This may just look like a boring video of a horse doing a single flying change, but if you've ever been in, as Janet Foy calls it, "flying change hell," you'll know it's a big deal.
The horse I'm riding here, Inolvidable, is a lovely Andalusian stallion owned by Walter and Judy Henslee of Rancho del Lago. He's been doing great in his training scoring well at 3rd level last year, but the one major hiccup has been this darn left to right change! It's been late behind, together behind, etc... While this one could jump through more behind, it's headed in the right direction!
Flying changes, at their core, are a good test of impulsion in the canter. If you've tried to train changes on an Andalusian, you know this movement can be a sticking point. Andalusians tend to have very quick hind legs, but quickness doesn't necessarily mean impulsion. Especially doing movements that can create excitement mentally in the horse like flying changes, they can "overheat" and get a bit frantic. When this happens, the canter will lose suspension, essentially dooming the flying changes. Many times, we have to depressurize this type of canter by coaxing a slower tempo out of them helping to create more suspension.
This is often in contrast to many warm bloods who may be a bit naturally slower behind with a longer canter stride. This type of canter actually needs to be quickened behind, without allowing the stride to go longer, creating a more pressurized canter, that bounds up more and is ready to pop a change.
Armed with this knowledge, it makes sense why I'm excited about this boring flying change. Now we just need to log about 500 more 😂 Good boy Inolvidable!
It's hard to focus with such adorable distractions!
Not bad Walk/Canter-Canter/Walk for a 4 yr old!
Reins in one hand! A great test of the correctness of the connection. Love my Lulu ❤️
I'm so proud of Heidi Collins and the work she's doing with her lovely young mare, Macarena! Heidi has been doing virtual lessons with me (she lives near Boise, Idaho) for about 2 months now.
When she first started with me, her mare was totally green, but now they're making great progress with every lesson instilling a good foundation of basics. Heidi came to me because she had a nice young horse but no experience training young horses.
It's so gratifying to guide riders like Heidi and help her make her mare a lovely riding horse that she has so much fun riding!!
If you have a horse that you need guidance with (any level and breed) and would like to work with an instructor that is respectful and compassionate to both horse and rider (no yelling or put downs!) send me a message and let's get a lesson set up!
