Train for Western Riding

Lesson 9

Nancy Cahill

Copyright Ó 2009

When Things Go Wrong

Don’t Worry – Start Over

When you first try to teach the lead change many things can and will likely go wrong.

The horse will go too fast or too slow, or she’ll side-pass too far, or not far enough, or she’ll jump up or kick out during the change. All these things are pretty normal and are just a few of things that can go wrong.

Whenever you have these reactions, just stop and evaluate what might have gone wrong. Run a checklist in your head to decide what was missing at the time. Usually, you will have the same problem occurring on the same side.

You may need to side-pass at a standstill a few times to get the horse thinking about lateral movement. Or maybe the horse needs to back off of the bridle at a walk. Going back to a slower gait gives the horse a chance to think and it doesn’t hurt you to slow down as well.

Regardless of the problem--- the correct reaction for you is to start over!

When something happens, it is your responsibility to figure out what the horse did wrong, and then correct it without making the horse fearful.

When teaching lead changes, one of the most important things you do is avoid making the horse fearful about the changes. So take your time. Think about what actually went wrong — maybe it was you.

Make a plan of what to do to correct the mistake, and then follow the plan quietly and calmly.

A potential problem I’d like you to anticipate and correct before it happens is the horse running out of air.

Your horse may become short of breath due to the stress of learning and the physical exertion needed to perform — she’s doing most of the work.

You may not be trying to catch your breath, but you aren’t doing the work.

In order to avoid the problem, take plenty of rest breaks. Just stand quietly and give her time to relax and take a couple of deep breaths.

If you make several attempts to change the lead and get nowhere, then something is in need of repair. Maybe she wasn’t quite as ready for the change as you thought she was. Perhaps you don’t have enough control of her shoulder, rib or hip. Maybe you didn’t have her collected quite enough or your timing was off.

Stop and try to figure out what the problem was before trying again. A common issue at this point in the training is the horse having a tendency to not move away from your leg; instead, she is kind of leaning into it. To fix this, put your leg or spur (on that side) on her. Do it first at the standstill. Insist she move off your leg. Correct her and do it right away, then quit.

Put several seconds between the correction and the next move. Give the horse time to think. Be sure not to hurt her. You have to prove over and over again that you are not going to hurt her; at the same time she must understand that you will insist she comply. Try, try again.

An important thing to remember is that you can’t scold a horse at the lope when teaching lead changes. There is too much movement involved; she can’t tell what it is you are scolding her for.

Stop and ask for the movement you want at a standstill or walk, and scold if you don’t get it. Then, if you stop every time you make your corrections, she’ll soon begin to understand what you are correcting and what you are expecting.

As I’ve mentioned before, a horse has a good side and a bad side. However, I expect the horse to give me a good change from either side.

Sometimes if the horse is bad changing to the right, for example, I’ll counter-canter on the left lead and when she is getting tired, I’ll ask for the change to the right lead. She has two reasons now to make the change I want. First, she is tired of counter-cantering (which is hard), and second, she wants to be on the correct lead, which is easy and comfortable. So I set her up to decide to do what I actually want her to do.

Another problem that you will experience is your horse dropping the lead behind. That means when she changes, she changes the front lead but doesn’t change the back lead at the same time or at all. Fortunately, this is fairly easy to trouble-shoot.

Since it takes three elements to make the lead change happen, it is a lack somewhere in those elements that makes the lead change fail. So, you’ve only got three things to correct to make the change perfect.

For instance, say you are loping in the right lead and everything up to the very moment that you cued for the change was good. When you put the “change leg” on to change to the left lead, the horse failed to change behind. What might be the problem? It will usually have to do with the lateral or the elevation. If the horse didn’t remove enough weight off the outside (in this case, the left side), then her front end is basically in the way and she lacks the straightness necessary to make the change. Also, the horse may have lacked enough elevation and was so flat that the horse couldn’t thrust through the change.

Sometimes they just don’t come off of your leg, lacking the feel needed to move away from your leg.

Assignment:

1. What is the first you thing you should do if a lead change goes wrong?

Send your answer to: nancy.orders@gmail.com Please make sure your full name and email address is included.