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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 503
| I have a seven year old gelding I've been trying to finish out for awhile now, but I want him broke before I start running him hard. I have him collecting (true collection - lifting the back, roundness, etc.) sidepassing, spinning (just because it's fun), counter arcing, rollbacks and have control of his body parts, etc. He knows what he's doing on the pattern and CAN run. Now here's my question - when we do slow work, he won't change his leads unless I break him down to the trot but he'll do a flying lead change when running. Should I be focusing on making him do a flying lead change when we do our slow work or... If it ain't broke don't fix it? Think it will cause problems later if I don't teach it correctly now even though he's doing it fine at faster speeds? |
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 Expert
Posts: 1210
 
Location: Kansas | My 14 year old mare won't change leads doing slow work and will take the second in the wrong lead if I let her. Completely different story when actually running. |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
 
Location: MD | none of mine ever will change on their own during slow work until the run. I don't know why, but they always change unless it's a bad day. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | When I'm doing pattern work, I never let them "turn" a barrel on the wrong lead. But I do not stress the lead changes at a slow lope. I'll break them down to a trot as often as I need to on their slow work. Most of them come around on their own, in their own time. They figure out it's easier to turn a barrel on the correct lead and start swapping before the turn, especially when you speed it up a bit. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | Don't sweat it. I don't teach mine a flying changes before patterning, and have only had one horse that had issues swapping on his own. My finished gelding can do a nice clean simple change, half halt and pick it up on the next stride, but I can't get him to flying change front and back at once without using a whip to motivate his butt. We're playing with it for fun, but it's not necessary. He changes fine running barrels. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 503
| Thanks for the replies! |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| BamaCanChaser - 2014-10-03 8:39 AM
When I'm doing pattern work, I never let them "turn" a barrel on the wrong lead. But I do not stress the lead changes at a slow lope. I'll break them down to a trot as often as I need to on their slow work. Most of them come around on their own, in their own time. They figure out it's easier to turn a barrel on the correct lead and start swapping before the turn, especially when you speed it up a bit.
^^ Yup. My finished good mare is LAZY as hell during slow work and I have to break her to a trot to get 'em. However, she KNOWS when it is time to run and has no problems what so ever changing :) |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I do a simple change with all of mine during slow work, and they always change leads on their own during a run. They can do flying changes just fine in a figure 8 or something, but doing a flying change at a lope on a straight away just isn't something I've ever really focused on. |
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 Ms Bling Bling Sleeze Kitty
Posts: 20917
Location: LouLouVille, OK | I wouldn't worry about it, pick another battle...lol
I had a horse that when I slow worked him I would tip every time... but when I went faster didn't... so I asked a friend of mine ( who won the world btw) what I should do... her answer.... Don't go slow Cindy.... lol problem solved...lol and that horse I could do absolutely anything with! |
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