I splurged and bought the barn some more trot poles (8' landscaping timbers). They were going to make their big debut Tues night, but one of the old horses at the barn was mildly colicing (she's fine now) so I didn't actually end up riding.
Last night I set up 6 in a row on what I was guessing was 4-4 1/2' spacing (so he'd have to lift his legs over a pole each time he stepped forward). My idea was that this would force him to lift his back up so he had space to really step under himself and get over the poles. Pro wasn't too sure about the torture device when I pulled him out of his pasture so I walked/jogged him over them in hand before we went up to tack up.
He was actually good about not being spooky heading into them, but the spacing was clearly still a bit big for him as he was rushing through. That wasn't what I wanted at all so I did a lot of circles before and after going through them. He tends to lock onto the poles and tune his rider out so there was lots of "hey, remember me?" moments. Sometimes he went through them great, others it was sort of scary, but overall I think we both had fun. His impulsion hasn't been as good lately so I was mostly fine with him being very forward. A couple of the circles felt like he had pretty good suspension and was actually lifting his back. I tried pushing the poles closer together and things got worse for both Pro and the other horse who was out with us, so I ended up just making them 2 sets of 3 poles side by side and trotting through those a couple times before calling it quits.
I'm hoping to start incorporating poles in a more casual sort of way (poles at the quarter points of our 20m circle, random poles on the ground to just do whatever on) but does anyone have fun-filled pole exercises? Kate and I are trying to find some method to let us lift the poles off the ground some, but for now we've just got the flat poles.
5 comments:
ooooh, I LOVE poles. They do so much for the horse and the rider. I rarely use them straight though. I like to make designs and see what I can do with my horse.
Can I get him to strattle the pole? Can I get him in a tiny box? Can I get his right feet on one side and left on the other? Can I get just 1 foot over? Can I put that 1 foot in a corner? Etc.
I usually set them up about 4.5 - 5 feet for Skate...that makes him really reach and step under himself. Any shorter and he does the rushy thing b/c he has to put his feet down too quickly.
6 poles is a lot for a first try! I usually start with 2, then keep adding.
Some other exercises:
- trot 4 poles, halt, TOF, trot back over. Repeat.
- trot into 5 poles, walk after first 2, walk one, pick up trot over last 2. Keeps em from barreling through.
- Set 4 poles in a 20m circle at 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock. Walk, trot, canter.
I'm a big fan of poles as a casual part of groundwork -- Tango and I need to get better about using them. Sounds like you had an educational ride! I'd be interested to hear about the exercises you try.
wow, lots of good ideas were given for trot poles. I saw an article in Dressage today that had arabs in it doing lots of trot poles and it reminded me of Pro.
Yay, poles! Those are some good exercise suggestions, too!
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