Here is a horse never cantered under saddle until I got him at nine years of age. Never cantered under saddle with a human weight from zero to nine. There is a lot of balancing that a horse needs to canter while carrying a human. I remember when Nichole first cantered him during his thirty day “customize him for Susan training”. She was happy to discover a canter! And the canter was comfortable!<\/p>\n
I remember cantering on him during a group lesson at Mary Brown’s arena. I was shocked by how comfortable his canter was. Wow!<\/p>\n
Dear Reader. \u00a0Do you know how obsessed I am with flying lead changes? \u00a0Did you read my first book? \u00a0Flying lead changes are the ultimate in my mind. \u00a0They are usually difficult for all horses and riders, but gaited horse flying changes are even more difficult. \u00a0If the horse gaits smoothly, flying changes are going to be difficult because suspension is involved. \u00a0The front and back legs have to lift off the ground in order for the legs to switch. \u00a0Smooth gaited horses usually keep their feet close to the ground. \u00a0Suspension is not in their physical way of going. \u00a0Everything has to be perfect. \u00a0The rider’s balance has to be perfect. \u00a0The horse’s balance has to be perfect.<\/p>\n
Hence, my obsession. \u00a0I’m right at the end of finishing up my book number two about the Just Right Horse. \u00a0I bought this horse because of flying lead changes. \u00a0That is how obsessed I am.<\/p>\n
Cisco and I have been cantering all winter. \u00a0Our winter arena is too small for a decent chance at flying changes so we practiced cantering and drop to trot lead changes. \u00a0We practiced my signal to Cisco about which lead I wanted. \u00a0Cisco mostly went right brain through the signaling and the canter departs. \u00a0It was not a pretty sight. \u00a0I still don’t have my signal perfected yet.<\/p>\n
However we went to a clinic this month and had an afternoon and morning free time in the arena. \u00a0We tried for flying changes. \u00a0In the afternoon, I asked Cisco for a flying lead change over a pole. \u00a0I set him up to do an arena large figure eight with a pole in the middle. Andi was watching my unsuccessful tries. \u00a0 I asked for the lead change as we were cantering over the pole. \u00a0Andi called me over. \u00a0She told me that I was looking down at the pole instead of focusing on where we were going. \u00a0My head was bent down, looking at the pole instead of up looking at the top of the fence line. \u00a0Of course! \u00a0Focus! \u00a0Ciso and I went back to our figure eight and I focused on where we were going. \u00a0I looked at the pole so Cisco would know our path. \u00a0When we got to the pole, I was looking up. \u00a0I looked out over the fence and we soared. \u00a0Good Lordy! \u00a0Cisco did a flying lead change! \u00a0I had two witnesses. \u00a0I immediately got off Cisco, rubbed him, took off the bridle and loosened his girth. \u00a0A few moments later, he laid down, wanting to role. \u00a0I screamed and ran toward him. \u00a0He got up. \u00a0I took off the saddle and let him loose again. \u00a0Cisco had no idea why our session was finished. \u00a0He might put that together in the future.<\/p>\n
I asked Andi. \u00a0How can I describe what this is like to someone who has no idea about horses. \u00a0Andi pondered. \u00a0She described flying changes as riding a unicycle. \u00a0I tried to ride a unicycle once. \u00a0I was hanging on to a fence when I got on the unicyle. \u00a0I couldn’t balance on the unicycle, even with the help of a fence. \u00a0The balance required of horse and rider is like riding a unicycle!<\/p>\n
The next morning, Cisco and I were out in the arena again. \u00a0I tried to do the same thing while riding him without a bridle. \u00a0We are not quite there yet.<\/p>\n
I got off Cisco and let him rest for a while. \u00a0He got to eat grass that had gown into the sandy arena. \u00a0After he was completely rested, I put the bridle on and we tried again for flying changes. \u00a0I got one! \u00a0I have it on film. \u00a0I have proof of a flying change! \u00a0WHOOPEE!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is a horse never cantered under saddle until I got him at nine years of age. Never cantered under saddle with a human weight from zero to nine. There is a lot of balancing that a horse needs to canter while carrying a human. I remember when Nichole first cantered him during his thirty day “customize him for Susan training”. She was happy to discover a canter! And the canter was comfortable! I remember cantering on him during a group lesson at Mary Brown’s arena. I was shocked by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cisco","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3633,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}