By Pat Parelli
Leads and lead changes can either be awfully simple or simply awful; if they’re simply awful, that’s often mighty frustrating. I've said countless times at my seminars to raise your hand if you have ever wondered what lead you were on.
Or, raise your hand if you've ever had somebody yell at you, Hey, you're on the wrong lead. And, raise your hand if you always know what leads you're on. And it's interesting. I would say 80% of the hands that raise often are not sure about their leads, let alone their lead changes.
Let’s make sure we understand that there are only two kinds of leads: right leads and left leads. If you're going to the right and the horse is on the left lead, technically, that's called a counter canter. We have to first realize if we asked for the correct lead or if we asked for the counter canter.
Right now, I'm going to keep it simple. Horses not only have a leading side, but they have a trailing side. So if they're going to the right, the two right legs, the right front, and the right hind, are leading, and the left front and the left hind are trailing.
It's like if you were riding a stick horse and put your right hand on the stick and put your left hand on your hip, your left side would be trailing, and your right side would be leading. I want you to think of it from that point of view because, in most cases, it's a matter of balance.
Some horses are very coordinated with their leads and their lead changes, while other horses aren't. I've seen extremes both ways. I've seen horses that would never miss a lead or a lead change, almost no matter what the human did. And I've seen horses that, almost no matter what the human did, still fumbled around in a very unharmonious and uncoordinated way. Either way, let's think about all this in terms of the Four Savvys: On Line, Liberty, Freestyle, and Finesse.
I first started understanding leads and lead changes at Liberty under the tutelage of Mr. Troy Henry. We were in a 45-foot round corral, and it was pretty easy for the horses, because of the arc of the circle, to always find their balance in that round corral. It was obvious when a horse missed his hind lead or was in the counter canter. I discovered that horses learning at liberty were doing what they did in the pasture. They also seemed to get better coordinated under saddle from playing at liberty, as long as the rider understood the dynamics of leads.
Another thing I’ve discovered is that when playing on a 45’ rope, most horses if they’re well connected with the human, are going to catch their leads. Why? Because the circle is big enough that they're going to go out on a straighter line. Often, horses on a 22’ rope, if they don't want to necessarily be with the human or stay connected, will catch the outside lead because they're actually trying to go away from the human rather than go around the human.
Remember connection is always king, no matter if you're On Line, Liberty, Freestyle, or Finesse. Connection means the horse is mentally and emotionally connected to what your wishes are and staying in harmony physically.
All that said, we want our horses to have a good send, a good allow, and a good bring back because the bring back is where the draw comes from, which then sets us up for a new drive to be able to send the horse from a left circle toward us and then back out on the right circle. Be sure you work with your horse On Line on a 22’ or a 45’ rope or both, getting your horse to catch his leads with rhythm, relaxation, and lots of understanding.
Theoretically, On Line builds to Liberty, and On Line and Liberty build the mental, emotional, and physical coordination it takes to do Freestyle. Freestyle coordination are the gross motor skills needed so that when we ride with contact, we can do it without interfering with the horse or micromanaging so that we only use our reigns for shaping and preparatory commands.
Now, one thing we must understand when we get in the saddle is that the lead change is mostly a lateral move. In other words, it's a little bit sideways, pushing from right to left and from left to right. Where most people make a mistake with leads and lead changes is they lean in the direction of the lead they want, and then they also incorporate a turn rather than being able to change leads on a straight line.
We want to be able to do Freestyle and Finesse simple lead changes first on a serpentine then slowly but surely getting it to where we can do the changes on a straight line.
I've had a lot of luck helping people with lead changes, as long as they could catch their leads well enough by incorporating lots of good sideways exercises like leg yields and using what I call a lead change log. I take old telephone poles and lay them on the ground so that they make a line about a hundred feet long. Then, I start by getting my horses comfortable cantering over this little log and building confidence and understanding so they aren't trying to avoid it.
And once they are comfortable doing it, then at the last moment, just before they jump, I push my horse from right to left or left to right. If I'm on the right lead, I push to the left at the last moment before they jump, and you'll often get a horse to where he will very easily do a flying lead change. This is one of the most effective ways I've utilized to teach people how to get a lead change or to teach a young horse I'm riding to know how to rebalance himself while being slightly in the air.
As Mr. Henry said, if I could master playing with horses at Liberty, On Line, Trailer Loading, and Lead Changes, I'd probably learn everything I needed to know about true horsemanship. So, I'm passing that secondhand gold onto you.
