"Getting" The Correct Lead
Understanding necessity of getting correct leads is important (crucial to survival of the horse). Getting compliance from our horses and riders is another matter entirely. We know, they do, would be the plan.
We want inside lead on the turns, outside lead on the straightaway in every gallop. The need for compliance in terms of injury prevention increases geometrically as speed increases although it remains perpetually iffy for a horse to travel 3/4 a mile on one lead regardless of speed. At speed this same exercise is a virtual guarantor of the beginnings an injury of some sort, keeping in mind the difference between the normal time on one lead--2 to 2.5f is extended to 6f or three times the normal distance.
Some of the lead changing is automatic with the horse, some of it needs to be got by the rider.
The general deal is also the ideal practice--going into the Clubhouse turn the horse switches right lead to left lead around the 7.5f marker. They hit a little past the 5.5f straightening into the back stretch and its back to the right. Going into the final turn most horses will, well before the 3.5f, switch to the left "with enthusiasm" just attacking the final turn, and then generally having fatigued the left switch to the right before the 3/16th exactly as they turn into the straight away. Occasionally I'll gallop a horse fast around the final turn and feel it switch to the right prematurely as it has tired on its left.
That's what is supposed to happen, whatever the speed. There are a few practical difficulties to achieve this in many rides.
The first potential problem comes with the inception of the gallop. We need the horse to get the correct lead right off the bat, for if it's otherwise we have a screwed up gallop a good bit of way around the track.
Getting the correct lead initially--at the Woodlands--demanded a warm up gallop down the straightway on the left lead diagonal--i.e. the minute the horse walks onto the track the rider need be aware of the position of the horse and its legs at the walk since take off on the trot, in terms of diagonals, depends largely on footfall at the walk. That the horse need be walking correctly is the first step in getting the correct initial lead! If our rider is jawing with a buddy at this point, our chances of getting this right will be exactly 50-50.
For the rider, he's at the 3/16th looking at the long cuppy straighaway sitting on a excitable animal whose body weight may be shifted in the correct position for the trot or the wrong position. The correct rider aids need be given at inception of the trot--i.e. the horse's head need be cranked to the outside, right foot pressure on the horses rear, reins pulled gently in tandem to the left, stand up and hopefully this horse starts a trot on the correct diagonal to get a left lead gallop around the finish line. It's hard believing, if ur watching this from the ground, that this little sequence may be the most important part of the whole gallop. Screw this up, and there's going to be lead change trouble ahead.
When the horse does begin its trot at the 3/16th, for the rider, there is the Q, is the horse in fact trotting on the correct diagonal. People on the ground give riders way too much credit. Riders "know" they think, about trot diagonals, leads etc. The presumption is that the rider at the trot can feel what diagonal the horse is on.
Not necessarily. Truth is what diagonal the horse is trotting on is very difficult to feel. Riders may "think" they know the horse is on the correct diagonal only to see the horse take off on the wrong lead at the gallop which is the evidence the rider was "mistaken".
Break this technique down yet a little more, next post.
Training:
Sat 10/22--trot-gallop up and down the hill. Nice calm work with fastest in about :17s setting up for next day faster yet.
Sun: 10/23: arrive late due to pro foot ball, and naturally, minute they see me coming they start fight and racing each other. Happens this time of year. These two these days totally outsmart me and I was hardly able to locate them as they galloped one end to the other of the 18 acres. Got in a few nice spurts by the lazy one, but unable to catch 'em before dark. Did have one positive aspect--that this horse covers ground so quickly in the straight it's almost breath taking. The one thing that keeps me going with the fellow.
We want inside lead on the turns, outside lead on the straightaway in every gallop. The need for compliance in terms of injury prevention increases geometrically as speed increases although it remains perpetually iffy for a horse to travel 3/4 a mile on one lead regardless of speed. At speed this same exercise is a virtual guarantor of the beginnings an injury of some sort, keeping in mind the difference between the normal time on one lead--2 to 2.5f is extended to 6f or three times the normal distance.
Some of the lead changing is automatic with the horse, some of it needs to be got by the rider.
The general deal is also the ideal practice--going into the Clubhouse turn the horse switches right lead to left lead around the 7.5f marker. They hit a little past the 5.5f straightening into the back stretch and its back to the right. Going into the final turn most horses will, well before the 3.5f, switch to the left "with enthusiasm" just attacking the final turn, and then generally having fatigued the left switch to the right before the 3/16th exactly as they turn into the straight away. Occasionally I'll gallop a horse fast around the final turn and feel it switch to the right prematurely as it has tired on its left.
That's what is supposed to happen, whatever the speed. There are a few practical difficulties to achieve this in many rides.
The first potential problem comes with the inception of the gallop. We need the horse to get the correct lead right off the bat, for if it's otherwise we have a screwed up gallop a good bit of way around the track.
Getting the correct lead initially--at the Woodlands--demanded a warm up gallop down the straightway on the left lead diagonal--i.e. the minute the horse walks onto the track the rider need be aware of the position of the horse and its legs at the walk since take off on the trot, in terms of diagonals, depends largely on footfall at the walk. That the horse need be walking correctly is the first step in getting the correct initial lead! If our rider is jawing with a buddy at this point, our chances of getting this right will be exactly 50-50.
For the rider, he's at the 3/16th looking at the long cuppy straighaway sitting on a excitable animal whose body weight may be shifted in the correct position for the trot or the wrong position. The correct rider aids need be given at inception of the trot--i.e. the horse's head need be cranked to the outside, right foot pressure on the horses rear, reins pulled gently in tandem to the left, stand up and hopefully this horse starts a trot on the correct diagonal to get a left lead gallop around the finish line. It's hard believing, if ur watching this from the ground, that this little sequence may be the most important part of the whole gallop. Screw this up, and there's going to be lead change trouble ahead.
When the horse does begin its trot at the 3/16th, for the rider, there is the Q, is the horse in fact trotting on the correct diagonal. People on the ground give riders way too much credit. Riders "know" they think, about trot diagonals, leads etc. The presumption is that the rider at the trot can feel what diagonal the horse is on.
Not necessarily. Truth is what diagonal the horse is trotting on is very difficult to feel. Riders may "think" they know the horse is on the correct diagonal only to see the horse take off on the wrong lead at the gallop which is the evidence the rider was "mistaken".
Break this technique down yet a little more, next post.
Training:
Sat 10/22--trot-gallop up and down the hill. Nice calm work with fastest in about :17s setting up for next day faster yet.
Sun: 10/23: arrive late due to pro foot ball, and naturally, minute they see me coming they start fight and racing each other. Happens this time of year. These two these days totally outsmart me and I was hardly able to locate them as they galloped one end to the other of the 18 acres. Got in a few nice spurts by the lazy one, but unable to catch 'em before dark. Did have one positive aspect--that this horse covers ground so quickly in the straight it's almost breath taking. The one thing that keeps me going with the fellow.
posted by rather rapid at
9:23 AM
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