Lorien Stable: Trainer's Notes

[kristinandrews2003]

Hello everyone. I am new to this board. I ride in hunter and equitation. I just started doing adult medals this year. Only at schooling shows, nothing big yet. I've got a 13 yr old appy quarter cross. He was a western pleasure horse for the first 10 years of his life. He never jumped but a cross bar once or twice until he came to indiana and I started working with him. At first we didn't think he'd ever do mroe then 2 feet....but last fall I took him over a 4'3 fence for the first time! He has so much talent that has been hidden inside for so long. The last 3 years he never hs ceased to amaze myself and my trainer. And this leads me to my problem. First of all he just learned over the winter to collect. It feels like floating on clouds when he is collected. His strong lead is his right, and his left is ok. He is juts now able to do full laps collected on the left lead. My trainer and I have been batling leads since he came here. He knows them but he can't do flying changes. In medals that's important.
I do figure 8s, circles and cutting across halfway throught, gonig over a pole or even cross bar in the middle of the ring,and I have tried with out spurs, with spurs, with a crop (which he is defly afraid of)... and I am frustrated. I know he can do flying changes because he has done them in the show ring before.
Here is where we are at: In doing a figure 8 I have gotten him to do a flying change maybe one of 20 times going from left to right, but never right to left. He realizes we are cutting across the diagonal and starts to speed up and before I can get him puled back together he tries to switch. When he switches he doesn't really break to a full trot step but he DOES break form the canter. It is really weird and I have asked more experienced riders to get on and he does the same thing. Again it isn't really a full trot step but like a little hop and then pickign up the canter.
My trainer decided we need to work on landing on the correct lead from the jump instead of trying to do a flying change because he just isn't doing them. He is a very intellegent horse and is currently in the best shape ever.
Someone please give me soem new ideas. And I cannot afford to send him to anotehr trainer. I barely can afford to keep him. Is it a matter or not having the muscle build up yet or laziness or is it a habit I've taught him on accident through my ignorance on flying changes and notwe have to train it out of him? I don't know what else to do... and sellign him is NOT an option.

sincerely
lost for ideas

[galadriel]

A horse who "hops" while doing a canter transition may be a little unfit. The horse may also be suffering some tightness in the sacroiliac area; tension in the sacroiliac (where the spine meets the pelvis) can reduce a horse's hind end agility.

If the horse doesn't improve with more fitness, it's definitely worth having him checked out by an equine bodyworker.