by midnight on Sunday, and if there are enough, we'll start the discussion. BTW, I've barred Heather and Trudi until then, as our coven has already conferred!

You have an advanced novice rider who you are going to teach to perform flying change. You can tell me what you understand or expect that standard to imply, i.e. the rider pre-requisites. The rider has *not* performed this movement before.

The horse is a fully trained schoolmaster, and if asked correctly will perform the movement easily. You are in a 40 x 20 indoor school with a good surface. In other words, everything is perfectly set up for success.

You have one sentence only to describe setting the horse up for the movement. The rest of your explanation must consist of detailed instructions/explanations to the rider.

[MirandaSophie]

Ok, I've never taught flying changes befre..


My rider knows about bend and collection / lengthening and can ride them all correctly

First of all, I would demonstrate, preferably on the same horse. First time, i would ask the rider to watch, then i would ask them what they saw, then I would explain what i did and do it again, hwile exaplinging at the same time...if that makes sense?

Then, I would get my rider back on board and ask for a collected canter. To start with, I would haev them going across the long diagonal, in the center, coming back to trot, picking up canter on the other lead on the 3rd stride, to get used to changing the bend and make sure the rider sits tall and deep etc...but also to make sure the rider has nice control and can count the strides well.

When able to do that well, coming from both reins, I would have them canter over a pole, as a kind of visual aid.
When they are able to do that, i would take the pole away.

[suewhitmore]

Miranda,

You get 50 extra points for having the courage to be the first one to reply, but riding the horse is not allowed! You are training the rider, not the horse. (In fact, many senior teachers would not even be dressed for riding if it was a teaching day.) It's the explanation of the aids that we're after. You also get 10 extra points for brevity.

I am not going to break my own rules and discuss your explanation - that will come on Sunday or Monday.

But well done for posting!

[Susan]

Well Sue this is very interesting, especially as I am not a trainer, but I have watched so many lessins over the years of conventional trainers for my daughter and experienced many lessons of my own.
But here I go..
the 1st Mark Rashid clinic I attended with Casper and June..he had this rider come in to the arena and in normal Mark calm quiet manner asked the rider what she wanted to work on that day.
Her answer was to teach her horse flying changes.
Well Mark says again in his quiet calm manner, horses dont have to be taught very much at all, without us they can do everything and make a pretty good job of it as well.
But what we need to do is be able to cue them in a way they understand the question and allow them to do it.
If you think about it, a horse in a field or anywhere loose, if it is cantering along and wants to go the other way, change the rein as we call it, they simply do that! no fuss at all, they change legs and do it.
So we have to find a way to allow that and ask..It is so simple.

Ok lets gets started. I would suggest you start cantering around in that area and he meant a 20 mtr circle on the left rein.. then I will ask you as you come across the centre ( we would possible suggest X, simply look across to the other direction and ride the circle on the right rein. It is as simple as that.
He asked the rider to start and she was riding a nice 20 mtr circle in canter on the left rein, and then as she rode across X she looked the other way to the right rein and the horse simply changed legs (a flying change) and continued on the right rein. It was awsome to watch.
He got her to continue on the righjt rein and do the same as she came across X and look left and the horse simply went left changing legs as it did it.
Nothing difficult, nothing complicated and of course allowing the horse to move and do it.

If you come to Junes and watch Marcelo her Argintine groom ride he will do the same. he gets flying changes easily.

Obvously we could go into complicated reasoning but it is the balance of the rider and weight distribution which become the cues.
I want to go left, I want to go right.
In polo they might bring in the neck rein to aid the cue but nothing is complicated about it at all.
So to teach the rider is simple, ask them to look the way they want to go and allow.

I could not have answered earlier some of us have work to do!! LOL

[MirandaSophie]

Dash it...I guess I've done really badly then lol ! What are the marks out of, Sue ?

Thank you (did it come across that I was scared then?!)

Darn for not being able to ride, in that case, i would do what I did with Ginge (but I wasn't doing flying changes lol) I would demonstrate fromt he ground-canter my own line etc.

Wow Susan, that sounds great. May I try it ?

[suewhitmore]

Susan,

Thanks for that. About a three for brevity (I'll a score zero ;D), ten extra points for finding time to post, and no discussion of the technique until Sunday or Monday!! ETA/ And 10 extra points for acknowledging your source.

Miranda, I'll decide on the content marking when I see some more content .....
The basic areas are rider pre-requisites, horse set up, aids, and explanation. Probably mark each out 25.

[suewhitmore]

BTW, here's a clue
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqDWqBREeo4

[jonswager]

Nothing of any use to add i,m afraid, just wanted to say i,m watching this thread with great interest!
I think i might even learn something ;D ;D ;D

[thelwall78]

Firstly I'd say, can you tell me what you understand by a flying change?

And hopefully they'd say something like, the horse changes legs/canter lead and they might even tell me they want it to happen during the moment of suspension during a canter stride.

Then I might ask them to run through the aids for left canter for me, and they'd hopefully say that they had their inside leg on the girth, their outside leg slightly behind with a slight inside bend of the neck/poll, the riders inside shoulder up and back and they might mention their hips being in alignment with their legs - ie that the inside hip was slightly forward (god I hope I've got that right - am sticking my neck out now) also if they didn't mention it I would tell them to look a quarter of a circle ahead of where they were going as that's something I am going to use when telling them how to change the lead.

Then I'd say, ok when you're cantering a 20m circle on the left rein, just before X I'd like you to prepare the horse by doing a half halt and holding yourself tall with your tummy, then change your aids - the most important being to look a quarter of a circle in front of you in the new direction you want to go.

In short (as I could feel my brevity points slipping) the aids for a flying change is to half halt, look where you want to go and gently change your canter aids to the opposite way that they were. (No mad leg swinging or swivelling required!)

Um... and I am sitting in my chair trying to get it to do a flying change as I type... I'm a saddo

[geeup]

well I know absolutly nothing about flying changes at all, so if I had to teach it I would instruct the rider to experiment by cantering on the correct leg, then give the aids to canter on the other bend, we'd together access if it was right or not! Then try changing one thing at a time like weight, hands, seat bones, and see what happens. I'd call out what it looks like, they'd answer what it feels like and we'd all go home in histerics. The horse would just sigh!

Crap arnt I! ;D

[suewhitmore]

Thelwall, did the chair do it tho? That's what I want to know! ;D You can have 8 for brevity, and 8 for courage.

Geeup, 10 for brevity, 6 for courage.

Jonswager, I think we are getting somewhere. You get specatator points of 40 for encouragement.

ETA I've decided to also award geeup a bonus of 5 points for being the sort of person it would be fun to learn with.

[lohan]

pre-requisites of the horse should all be met as the horse is a schoolmaster.

pre-requisite of the rider is the ability to 'feel' the stride / know where the feet are in order to time the aids (this should already be ingrained at this level)

Setup the horse on a balanced, relaxed circle.

To The Rider:
Do not unbalance the horse into changing lead - it wont be smooth, relaxed or comfortable.

The grounded inside leg prior to suspension is the cue to ask for the change. Coming from a left lead, change flexion from left to right. Invert the aids - slide inside leg back, outside leg forward, shift weight.

Through the change of aids, don't try to encourage the change by using your body. Stay upright and do not look at the stride to see if it changed! Let the change happen underneath you. Remain subtle and precise.

Turn your brain off and feel it happen. Lots of things are happening quickly so don't think about them, just feel them.

[geeup]

yippee I'm finnally not last at something! ;D

[Casper]

Echo everything Susan said - well we are both Mark devotees! And would just add that the rider needs to do a sharp inhale and exhale as the near hind leaves the floor - assuming the change is going from a near side lead to an off side lead. Reversed if going the other way...

Saw this at Kingswood Demo last year - where the changes where so big the horse nearly kicked himself in the tummy. Previously he wouldn't do anything.

Everything should be low key and the rider should stay out of the horse's way. All we are asking is something they could freely and easily do when loose in the field.

[arabheaven]

im not a trainer and have only ridden a flying change tqice but i will have a go. i havent read anyone else's posts as dont want to get confused or cheat so... heres my go!!

firstly, i would ensure the rider understand simple canter transitions (inside leg on girth, outside leg behind, outside rein supports, inside rein softens, slight inside bend through horse and rider's body)

with this established on both reins, i would set up a pole at x

i would discuss witht he rider the use of the aids as signals to the horse. on a right rein canter, the right fore 'leads' and similarly on left rein, the left fore leads. a flying change is like the horse skipping onto the opposite leading leg in canter when given the signals to do so so the horse can canter on the left rein on left fore lead but 'flying change' to a right fore lead when signalled to do so.

how do we signal to do so?

well i would ask the rider to canter a 20m circle on the left rein, going over the pole at x, saying 'now' aloud at 'takeoff' (going over the pole)

once established, i would ask the rider to go over the pole at x on a 20m left circle in canter again, but as she/he 'takes off' (now) i would ask the rider to look right, shift her weight/seatbones to the right (outside left hip forward, inside right hip back) and aids to give a right rein canter (opposite inside leg on girth etc.,)

this would be to demonstrate the important use of the aids and weight shifting.
with this established, i would remove the pole, ask the rider to ride a figure of 8 and at x (the takeoff now point) do exactly the same 'changing aids' signal, to signal the horse to change lead



ive probably made nooo sense at all but it works in my head LOL ;D