okay hi everyone i'm amelia today we're talking about flying changes flying changes are super fun
to ride super hard to train because a lot has to happen in a very short period of time so to do a
flying change the horse has to go from one lead to the other lead and they have to change all their
legs in midair so a lot has to happen in a very short period of time and it's really important
that you understand the preparation to get your horse ready to teach them the flying changes
it's really important that your horse understands clearly your canner aid so your canner aid whether
it's from the trot or from the walk that that's really clear both to the rider and to the horse
and then you can start working on your changes so the aid for a flying change is basically the
same as the aid for a canner so if you're on left lead canner you're gonna do a flying change to the
right the aid is what you would do to ask for a right lead canner so don't make it too complicated
i'm going to show you a little bit how i do changes on uma today check out the
link below i have a ton of videos about how to prepare for the flying changes and then
how to introduce the flying changes if your horse is new to them so let's get started today so it's
always important you know before you work on the flying changes to always work on the basics so the
quality of your flying change really depends on the quality of your canter and with this horse she
tends to want to get a little bit on the forehand she wants to go a little bit up with her croup
in the canner and so then of course that transfers over to the flying change so
a really good exercise before you start doing your flying changes to work on the
balance and the quality of the canner is to work your can or walk canner transitions
because again basically a flying change is just a transition from walk to canner except for you
don't do any walk so what i work on with her in these especially the walk to canner transitions
i want a really crisp clear first step like i want her to go right from walk
into that jumping canner i also am really focused with her on the balance so that
she stays up in these transitions good girl so the way that i keep her up in the transitions
is a lot thinking about my seat so in the downward transition that i'm sitting sitting a little
shoulder in so i put her in just a little shoulder in to help keep her up and not dive down in front
and then for the upward transition i just make sure that her pull is up before i ask for the
canner and again with the upper transition i'm really just focusing on that first stride that
is really crisp and that she goes right from the walk into the canner good girl good girl
so then once you have a few counter walk canners under your belt start doing some
simple changes so i'm just going to use the half diagonal from e to f i'm going to collect
walk keeper up can or right and you really want to be sure that you can go like
right from the canner walk a few steps right back to the other lead of canner without
it taking too long so i should be able to collect walk canner good girl keep her up good girl
good girl
so that i'm really starting to feel like okay i'm setting her up for the right lead as i go
to the walk so that i can quickly pick up rightly canner so it's like i'm almost starting to think
about setting her up for a flying change but then instead of doing the flying change i just quickly
walk and then right to canter because flying changes are all about the preparat preparation so
the better prepared your horses so i'm almost thinking change now walk
and canter good girl and you can see how she's starting to think she's starting to kind of know
a little bit what's going to happen and getting herself ready so then to do the flying change is
just the same as the same aid as the simple change only i'm not going to walk so i'm going to think
about collecting her a little push her a little off my right leg make her supple right and then
flying change and then after the flying change i need to get her balance again because during the
flying change she goes a little bit down in front so i need to get her up and round through again
balance half halt half hole and a girl and then rebalance her because you can see in
the change he gets a little long a little on the forehand and so then a good exercise
is to go back to like can or walk canner if you feel like the change got away from you
do a few can or walk canners to get the balance and get your horse collected again
before you go back to your changes good job that was a good change nice uphill and straight
good good girl so those are some exercises just to help you with the changes if you're having
trouble with your changes go back to those can or walk canner transitions and clean those up
because the more that you just do flying change after flying change the worse they get so you
need to go back to the basics and work on those transitions and then um then try your flying
changes again i'll post some clips in here of natasha doing her changes in the grand prix
but definitely it takes a long time like you have to do thousands and thousands of changes
before the horse just really becomes accustomed to them and doing them on your aid and staying uphill
but it's always about going back to the basics working on those walk can or walk transitions
working on the quality of your canner working on keeping your horse uphill balance so i hope you
enjoy this video check out the links below sign up for my email list i put i send out emails every
week to help you guys on your dressage training journey my goal is to teach you to learn to love
your ride so thanks for watching today and thank you uma for demonstrating the end you