I don't lunge (longe?) Jayne very often, mostly because when I got him he had no idea what it was and I barely have a better idea myself of how to teach it. I couldn't get him to canter at all on a line, only run all rushy and crazy, which I didn't think was good for him to practice, so I stopped asking for that for the most part. Just walk/trot from there unless we were in a round pen.
I had a chiro look and adjust him yesterday (pretty minor) and wanted to warm him up before riding in case he felt sore, funny or weird. He is much better at lunging circles now, though I couldn't say why, but when he was cantering he kept switching leads. Half a circle on the correct lead, 6 strides counter canter, back to the correct lead and so on. It was a good sized circle, so I thought maybe if I made it smaller, he'd stay correct, but he still kept switching back and forth going both directions. His front legs would just look like they were floating a second and then he'd be on the other lead. Not sure if they were 'correct' flying changes or not as I don't have a clear understanding of what that means beyond 'not trotting in between.'
I have no idea what switching like that means, and what, if anything, I should do about it. How do I communicate that I want him to stay on one lead? He switches under saddle at times too, but not nearly as often, and usually only TO the correct lead when he took the wrong one and I signal that I'm going to ask him back to a trot to try again. He's gotten much better at picking up the correct one from the start under saddle. From pretty much never-omg-run-rush-flail to most of the time, probably 80%+ correct including asking on the straight. Again, to his credit.
Help? I am very sure that this relates to our lack of correct circles under saddle as well, but I don't really understand how and in what ways, just that they have to be the same/related. We have been doing t/c transitions more, and he is getting more relaxed about it as well as more likely to pick it up properly when I ask, but I know so little beyond setting him up properly and not letting him rush into it, that it is hard for me to help him learn beyond doing a million transitions and hoping he figures out the easiest way himself.
I had a chiro look and adjust him yesterday (pretty minor) and wanted to warm him up before riding in case he felt sore, funny or weird. He is much better at lunging circles now, though I couldn't say why, but when he was cantering he kept switching leads. Half a circle on the correct lead, 6 strides counter canter, back to the correct lead and so on. It was a good sized circle, so I thought maybe if I made it smaller, he'd stay correct, but he still kept switching back and forth going both directions. His front legs would just look like they were floating a second and then he'd be on the other lead. Not sure if they were 'correct' flying changes or not as I don't have a clear understanding of what that means beyond 'not trotting in between.'
I have no idea what switching like that means, and what, if anything, I should do about it. How do I communicate that I want him to stay on one lead? He switches under saddle at times too, but not nearly as often, and usually only TO the correct lead when he took the wrong one and I signal that I'm going to ask him back to a trot to try again. He's gotten much better at picking up the correct one from the start under saddle. From pretty much never-omg-run-rush-flail to most of the time, probably 80%+ correct including asking on the straight. Again, to his credit.
Help? I am very sure that this relates to our lack of correct circles under saddle as well, but I don't really understand how and in what ways, just that they have to be the same/related. We have been doing t/c transitions more, and he is getting more relaxed about it as well as more likely to pick it up properly when I ask, but I know so little beyond setting him up properly and not letting him rush into it, that it is hard for me to help him learn beyond doing a million transitions and hoping he figures out the easiest way himself.