however, the horse makes the change of lead in the course of the movement, these changes are made without pause or change of gait.
CONTRE-CHANGE OF HANDS
CONTRE-CHANGE of hand is a figure of manege resembling the square. After the horse has passed the short side of the ring and has taken about ten steps on the long side, the rider begins a diagonal change of direction by the half-passage. Arrived at the point, A, ten steps from the center, O, of the manege, the horse is put straight again for twenty steps to B; and after that returns to the long side by a half-passage at C, at the same hand as before the execution of the figure.
At the walk the figure is quite complicated if the tempo of the gait is regular; but the trot is more complicated, because of the difficulty in obtaining the tempo and the regular number of steps.
At the gallop, the difficulties are multiplied by the three changes of lead. The rider being at the right hand before the movement, executes the half-passage leading to the right to A or B, at which point the lead has to be changed from right to left to execute the half-passage from B to C. Arrived at C, the lead is to the left and has to be changed to the right at C. Finally, the horse, now returned to the right-hand lead, has to turn the corner at this new hand, which is the same as that before the execution of the figure.
