Jump your first flying change without pressure

There are many ways to teach your horse the flying change, the key is to find the one that fits your horse.

The flying change should never be made from pressure or force. It’s important to try and think about teaching it, not making it.

If you think to teach your horse to think the right thing before you ask the question, the execution of the flying change will come for free.

Even if your horse has never done it before.

In this blog I’ll tell you how I teach a young horse with a big canter, the flying change. Horses with a big canter usually have a tendency to make a big jump in the change and find it difficult to control.

When it comes to picking the right way to teach a flying change, it’s important to find out what kind of horse you have.

In the video below I explain what I mean with that and what different types of horses you may come across. Also, what different types of canters there are and how that can influence the horse’s ability to learn it.

I then go on to show you one way to teach the flying change. (You can find more ways in my online training program.)

The first step is to plant the seed. Start on the circle and choose a spot where you’re going to make a canter transition.

Try to feel which side goes easier than the other. In this horse’s case, his right canter felt easier than his left, so that’s where I start.

I first make transitions into the right canter from walk, repeating and rewarding the transition until it feels effortless and the idea of the horse to choose right canter.

It’s then that I know he is thinking right canter in his body and in his mind.

When you feel the canter comes easily, without much effort, you can move on to the next step

When your transition is solid and your horse responds well to the cluck, you can try to shift sides.

I switch rein and put my horse on a left canter on another circle, riding a figure eight right back to my canter transition spot.

I make an easy canter transition by slowing to walk and after a few steps, near the transition spot, I ask for the right canter.

Keep trying this and slowly reduce the amount of steps between the transitions, until there is no steps of walk only one canter to the other.

Be sure to give your horse plenty of breaks so they get the chance to digest the new things you’re teaching them.

When something went well, I often dismount and make that the end of the lesson, rewarding and patting the horse a lot to give him a sense of accomplishment.

Good luck!

If you want access to my new flying changes module, make sure to get my online training program TRT method.