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Ohboy Cimmaron and I have been though a lot!
I dont own her, but shes the only horse I ride in my lesson, except for right now, since she's lame.

When I started riding her over a year ago, she counter bended, rushed into the canter, rushed jumps, dodged corners.

Counter bending was a quick fix, the canter rushing stopped quickly too.

Rushing the jumps took awhile, but we eventually got through it.

Dodging corners, ohman, sometimes we still have this battle, going around the ring shes fine, but if we jump on an angle, she tries to dodge that corner.
Almost perfect (:

Our first show, she galloped around the ring. Why? Before I couldnt keep her in the canter, so I carried a whip, when the announcer person asked for us to canter, she took off, surprisingly I didnt place last in that class.

our second show she was AMAZING! Couldn't have asked for a better ride.

The good days are what keep us going.

When I started working with Corky it was because no one else wanted to ride him, so my coach gave him to me as a "project horse". He was a horrible head tosser, he was a shark on the ground, and would take off in any gait faster than a walk.

I rode him almost exclusively my last two years at school, took him to a couple shows where we did quite well. He is now the most reliable 1st level dressage horse on the property. The unfortunate part is that now that he's so well trained and so steady, there's little to no chance that they'll give him up unless he goes lame or the program closes (which might be a possibility, since the school lost it's accreditation). I told my coach when I left that anytime she needs a home for him, that I'd take him in a heartbeat, no matter the circumstance. I'll be really upset if I finally get him back and he's unrideable, but I love that horse too much, he'd be my pasture pet forever. heart


Last summer I was working as a working student for a dressage trainer where I used to live. It was a fantastic experience and I learned a lot. We got this big Swedish warmblood in for training, and, after talking to the owner about it, she gave him to me for a project. The horse had some serious attitude issues and tried to rear 3 or 4 times the first time I rode him. He was very big and very fancy and was not interested in hearing your ideas of how things were going to go. It took me a few weeks to figure him out, but eventually I started making progress with the "redirection" technique once I realized that he was actively trying to pick a fight with me because he knew that he was big enough and could win. So whenever he would misbehave, rather than get after him about it, I would change what we were doing and just "go somewhere else". After a few weeks, he started getting really consistent for me. The trainer got on him one day and he started flipping his head. She got after him and they quickly escalated. I got back on him, went back to my redirection technique and had a really nice ride. She was so impressed with how well I had worked with him, she couldn't believe it. Definitely one of my proudest moments.

Awesome, awesome! 8D

Well, I'd like a little bit of advice here.

My instructor for our county 4-H equestrian drill team, who is also an instructor for riding, told me my horse wasn't ready for flying lead changes.

But I know she is. She's done them before- plenty of times. The trainer's excuse is that she can't hold her left lead. But she can. The circle she had me going in was too small in my opinion.

What should I do?

Alright, thanks!

I've already been practicing the flying changes at home, and she's almost got them. But our arena isn't set up yet, and it's too small, I think. So she doesn't change. She's done it a couple times, and usually when I ask her to go from lope to trot back to lope, she takes one stride of trot then picks up the opposite lead.

She's almost there, I can feel it. She's been slowing it down a bit, but we're still working on it.

Thanks so much for your help! I can do that! ;D

For Elegant the thing we had to work on the most was getting her hot off my leg. She's long and floaty and would rather be lofty and slow than spring off the aid. Perfect leg yielding is a must, at all gaits. We had to be able to leg yield from the wall to the quarter line and back to the wall again at canter while staying straight and supple before thinking about asking for a change. Also like Aria said, simple changes (through walk) are something you need to be able to do first as it verifies the horse understands half halts, leg, and leads. That being said, changes in the western and hunter world are a bit different. Last year when we first started jumping small Xs and poles Elegant would change as she came to the corner because of balance. And usually this is when you see western horses being asked for changes, like at "X" in a reining pattern. These kind of changes horses are generally more strung out and have a greater tendency to change "front to back", which -even if its in the very next stride the change is completed- is a rougher change. In dressage the horse is expected to stay more collected, back on it's haunches, straight, and in perfect balance. You can over school changes. A mare I rode once was hot about her changes and if you were cantering straight down the line and put on more leg for straightness or impulsion she would change and get hot. The worst thing you can do is get a horse in a place where they will change on the front and just stay stuck there. At that point it's better to bring the horse back to walk for just a couple steps, and ask for the new lead again. The kind of changes I'm working on with Elegant now I'm schooling on the flat, but using them effectively when we're jumping.