Do you ask for lead changes? When? Do you let the horse decide? Not talking about if you are obviously making a turn some which-a-way but on a long ass straight away. How does this work?

My horse is an idiot about switching leads. really. And he's gotten better, btu if you touch his face before a fence, he WILL counter canter the fence and you better hang the heck on. You'll get over but you get airtime.

In stadium I almost have to wrestle him back to a trot and he'll swap[but we don't worry about our leads for turns etc, and with the new guy in SC we're goign to work a LOT on landing on the right lead].

XC, when i walk the course i note fences where i HAVE to have a certain lead to be balanced to the fence. Say if I'm riding a sharp right hand turn on the top of a hill, but bowing out a little to get a better ride to jump B, then I might actually wnat to be on the left lead so I can better control his left shoulder. it doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to be balanced. In this case, I'd want to make sure I asked him for the left lead way back[though he'd probably be on it because he likes it better], just in case he decided NOT to collect and I'd actually have to sit down and get a step of trot.

if we're galloping along and he's counter cantering[not as much lately now that his shoulders are stronger and he's straighter], I basically have to throw in a MASSIVE half halt and a quick jab with the spurs. it sounds too harsh and a bit extreme, btu he tends to tune thing out and can actually be very dull. Also, I almost always have to elevate the rien of the elad I want because otherwise he just gets confused. his swaps aren't auto at all, btu I don't want to put them on him because he'll start swapping at will. Plus I will need to do counter canter in the future, and I need him not to swap when he gets wobbly.

Hunting, he's a little more of a meathead, the footing is worse, and he's much less balanced..the jumps are also smaller and not technical. I let him roll along as long as i can get him back, and i let him choose his lead because he knows the footing better than me. I know he can jump anything I just want him under control, not leaping at the fences, and balanced.

Hey look a huge long post about nothing.

Thanks for the response, Stewart. I am also interested in how long you might let a horse stay on a lead in a long straight away - are there staright aways that are that long? I am thinking of racing, where the horse swaps off because they will get tired of being on one lead for too long...is this a non-issue with these sports?

Yes, there are gallop stretches..we usually have no problem with the time, so I get off his back, "plant" my hands, and let him roll allow at a good clip...he might get tired and switch to his left lead, or I want him to stay on his right lead and make him keep his right bend. He gets bored, then becomes meatheaded, so I usaully have to check him every few strides.

Hunting, the straight aways can be pretty long, like when you're circling a field, but generally you're off their back and you let them pick their stride as long as they are in balance. the only time hunting that I'd make them swap is if i saw[or knew] there was a sharp corner ahead and that i NEEDED them on the correct lead. Even so, with Stewie it's more of a HOPE that i would get a swap and if we don't get it, then we have to ride the turn though as best as possible.

if your horse DOES tend to swap on gallop stretches, you can either A) let them or b) keep them in the lead by bending/engaging them.

Unlike racing, we don't only go to the left ;) the horse doesn't stay on one lead for the entire course, so I don't see why they would get too tired on one lead. If they do, like if they have a weaker side, then you can either choose to have them keep the weak lead and have the jumps go worse, make your horse a little more tired, and maybe not go as fast, or you can let them swap, maybe ride your lines a little differently, but your horse wouldn't get as worn out.

Even though in the US horses only track left when racing, they DO swap leads during a race, which was what prompted my question.

Racehorses are taught to swap leads on the straightaway's so the conserve energy. Retraining Hunters can sometimes be a bit of a challenge in that I have had horses who would swap leads in the straightaway's in a hack class. Damn things

I only make my hunt horses swap leads at sharp corners or slippery ones. Other than that they can do whatever they feel they need to use the least amount of energy.

Certainly in my hunt there wuld be a LARGE percentage of riders who's eyes would glaze over if you asked them about asking their horse to swap leads

I had no idea they swapped leads in racing. Isn't that really hard for them to do when they're going at a full out gallop like that? I thought flying lead changes needed some degree of collection.

Negative - horses need to swap off during a race...they get too tired going on a single lead for an entire race. You have them on the "correct" lead in the turns and then swap on a straight away - particularly down the stretch. (As usual, this is just a general statement that is true in most cases.) Next time you watch the races, keep your eye on (what you hope will be) a decent horse. In the case of the good horses, when they swap at the top of the stretch, you will then see them look like they just dig in and throw it in another gear that it didn't even look like they had.

The real hard core odds makers and polyblend rail birds will even factor in how many times a horse swapped during previous races, make predictions based on a horse that didn't swap, etc. Old timers are still fucking speculating that we would have one less triple crown winner if Alydar would have swapped his fucking lead in the stretch.