Exercises with poles

[Mary Poppins]

I'm hoping to start doing some jumping with Bailey. His owner doesn't jump him, but apparently previous sharers have and this is something that he enjoys. She has warned me that he gets very strong and needs to be ridden in a gag for jumping - something which I find hard to believe.

I thought that I would start by doing some basic polework with him. My idea was that I would put 2 poles on the ground at about 10m apart. Between these poles I could do changes of pace (trot to walk etc.), practice halting between them (trot to halt and canter to halt) and try doing some extension and collection of all paces (5 strides first time, 4 strides next time etc.). The idea is that I could see how he reacts to the poles and get him used to going over them whilst not actually jumping.

Does this sound like a good idea? Has anyone got any other tips on polework exercises I could try?

 

[tiga]

A couple that we do are:

On a 20 metre circle (about) have four poles at 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock. You can use them for walk, trot and canter. We use them to help our accuracy, so aiming for the middle etc.

Have 3 trot poles across the diagonal.

We also set up a small course but just of poles so we can practise our approach and turns. You can start of with just 2 and then add more in as you go along.

We use another one but I can't really explain it - I am spatially challenged!

Also have some fanned out in a corner. You can move him up and down the poles to make it harder and do it walk and trot.

have fun. My RI said it is always good to school with at least one pole somewhere as it helps the horse focus and makes it more interesting. Also makes them less excited when you start jumping.

 

[Nimbus65]

Sounds very similar to Kal: a) he's been pretty unbalanced (although the schooling he's receiving is helping out with this; and b) he gets very excited about jumping so he tended to tow his rider to the fence and then throw himself over it (often much too high).

We've done alot of pole work with him - both on the lunge and under saddle to get him to WAIT. Trotting poles (I put them five of them on a curve in a corner of the school) make him wait because he has to think about where to put his feet - and I encourage him to trot over the poles in different places - so at the narrow end of the curve, in the middle and at the wider end - making him a) (again) think about his striding; and b) stretch or shorten depending which end we're trotting over. We don't do canter poles because he just jumps them!

Another thing we've done is to harness his natural desire to go and jump the fence and circle him in front of a fence until he waits for the rider's aids/doesn't rush. I wouldn't do this with a horse who stopped in front of a fence, but b/c he so wants to jump, he learns he needs to be balanced and calm before he can jump the fence - jumping is the reward. One other thing that has worked well is grid work . . . if there's another fence just two or three strides after the one he's just jumped, he learns pretty quickly not to overjump the first element . . . oh, and bounces work well here too - they don't need to be high - they're just there to once again) get him to back off a little bit and balance himself.

Hope those help!

 

[Kate F.]

I thought that I would start by doing some basic polework with him. My idea was that I would put 2 poles on the ground at about 10m apart. Between these poles I could do changes of pace (trot to walk etc.), practice halting between them (trot to halt and canter to halt) and try doing some extension and collection of all paces (5 strides first time, 4 strides next time etc.). The idea is that I could see how he reacts to the poles and get him used to going over them whilst not actually jumping.

Does this sound like a good idea? Has anyone got any other tips on polework exercises I could try?

Sounds like an excellent plan! You can also halt over a pole - front legs on one side and back legs on the other. Then try halting with just one foot over the pole. Or put the front feet over, and side pass along the pole. These sort of things help keep the horse with you, and waiting for the next instruction because the pole is not necessarily for going over.

I absolutely agree with you - a gag isn't the answer to anything. If the horse is getting too strong, it's a training issue. A horse that is happy and confident jumping doesn't rush. The horse's answer to fear is to run, and I think it's a bit of a myth that horses that rush "love jumping" - usually, they are running away, and with a bit of confidence building, they stop rushing and develop much better style.

You can also set up a row of say 5 poles set fairly wide apart and circle in to the line between 2 and 3, for example, then the next time go down the whole line, the next time between 1 and 2 etc. (Circle into the line rather than out of it, or you can plant the idea of running out.)

Also - don't forget about WALKING over poles. Very important and much neglected by many people. Just getting them used to stuff on the ground and organising their own feet accordingly works wonders in building confidence and stopping rushing.

 

[Skib]

Sounds like an excellent plan! You can also halt over a pole - front legs on one side and back legs on the other. Then try halting with just one foot over the pole.

I reported on the phobia's thread how I hate transitions with just front feet over the pole. Especially into trot.
We do this, even without jumping in mind. It fits in with some NH stuff, like being very exact about the positon of each single foot of the horse, and transitioning and turning on the exact step.
Warning though - it forces the rider to have their eyes on the ground as close to the horse as possible - tendency for me as old lady wearing glasses to try to peer down and lean forward.
Out hacking I have my eye on the ground some distance ahead of my horse and that doesnt affect my seat?