Greetings, my many Barnmice friends, from Riversong Ranch in Alberta. It is so good to be home again after this latest whirlwind trip to Bermuda and the Netherlands.

While I love my job when I am in the arena with the students and horses, what I am getting increasingly tired of is flying. The “friendly skies” are just not all that user friendly anymore.

So it was while enduring the 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Toronto only to then connect for the 4 ½ hour flight from Toronto to Edmonton that I was contemplating what I should write about for this blog. And it’s a bit tricky to feel creatively inspired when you’re not all that comfortable or happy within your environment. And that’s when it suddenly dawned on me that I don’t enjoy flying anymore then most horses enjoy doing flying lead changes. We just do it, even when it’s uncomfortable for us to do it, because “we have to”.

Well I can tell you that if I was a horse on that flight from Amsterdam to Toronto then I would have had a swishing tail and flattened ears for most of the flight. There were just too many loud, rude and inconsiderate people around me making the flight a less then comfortable experience. And if I was a horse I would’ve either kicked or bitten the child behind me who repeatedly kept kicking the back of my seat while his mother did nothing to control her demon child.

So where am I going with this? Well, I often apply horse training principles to myself – it’s what I call EAPD or “equine assisted personal development” – and so I ask myself “what does it take for a horse to be willing to not only accept but embrace truly meaningful change”? Of course, if I even begin to seriously ask myself that question then I automatically expand the concept to “what does it take for a horse to learn how to perform outstanding flying changes?”

The bittersweet irony here is that 99.9% of the time a horse can perform beautiful flying changes all on its own before it is even one week old. So the question then evolves into “why do horses that can perform flying changes on their own when playing around in the pasture or paddock suddenly end up resisting a rider and giving the “wrong lead” or rushed trot, or will not change leads, or end up dis-united at the lope or canter when the rider asks for a flying change?”

When we look at this question honestly then the answer is obvious – the resistance or refusal from a horse when asked to do a flying change must have something to do with the rider. Perhaps the rider does not know how to ask for the flying change correctly? Perhaps the horse does not understand how the cue is being communicated? Or perhaps the cue is communicated correctly but the horse is not prepared or “balanced” well enough to be able to give the flying change? Perhaps the horse is indeed balanced and has been asked correctly but the horse has a mind of his or her own and the willpower (or dare I say “ego”) of the horse simply and defiantly says “NO.”

There are a myriad of reasons why a capable horse will not perform a flying lead change when asked and ultimately the responsibility for this comes down to rider awareness and ability.

Here’s an example. Last fall I was in Belgium presenting at an expo and one of my students was a dressage rider by the name of Pascal with a handsome Dutch Warmblood gelding named Jashine. This horse has an incredible pedigree and the rider is a classically trained and extremely competent equestrian. However, trainer after trainer had told Pascal to give up on this great gelding because he refused to give her flying changes when she asked. In fact, it had gotten to the point where one trainer had become so frustrated with Jashine that he had lost his temper and became aggressive with the horse. Now Jashine was frightened of men and Pascal was in tears of shock and dismay as to why this huge fight over flying lead changes had to happen.

As I watched Pascal ride Jashine it was obvious she was a knowledgeable and talented rider and that he was a great horse. However, when I asked her to do simple changes before we looked at what was wrong with the flying changes I could see that Jashine was not becoming truly “straight” as Pascal rode from left lead canter down to trot before picking up the read lead at the canter.

A horse absolutely must find straightness between bends for quality flying changes. Just try to imagine a pendulum swinging from one side to the other without finding a moment of straightness between. It’s physically impossible!

So I asked Pascal to keep Jashine in the left bend while she came down out of the canter to the trot, and then to straighten him at the trot, and then asked her to create right bend and do a leg yield from her right leg to simply move him over laterally at the trot instead of asking him to pick up the lead at the canter. We did this a few times in a row until Jashine was anticipating finding straightness during a change of bend at the trot and was giving this to her without any resistance before going into the right bend and leg yield.

Next I had Pascal ask Jashine for left lead canter from sitting trot while in left bend and it was a beautiful transition. However, when I asked for the same on the right lead at the canter I noticed that while Jashine did indeed give Pascal the correct right lead he also stiffened his body and swished his tail during the transition. This sudden tension in the body and annoyance communicated from Jashine’s “tell-tail signs” clued me into looking even more closely at the mechanics of what was happening between Pascal and Jashine during the right lead canter departure. I noticed that while Pascal was indeed asking Jashine for the left lead at the correct time related to the swinging of his barrel/girth when in left bend she was NOT asking for the right lead at the correct time when Jashine was in right bend.

By asking Jashine for the right lead at the wrong time (when his barrel was swinging to the right or “inside of the bend” instead of when it was swinging to the left or “outside of the bend”) she was again making it very difficult for Jashine to do his job with relaxation and rhythm.

We must ask our horses for the right lead as the barrel of the horse beneath our seat swings laterally to the left so that the horse is diagonally balanced to do what is asked of him and vice versa for the left lead as the barrel of the horse swings diagonally to the right. When we are talking about refining horses in schooling then “timing is everything” and as Duke Ellington so eloquently said about jazz music it “don’t mean a thing if it aint got that swing”.

Soon Pascal was able to get Jashine straight between the bends during the simple changes and she was also asking for the right lead with the timing of the barrel swinging “outside” to the left. With these two critical components now working for her instead of against her I asked Pascal to try the dreaded flying change and sure enough… Jashine gave her their first correct flying change.

However, although the change was technically correct Jashine still swished his tail in annoyance so I asked Pascal to do it again. As I focused on Pascal’s body I noticed that yes, Jashine was straight between the bends and, yes, Pascal was indeed asking at the appropriate time. The next problem was also where Pascal was communicating from.

It was so subtle that I had missed it at first but Pascal was turning her shoulders ever so slightly into the new lead BEFORE she had communicated from her seat. When cueing from our seat first then we are riding the horse “through the body” from back to front. However, while a back to front rider the rest of the time it was only during the flying changes that Pascal was suddenly turning her shoulders momentarily before her seat which meant that Jashine felt her shoulders, arms and hands turn his nose from the bridle before her seat told his barrel what to do. This would be like going downhill skiing and tying reins to your ski tips and suddenly using your hands on the reins to pull your ski tips left or right to turn instead of using your boots and bindings to bend the skis through the middle.

Anyway, by the end of the lesson Pascal and Jashine were performing gorgeous flying lead changes without a hint of resistance. In fact, Jashine was so relaxed he was blowing his nose and sighing, licking his lips, his tail was now calmly curled instead of tight and swishing in annoyance, his ears were pricked forward and his eyes were warm and kind. Pascal was once again crying but this time they were tears of joy. A few weeks later I received an e mail from Pascal proudly announcing that she and Jashine had just won their class at the National Dressage Championships in Belgium.

Yes, change is often difficult, but it is also incredibly rewarding when worked for and achieved. Until next time, happy trails to you and yours!