𝟖 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐅𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

Flying lead changes can oftentimes be a vexing part of training a horse, to help combat that, I have prepared a list of all the prerequisites to complete before attempting a flying lead change. Each of the exercises listed are specific to improving body control as well as increasing the strength to a flying lead change at speed. Some of the exercises in this list will not be so imperative for certain horses, and may be the only thing that works for another. Despite that, it would be wise to go through every exercise listed to provide a thorough education to the horse.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟖 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬:

𝟏. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠

This is also known as a turn on the forehand. The horse’s shoulders will remain somewhat still while the haunches turn around the shoulders. The reverse of a spin. Teaching disengaging is important to help the horse learn how to move his haunches around in the simplest possible manner. With time, they will learn to utilize that skill and move their haunches in more complicated maneuvers.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? Start by walking around slowly. Ride the horse in a comfortable, resting position. Your toes should be visible. To disengage to the right, take your left toe back and out of your sight. Put pressure with your left calf on the horse’s 1. Do not move your foot too far back. If the horse does not respond to the pressure from your calve, use your spur. This will incentivise listening to the first, subtler signal. As soon as the horse moves his hip with some hustle, release all pressure on that leg. It is a good idea to do this exercise with the forward motion of walking around, this is because the horse can move his hip only a few steps and walk out again. This is great for helping horses to not overthink. By walking before and after the exercise, the exercise becomes less significant and serves to prevent overthinking. This can be very nice for hotter or insecure horses. With time, expect more steps of disengaging and eventually try to do so from a standstill. Sometimes when cueing disengaging, to help the horse isolate the movement to their haunches, use your reins. When disengaging to the right, the horse may benefit from a light tug on the left rein to keep his shoulders a little more planted and out of the way of his haunches. Shoot for disengaging without the use of the reins over time.

𝟐. 𝐋𝐞𝐠 𝐘𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐬

This is the simplest and first side movement any horse should learn. Leg yields are a side movement in which the horse wraps around the rider’s leg. For a leg yield to the left, the horse will move off the rider’s right leg by yielding his ribs. The horse will be moving to his left, leading the movement with his ribs and following with his shoulders and haunches. He will essentially wrap around the leg administering pressure to his sides. The shape of his body from a bird’s eye view will be similar to a C. Leg yields are important because it lays the groundwork for supple sides. A horse that understands how to really get off your legs will be better equipped for more complicated maneuvers in addition to developing security in intimidating and/or jarring maneuvers.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? Start by walking in a circle. Due to the inherent bend in a leg yield, it is wise to start working on the maneuver from a circle to help the horse stay bent the entire time. With time, you may work on leg yields on the straight. When in your circle, tuck the horse’s head. When his head is soft and flexed nicely, he will be primed to accept pressure and move around in a more pliable fashion. If the horse is not giving his head, bump the left and right rein over and over until he does. It is imperative he give his head, even if it's only a little.

Put your leg on the side of the horse, do not move your leg back or forward. Do not arch your back and kick, just put a bit of pressure on your horse’s side with your calf. Your leg will stay in the same area as when it was resting. If the horse does not move off your calf, use your spur. Release as the horse moves off your leg. Ideally the horse will move his ribs away and yield. If he does not yield, use the reins. The reins can be used to keep the horse’s head really bent towards the circle as you push with your inside leg to move out of the circle in a leg yield. This can help the horse learn to bend. Sometimes the horse may throw or raise his head, to fix that use the outside rein. As the horse learns to move off your leg in the leg yield, work to develop lightness and consistency. With time, you should be able to do this from a standstill or on a straight. This is an exercise to work on as part of your warmup, even for a finished horse.

𝟑. 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬-𝐈𝐧

Remember how disengaging is the simplest way to move the haunches? Haunches-In is a level up. Haunches-In will teach a horse to move their haunches and engage them. In addition to mobility/body control, haunches-in is largely a strength training exercises. Essentially when the horse is moving in a straight line, his haunches are pushed over to the side. His shoulders still face forward, remain straight, and continue moving forward. The hips also travel forwards, the only different is that they are pushed out to the side a bit. When viewing a horse doing haunches-in from the front, they do 4 tracks. Each of their feet has a respective track. For haunches-in to the left, the order of tracks would be front right, front left, back right, back left. It is important to shoot for 4 tracks. Doing 3 is not adequate.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? Cueing haunches-in is simple, it is very similar to disengaging. Walk in a straight line against a fence, in this example the fence will be on your right side. Bring your right foot back a tad and push the hips over. At the same time, ask for a little collection with the reins and keep the horse’s head from turning right. A very slight tip of the nose to the left would be ideal as the haunches move over. Hold it for a couple steps then release. Walk out STRAIGHT for a while and do not do loopty loops or another exercise right away. Doing this allows the horse to digest the training exercise exclusively. It is important to start this on a fence to help force the horse to keep walking instead of turning around and stalling. Haunches-in can also be worked in circles and during transitions with time. Having masterful control of both will be a quick ticket to flying lead changes comparable to those of a grand prix horse. Work to build softness and being able to hold it longer with time. There is a lot of hind, back, and stromache engagement that is needed of the horse to properly do this exercise. It can be equated to a human doing a plank exercise, so do not hold them in it for long stretches right away. They need time to build strength to properly execute. When you are working on haunches-in with the hips pointed out of the circle or into the fence, that is called haunches-out. For sake of simplicity I generally refer to it as haunches-in, it is the exact same exercise.

𝟒. 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬

Sometimes called counter-arcs, these are one of the best exercises to work at for flying lead changes. Counter bent circles help horses learn to move their shoulders with the reins as well as with your legs. This can prove very helpful for shoulder heavy horses or horses that might dive into their lead change. Finally, counter bent circles can help to prevent the horse from tripping over his own feet. Oftentimes when cueing a lead change, the shoulders are in the way of the haunches and by working this exercise, you'll have no problem moving the horse’s shoulders out of the way. Counter bent circles are essentially a circle with the wrong bend. The horse will look out of the circle he is traveling in. Also, a proper counter bent circle will have an exaggerated crossing over motion in the front feet that is very obvious when felt by the rider. It will feel somewhat similar to a spin.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? When cueing a counter bent circle, the reins will hold the head one way while the rider’s legs move the body around. Typically when starting, the horse will be very confused and that is completely fine. To begin the horse’s education in this topic, it would be wise to do a circle and slowly make them completely straight before tipping their nose out of the circle. As the horse gets comfortable doing this, he can be graduated to a more profound bend and tighter circle. For a right counter bent circle, start off first in a left normal circle and do a figure 8 into the right circle. Your left hand will need to keep the horse’s head tipped to the outside while the right hand needs to help keep the head down. Your left leg may need to move forward a bit and provide support to keep the horse in the counterbent circle. Your right leg is open, as if you’re beckoning the horse to go that direction. If the horse lacks forward motion, threaten the use of a whip. It is much more efficient in speeding up the horse than using a spur or kissing/clucking and tends to work for a longer span of time. It is important to start off slow and really develop a good foundation of leg yields to help the horse. When using leg pressure, remember to use your calf before spur. Incentivize your horse to listen to the calf instead of your spur. Smart horses will take to it very quickly.

𝟓. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

A flying lead change can be described as a mid-air lead departure. Lead departures work to build muscle memory, strength, and teach the horse to discern lead cues instead of just loping. A proper lead departure for the horse consists of haunches-in and a push off his back feet to lope. It should be a clear demonstration of collection. The head will go down in tucking and the haunches will go down during the push to lope (impulsion). There is nowhere for the back to go but up. That is a real example of full body engagement and collection.

Lead departures are incredibly easy to teach but hard to maintain. It is not unusual to see horses trying to blast through them and/or not engage properly. To begin, walk a circle and get a nice tucked head. After the horse is giving his head, go in a straight line. Cue a slight haunches-in while tucking the head. If the horse gives his haunches and head, push him into a lope with your legs and a kiss/cluck. He should engage and launch off his haunches. Work to feel the power coming from behind. When cueing the actual lead departure, it is a good idea to do so when the horse is softest in his head and haunches. This will help get the maximum amount of collection. Be sure to not work on lead departures in quick succession as this will likely work up most horses.

𝟔. 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

This is an exercise I came up with to work with my long backed horse, Draco. It has proved to be an incredible test of strength. This exercise is about as close as you can get to a real flying lead change in terms of difficulty and strength required. Due to this, it will be a great indicator of a horse’s strength or lack thereof.

To do this exercise, initiate an extended trot. While trotting, do not touch your horse’s face. The idea is to get full extension in a very natural movement. There should be no collection whatsoever! Suddenly, while enjoying that long trot, ask for a haunches-in. The horse will need to quickly find the strength to collect himself. This is not only hard to do at the drop of a hat but the speed of an extended trot adds its own huge degree of difficulty. Many times a horse will brace, slow down, or move his whole body instead of engaging his hips. In any of those cases, there is a lot more strength training to do. If he does fine and accomplishes a decent haunches-in with little to no slowdown, you are on the right track.

𝟕. 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫

Much like salt on a steak, a little is great but a lot is terrible. Counter cantering is a great exercise to help the horse listen to you and establish more control over the horse’s leads. Counter cantering is simply loping on the wrong lead. Doing so is uncomfortable for the horse and he may ask to change his leads multiple times. By keeping the horse disciplined and not allowing those lead changes, you develop more control over their leads.

Start in a circle to the left on the left lead. Notice the diagonal you are sitting in. Loping on the left lead will inherently set your left foot forward and right foot back. Your hips will reflect this as well. This diagonal needs to be kept! Do a figure 8 and go to the right on the left lead. Keep your diagonal and keep pressure on that inside foot (the right foot) to prevent the lead from changing. If the lead changes, use your spur to change it back. Use your reins to keep the head down and straight. After completing a full counter canter circle, lope the horse in the original circle before breaking down to a walk. Do not do this exercise too much. If the horse gets comfortable doing a counter canter, you lose a valuable tool. The entire lesson is based on controlling the horse through discomfort. Doing this exercise in excess will make counter cantering comfortable for the horse and take away your ability to leverage that and dictate when the lead change will take place. Work at this now and again in between exercises.

𝟖. 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

When you can't do a real push up, you’ll do a pushup with your knees on the ground. It meets you where you are at (in terms of strength) and will allow you to still get the benefits of doing a pushup despite your lack of strength. That is what a simple lead change is compared to a flying lead change. It is right below a flying lead change in terms of difficulty and can help a horse lacking strength to still change his leads.

A simple lead change is basically loping on one lead, breaking down to a walk, trot, or stop, then cuing the other lead. Typically simple lead changes are done with a trot in between leads. AQHA allows 1-3 steps, anything more will hurt your scores. Other associations are subjective. Fortunately, training does not have such a strict restraint. Ideally when doing a simple lead change, the horse breaks down for very little time before the other lead. How do you cue a simple lead change? Start off by loping around nice and collected, then ask for a rate, break to a trot, and ask for a lead departure on the other side. If your horse gives softly with his head and pushes off his haunches powerfully, you have accomplished a simple lead change. Be cautious to not let the horse run through your hands. This exercise is amazing but it's one downfall is potentially elevating a horse’s energy level. If the horse runs through your hands, address that and continue. Do not tolerate any misbehavior for the sake of finishing the exercise. Do not do many simple lead changes in quick succession. More than 3 or 4 at a time can create bad habits and anticipation. Also, break down to a trot, walk, and stop during your simple lead changes. Only doing simple lead changes at a trot (or any one speed) will cause anticipation and potentially act as well as a crutch for the horse.

𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬

This list of prerequisites is more than enough to get a horse changing leads no matter their breeding, temperament, and/or prior experience (assuming complete soundness). For the prerequisites up until the first couple lead changes, I would urge you to use a hackamore. The reason is because of how the hackamore can only teach at the rate the horse can learn. He will not be rushed. The hackamore will force everything to happen at the best possible timeline for both horse and rider. It'll also help to keep things calmer. The horse won’t be so pent up nor will he have any pain-memory to refer back to. After the horse has the strength and mobility to change leads it is not a bad idea to consider using a bit to polish things up, especially if you plan to show.

Written by Braider & World Champion, Johnny Flores Horses In-depth Video link: https://youtu.be/1Esd7sS_0Vw