How to Teach a Horse to Switch Leads on Cue

Training you horse to switch leads correctly is an important cue. Switching leads is done with a horse's hips, and a horse with a hip will run correctly, consistently and competitively all the time. The benefits of a strong hip with lead to perfect lead switches and flying lead switches and will allow your horse to curve around barrels with their shoulders lifted and spring out of turns with ease. A horse will not drop shoulder or run off if it has a solid hip and has been trained to change leads properly. Training your horse to switch leads on cue can be a somewhat daunting task, but with a little time, effort and patience your horse will be switching leads on cue in no time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Tie down (optional)
• Bit
• Saddle
• Breast collar
• Boots
• Socks

1. A consistent and comfortable lead comes from the horses hip and so teaching your horse to move her hip is the key to switching leads on cue.
2. Stand next to your horse an, with you hand, press into her hip. She will instinctively move away from your pressure by shifting her hips. Do this on both sides, your goal being to keep her moving off the pressure while her front feet are planted. Do a complete circle in both directions.
3. Once you feel confident in her movement, you're ready to try riding her with the cue. Using your spur, press into her left hip, while tipping her head to the left. Be sure to apply the same pressure with your spur as you did with your hand and keep your right leg off of her body. Reward her step, even if it is small, by releasing the pressure.
4. Once you start riding and cueing with some ease, make sure to watch yours and your horses technique. When you canter a straight line, your horses inside hip should be tipped inward. If you can see that her hip is tipped into the center of the arena, you are cueing correctly and she is moving correctly.
5. After some time and practice, you should begin to notice a build in the hip muscle on both sides of your horses lower belly. It will build up in a straight line running from her ribs to her hip and should have a slight upward tilt. This is a good sign and is physical proof that your horse is lifting correctly when she canters.
6. When you get to the point where you can lope while practicing the switch you'll want to begin some basic drills that work the hip. Everyone has their own drills they like to use in training, but a good lead switch drill you can do is to stop and rate while getting your horse's hip. Pressure with the outside leg until she swings her hip toward your cue. Barrel racing drills are a great way to train your horse to switch leads on cue, since it's absolutely vital to the task.
7. Eventually, you should be able to cue your horse to canter by simply sliding your leg back and putting slight pressure on her hip.
8. Don't forget to rate your horse once you both get comfortable with the new command. In fact, you should be rating her at every practice. If you're training with barrels, you should rate at all three.
9. Be patient. Horses will not learn how to switch leads on cue overnight. Make sure you don't over-practice your horse. Too much pattern and too many runs will cause her to sour. Do your lead switch drills about 2 to 3 times a week, about 4 to 5 runs per day.

Tips & Warnings

• Many people are against using spurs. If you don't use spurs in training or riding, just follow the steps above and ignore the spur; you can cue your horse with your heel the same way you use a spur.
• Teaching a horse the cue for a lead change while doing a figure 8 drill causes your horse to anticipate the change, which defeats the purpose of a "cue". You need to train her to switch on YOUR cue.
• Don't let anyone tell you that your horse is too old to learn this cue. It's easier when they're younger, but an old horse CAN learn new tricks.
• Do not over-practice your mare or she may sour. Add the lead switch drills to your normal practices, never doing them more than 3 times per week