05/15/2026
I decided to make today flying change Friday!
I've got 2 horses I'm currently teaching the changes to: Rocky owned by Veronica Hornsby and Sig owned by Dianne Young. I thought I'd post some videos of their changes today, so you can see the sausage being made so to speak, especially with Rocky. It's also interesting because Sig is a Warmblood and Rocky is a thoroughbred.
With Sig, I've been doing the changes for probably 4 or 5 months or so total with a couple of breaks thrown in there. With Rocky, maybe a month or two. As you'll see, Sig's changes are further along, but they didn't start that way. There's been a lot changing only in front, late in front, and many other wrong combinations 🤣
My thoughts with teaching the changes is to first put them in the situation where they want to change and let it happen organically. My main goal here is first to get them to understand what I want and second, to get them to do it mechanically correctly (clean) consistently. Once they are consistently clean and calm, I then teach them to do it on my aid and then finally, I build expression and more quality into the change. Sig is almost to step two and Rocky will be in step one a bit longer.
As I explained earlier, I've been going through the process with Sig longer so he's more comfortable with the changes as you'll see in the videos. Rocky is doing great, but still wants to get a bit too enthusiastic, so in the left to right change, you'll see me have to hold him back for a bit as he's trying to blast the change through and he changes behind only and then goes back. Finally he changes clean and gets a good pet. Even the clean change with him is tight and high in the neck, but he just needs more reps to get calmer and calmer with them. The main thing right now though is that he's getting the changes clean!
I wanted to show that it's a process and not just what you see as the finished product in the show ring, so don't despair if it's taking a long time to teach your horse. Each horse is unique in how they learn the changes and create their own calendar with it.
I've taught several horses the changes so I know what to do and even more importantly, WHAT NOT TO DO! 🤣 If you have any questions about teaching the changes, fire away!!
Videos in the comments!
