Help, changes early in front!
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katy
19 Mar 2010 21:56
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Hi Laura,
I wonder if you can help with a problem i have with my horse.
He is a gelderlander with a lovely expressive canter, he is regularily getting 67% plus in affiliated medium tests.
My problem with him is that he changes early in front by about half a stride. My trainer and i have worked on improving the canter (which he now gets 7s and 8s for) but the problem of early in front is still there after over 1 year.
Do you have any exercises you can suggest?
Thanks so much
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Horse Hero Guru
21 Mar 2010 19:15
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Hi Katy - sorry I am not Laura (wish I was though!)
I am not quite sure that I understand when you say your horse changes early in front by half a stride, so please excuse me if I waffle for a bit. I presume that we are talking about flying changes here , not transitions. I also presume that when you say he changes early in front, what you actually mean is that he changes in front when you ask, and that the problem is actually that he is changing late behind. If he is changing early in front just means that he is anticipating the instruction
Does the problem manifest itself mostly with one hind leg or with both?
The most common reason for changing late behind is that the horse is not distributing his weight evenly over both hind legs so that it becomes very difficult for him to change the footfall when there is more weight on one hind leg than the other. The solution is to go back to basics and develop a more even balance – grid work can be a great help here. Canter transitions from walk half pirouettes can help lower and engage the hindquarters, which will help him develop better balance. The other thing that may help to force him to change (although it doesn’t really sort out the balance problem if that is inherent in his canter work generally is to make the change over a pole.
Good luck – and please let me know if I have misinterpreted your question
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