how do you teach a horse lead changes?

Question

i know i have alot of questions about how to teachmy pony to do stuff. let me give u a little bit of her history. we bought her from pennsylvania when she was 6. she had foundered and was a neglected broodmare. we bought her and her hooves are 100% better! i have been training her for about 1 1/2 years and she jumps 2'9 but the only things i need to teach her are lead changes, to pick up her left lead , to tuck her feet when jumping and moving out when lunging! thanks for all ur help!

Answer 1

Lead Changes-The way I get the horses I ride to change lead while going over jumps is as you're going over the jump put your inside leg forward, outside leg back and open your inside rein eg if you want the horse to go on the left leg put your left leg forward, right leg back and open your left rein as you're going over the jump
If its for flatwork do the same except for opening the rein and also ask in a corner

Tuck feet in: What I usually do is push the horse on with my legs and just before it goes over the jump pull in the reins. It has helped me alot esp since the horse I ride is quite new to jumping

Answer 2

Find yourself a good dressage trainer who can help you and your pony with ground work. When you have her working in balance off her hind end this will help reduce stress to her front feet as well as giving her the ability to lift her front end and tuck her feet. The basic principles behind a good jumper that can sit back and lift his front end up and over a fence is not unlike a classical dressage horse doing a levade!
There are lots of gymnastic excersizes that you can do to teach her to rebalance and pick up her feet and you don't have to have the jumps set high to get the value of the excersize. It's better to work on rating and turning etc. with smaller fences and more of them. As far as work on the lunge line, you can put about 4 poles on the ground in the arc of your lunge circle. The poles will be closer together at the end toward you and spaced farther apart on the other end. If you are clever with the spacing (and this might take a bit of readjusting) you can start lunging her over the poles at a nice brisk trot with her going over the end that's closer to you. As you progress move your circle slightly so that she is now stepping through the middle of the poles and has to take longer steps. Try not to let her speed up. her rythm should stay the same. You want her to stretch her body and lengthen her stride to make the difference not just fling herself along with greater momentum.
Without seeing your pony in motion it's hard to select the precise excersizes that would be most beneficial, which is why I stress again to work at least occasionally with a good trainer who has a strong background in biomechanics.
Good luck!

Answer 3

First esatbblish her jump first work on getting her feet tucked up before you even try to do anythin else! put a simple upright or cross pole up and put a place pole about a stride or half a tride b4 it depends what her strid is like! that will teacher her to lift her hooves up and arch her body and stretch he neck out infront of her. When establishing lead leg do alot of trot and canter work on the left lead, she is obvioulsy weak on that side of her body. when you jump her and plan turning left when you are in mid-air bring your out side leg back behind the girth and your inside leg on the girth and turn your head ever so slightly to the left and luk in the direction you are travelling in. it will take time but it will encourage your mare to strik off correctly. its good to have soemone on the ground to encourage you and tell you if your doing somethin wrong...ok when lunging ther is aleyas a triangle between you and your hores if the left reign then the lunge line in left hand lunge wipe in the right raised high enough and point to the height of hock and pointed to her hing quaters. you must always face the saddle or her middel section. if she falls in go slightly behind her middle section move closer to her and chase her out with the lunge wipe talk constantly to her . because you are no longer on her back you must establish a better verbal relationship on the ground so she knows what to do.if she oves into you do NOT move backwards and stand confidently the whole time with your shoulders back and head aised and use a stern voice and the movement i told you earlier to force her out. side reins are also very useful this encourages the horse to go into an outline and to use her hind quaters. make sure the work you do on one side reflects the work you do on the other reign! there is so much more to it than that but i hope this was helpful if you need anymore help just contact me [e-mail]. but i would also urge you to see a proffessional or a vet you need to insure your horse is sound and whether she is fit enough to do the work you are going with her you could be doing her mre harm than good!

Answer 4

Okay - I'm alarmed that you are happy that you're JUMPING a foundered horse! Was it diagnosed by a vet or you? She may have just had long toes/lameness due to poor foot care? There are about a hundred questions along this line - you need to talk to a professional - please!

Answer 5

You're jumping a "recovered" foundered horse TWO FOOT NINE??????

PLEASE HIRE A PROFESSIONAL TRAINER.