flying changes - help!

I have a question, more about a different way of training a horse to do a flying change or asking for it than I am familiar with. For a little background - I have been doing changes for years, on multiple horses, including teaching them successfully to youngsters from the base up. Every trainer I have had up to this point asks for it the same way. If changing from left to right, get the horse going with forward impulsion, body completely straight, get them off of my right leg with a slight leg yield left, then take that right leg off and push them back over with my left leg to get them onto the right lead. This way has always worked for me, and makes perfect sense.

Here's the question. I moved and started working with a new trainer to get my H/J riding skills down much more solidly. The work over fences has been going great on his horses, but the lead changes not so much. He's explained his method to me multiple times, and I can get one of the horses to change, but not the others. I think I am still not understanding it correctly, and was wondering if anybody here had any insight into this way. If going from left to right, he wants the body straight, impulsion, just like before. But to ask for the change, he uses his right leg only, to push them onto the left front leg and free them up to change. You never use your left leg to push them over. How this works just isn't making sense, and I'm just not getting the majority of the horses to change this way (ones trained to do it with this cue).

Has anybody else changed leads this way, and if so, do you have any other ways to explain it to me. Thanks for the help!

We were just discussing flying changes today at the barn... I think that your trainer is using similar methods, so i'll explain the best I can.

If the horse is tracking left, bent in the direction of the circle, you must first change the position of the head and body to where they are "counter-bent", as in riding in the other direction. This frees up the left shoulder to get ready for the change. To get to this point, you will first straighten the horse from being bent in the direction of the circle to the counter bend. At this point, all you have to (or should have to) do is sit your left hip down and push to the outside. Since you have already freed up the inside right shoulder, the horse can make the change. Let me know if that made sense...lol :)

Sounds to me like this trainer has had some dressage training. Although there are some differences the use of inside leg/hip/seat to achieve the lead in that direction is what most dressage people do.

Doing the leg yield way can work but dressage folks prefer the horse stay in balance, straight and with impulsion in every move they make.

I personally don't teach the changes through the walk/halk transition and have been very successful.

His wife does dressage, and he said that it is more of a dressage based method. What you said kickshaw does help some, I guess I am just having problems visualizing why this should work, and what to do when it doesn't work. The other way is just so ingrained in me that it's hard to switch I guess. Lol

Try visualizing tempi changes at every stride. It gets VERY difficult to do what you are doing to get them and the horse would have done 3-4 canter strides before to switched leg position. LOL

Using the aid as your trainer suggested will allow for such advanced movements with minimal leg movement. The premis is why teach flying changes one way ( lots of leg movement) when if you go higher you would have to change everything. I understand you may never get to tempis but the idea behind dressage is also, use a simple aid for a simple move and a more complicated set of aids for a more complicated move.

The reason they work is because the horse is going entirely off the leg aids and NOT a major balance change.