Doubles and poles??

[Lill]

Will be doing grids later on, 3 fences, with one stride of canter in between each one but want to put poles on the ground inbetween the fences, say if you have 7 human strides between the fences do the poles on the ground go at 3 1/2 human strides ? Directly in the middle?

And placing pole is that 3 1/2 strides away from the first fence?

 

[StaceyTanglewood]

I thought it was 3 stides away from the fence and a normal horses stride is actually 8 human strides ?

 

[Rambo]

One horse stride is 8 yards (or human strides if you prefer) but that may ride long over smaller fences, in an indoor school, or if approached from trot, so work with what your horse can do. Placing poles in between the fences should be in the middle...so 4 yards in an 8 yard double.

Placing poles in front of fences are a little different though as the optimum point of take-off varies depending on the height of the fence. A horses back legs act as a lever and levers work optimally at 45 degrees...so if you are jumping a 4' fence ideally the take off point should be 4' in front of the fence...a placing pole should be used to guide you to the correct area. As a rough guide though about somewhere between 3 and 4 yards will do depending on whether you are approaching in trot or canter.

 

[Lill]

I do prefer human strides

Ye 8 seems a little long for them (generally) in the arena at home especially as the jumps won't be higher than about 3ft3 or 3ft6 (

)at a push.

We need the poles inbetween the jumps to slow down B's horse, am hoping this will work as he tends to rush and jump huge or rush and not jump at all