For those schooling changes

[piedmontfields]

You may find this video of Silva Martin teaching changes to one of Boyd Martin's horses interesting:
https://www.boydandsilvamartin.com/1396 ... qyc3qc28hs

[khall]

Thanks piedmont!!

[Kelo]

That was interesting, thanks so much for sharing that video!

[piedmontfields]

For me, this video was a good reminder of the quiet consistency and clarity needed to explain what a FC is to a horse who is capable. And a reminder that I just need to sit chilly (and deal with the buck-kicks) on our harder side!

[Flight]

Cool to see someone sharing vid when it's a bit tricky!

[Dresseur]

I will say, you can see just how small you have to make the canter on some horses. Interestingly, the horse did the R/L change a few times cleanly, but she stopped and re-struck cc. I'd be curious as to why. In my mind, she should have pushed the horse forward once the change happened cleanly, otherwise, she's punishing the clean change.

[Ponichiwa]

I will say, you can see just how small you have to make the canter on some horses. Interestingly, the horse did the R/L change a few times cleanly, but she stopped and re-struck cc. I'd be curious as to why. In my mind, she should have pushed the horse forward once the change happened cleanly, otherwise, she's punishing the clean change.

I assume (and I could be wrong) that the horse has some familiarity with changes and she's working on their reliability and making sure that the horse doesn't "steal" the change. The times she went back to CC to start over, the horse changed early (relative to her aids).

Pretty neat video. I definitely have not been schooling my changes from that collected of a canter-- Kiwi would lawn-dart me so fast, my head would spin.

[Dresseur]

Yea, I would have loved to be able to watch this in person and ask questions. It looked like to me that the horse was still working on the change mechanics, which is why the canter was so short and quick, and why there where some bucky changes and some tempis behind etc. To me it looked like a horse just learning, which is why it would be good to know how familiar the horse was to know why she was going back to cc.

[Moutaineer]

Dresseur, this is Boyd Martin's blurb intro from under the video:

"I am fortunate that my wife Silva is willing to spend time schooling the event horses and fine tuning their dressage skills. At the moment Silva is working with Luke 140, a horse we syndicated earlier this year. Silva’s main goal has been teaching Luke the flying changes. Next year Luke will need to do flying changes in his dressage tests at the 4-Star level. When we purchased him earlier this year, he had not been taught them yet, but sometimes this is better because if he had been taught the wrong way it could be difficult to fix.
Above is an unedited video of Silva quietly chipping away at teaching Luke the correct flying changes. At the moment she does it exactly in the same spot in the ring every time, so he is expecting it. She also does a number of canter-walk transitions to really have the canter balanced and waiting. At the moment, all Silva is concerned about is that it is a ‘clean’ change. That means that the change of lead happens in one stride, all at once. She is not bothered at the moment if he leaps, or is a bit wild in the change. She often rewards him by giving him a a big pat and walk break if he gets it right.
They are a long way off being perfect, but in a couple of weeks he will have the understanding of them. All I can say is that I married well! 2020 here we come!!
-Boyd"

[Dresseur]

I had read that, which is why I was wondering why she was stopping a clean change and putting the horse back to cc, which in my mind is confusing to the horse.

[Chisamba]

Sigh. It's clearly not " unedited" . But interesting.