Flying Change

Erin from barn aisle to me in the arena, “Susan, Fancy is loose somewhere.” What? I had fastened her to one of the cross ties while I watched the rest of a lesson with a young girl new to riding. Fancy and I tried to kill her earlier in our flying attempts and fast cantering during our group lesson. Fancy was in a stall! Hmmm I thought I had put on her halter and failed to secure her to cross tie. I swore a young girl in the aisle to…

It's a good thing I didn't set up my camera to take pictures. It's a good thing I didn't wear my good cowboy hat. I failed at FLC today. Fancy suffered One good thing is that my brain finally noticed that I'm breaking one of the rules, don't lean back when asking for change. I've never noticed my body leaning back before at the high drama moment. I also forgot to be enthusiastic about halfway through our attempts. There is just so much!

You don't have to read this blog. It's about flying lead changes again. Erin Patterson rode Fancy today in a training lesson. Her focus is everything, but concentrating on flying lead changes. It was warm enough today to ride outside in the large arena.. Erin warmed Fancy up and did some figure eights. Fancy started doing wonderful flying changes, awesome to watch. After much success, Erin decided to go for straight long flying changes. Fall on the ground! Erin and Fancy did flying lead changes the length of the large…

When we first started, after Erin got consistent flying changes from Fancy, it was rough for me. Why. When Fancy occasionally did half of the flying change, she popped me out of the saddle so far, my mind knew I was in danger of popping off into the ground. If Fancy had changed direction during my flight out of the saddle, I would have dove to the ground. That happened for a long time. The rider needs great balance during a flying change which is impossible when her rear end…

Per Erin Patterson after the Monday Group lesson. Susan, the flying lead change Fancy did today was the best flying change I ever saw you and Fancy do. It was only one of many attempts, but it was the best. That is all.

Flying lead changes are my dream. I might have mentioned my intensive crazy dream a couple of times over the past 50 million posts. Fancy had a session with Erin where Erin explained the final solution to getting flying changes for me. It's much too complicated to explain. I have to do the moves at a walk first to get my body to obey. Erin Patterson is an exceptional teacher. She teaches the horse and figures out the even more difficult human! She also figures out the pattern which will…