Riding over poles on the floor, or poles raised on cavaletti, can help your horse with their proprioception, i.e. co-ordination of the movement of their own body, help them to lift their core, engage their hocks and work ‘through’ their back, as well as livening up a flatwork session. In terms of the scales of training, polework can make it easier to establish a consistent and correct rhythm, develop confidence in collection and extension, improve straightness and suppleness, and test the rider’s accuracy and control. Polework therefore has lots of benefits for ridden horses in every discipline, and many horses enjoy the variety of regular polework alongside their usual work routine.
There are likely to be regular polework clinics local to you, through Riding Club or from a qualified instructor running clinics privately. Group sessions can be a great way of making new friends and introducing your horse to working alongside others in preparation for warm ups at competitions, while private sessions are more focused on you and your horse as an individual combination and will be more tailored to your needs. We know not everyone can afford lessons very regularly, and so our series of Polework Exercises for Horses is designed to give you some inspiration to help improve your horse’s way of going when you are riding alone – all you need is an arena or safe field to ride in and some wooden or plastic poles!
The first exercise we have chosen tests your ability to keep a consistent and appropriate rhythm both on a straight line as well as on approach to and on landing from a roll-back turn. The exercise will improve your ability to ride a straight line, get your eye in to maintain a consistent rhythm, and balance your horse through turns.
Start by riding a straight line over the 3 poles at the bottom of the arena. If these 3 poles are set at 3.5 yards apart, they are canter poles for a horse, intended to open up the canter and create “jump”. If you have a pony, you can move them in to 3 yards apart. For showjumpers, canter poles help to create a canter with enough impulsion for the horse to jump from; for dressage horses, these poles are likely to help to develop ground cover and energy in the canter.
Once you are riding up to and away from these poles in a steady rhythm that feels the same before and after the poles, start to include the pole at the end of the arena. You can put this pole as a related distance from the canter poles to test your ability to keep that big canter in a straight line – for a horse, a canter stride is 4 yards and you will want to accommodate for landing from a pole with an extra yard, and taking off for the next pole with another extra yard. A 4 stride distance between poles, for example, would therefore measure 18 yards for a horse, while a 5 stride distance would be walked at 22 yards, if the intention is to open up the canter. For a pony, you will want to move the poles in, and by how much depends on the size of the pony.
Once you have established a good rhythm through the canter poles to the pole at the end of the related distance, you can start to go from the canter poles on a curved line to one of the poles on a diagonal. To do this exercise properly, you will have to canter through the first 3 poles staying straight and looking where you are heading, aiming to ride a balanced curved line and straighten your horse before meeting the pole on the diagonal. This exercise is difficult and can take some practice to perfect – because your horse has been continuing in a straight line every time they have gone over the canter poles so far, they will not be expecting to turn to one of the poles on an angle, and so lots of outside leg as well as a half halt on landing from the canter poles will be needed to guide them over! Riding this line helps to develop your horse’s ability to balance through turns and listen to the rider, tests the rider’s accuracy and straightness as well as their ability to collect to make a smooth and balanced turn. In terms of showjumping, the exercise is likely to help the rider to improve control between fences, riding a rhythmical and balanced line from pole to pole rather than continuing straight. This line would be called a curved line or ‘dog leg’ in showjumping.
Once you have mastered turning to both diagonal poles, you can then continue around the arena to approach the other diagonal pole from the opposite side and then back to your canter poles – making a shape like a funnel. Riding this roll back turn to the second diagonal pole and then to the canter poles tests your ability to collect and balance your horse to make the turn without shutting down the canter – if your canter becomes too under-powered on the turn, your canter poles will not ride smoothly. On the other hand, if you rush the rhythm and create a fast rather than powerful canter, your turn will become unbalanced. This combination of lines is quite technical and will take some practice!
There are lots of variations of different lines you can practice with these poles set out, and the above is designed simply to give you some ideas! Whichever of these poles you choose to ride over in whatever order, this exercise is bound to get your horse and you thinking, developing suppleness, accuracy, straightness and balance.
