Exercises to encourage bascule

v poles either on the floor or agaisnt the fence really help mine and if he is being a little careless (he is an ex hurdler) then I take away the ground line so it appears v poley and airy which gets him up and off the floor :D
 
it depends why the horse isn't basculing well, really. if it's because the horse is rushing, say, then i'd maybe do a grid of
placing pole, bounce, 1 stride to parallel
so that the bounce slowed the horse down and made it think then 1 perfect stride to a decent parallel to get the horse to use itself properly.
a grid with slightly short distances, either to a low wide parallel or two (if you want the bascule to open out because it's too up and down) or a high-ish X pole or two (if you want an up and neat bascule). pole across the top of an oxer is a good one. perfect distance to an ascending spread to get a big confident jump that you can then refine.
placing poles to get to a consistent spot, if necessary.
sorry, a bit of a complicated answer, but it depends on the root cause of the lack of bascule, really.
 
^^^ what she said- you need to work out why you need to sort the bascule out... but generally i use a lot of very high sided X poles to help encourage careful legs and a good technique :)
 
kerilli said:
it depends why the horse isn't basculing well, really. if it's because the horse is rushing, say, then i'd maybe do a grid of
placing pole, bounce, 1 stride to parallel
so that the bounce slowed the horse down and made it think then 1 perfect stride to a decent parallel to get the horse to use itself properly.
a grid with slightly short distances, either to a low wide parallel or two (if you want the bascule to open out because it's too up and down) or a high-ish X pole or two (if you want an up and neat bascule). pole across the top of an oxer is a good one. perfect distance to an ascending spread to get a big confident jump that you can then refine.
placing poles to get to a consistent spot, if necessary.
sorry, a bit of a complicated answer, but it depends on the root cause of the lack of bascule, really.
Click to expand...

Kerilli do you ever go to the pub and have a pint and a fag?
You are a proper brainiac. Where did you get all this stuff in your head?
I wish I lived nearer to you and you could Kerilli me!
 
teebagsmum said:
Kerilli do you ever go to the pub and have a pint and a fag?
You are a proper brainiac. Where did you get all this stuff in your head?
I wish I lived nearer to you and you could Kerilli me!
Click to expand...

Oh gawd, you're right, I have no life! Call it the natural frustration of a brain that is restricted to mucking out stables... ;) ;)
Tbh I've had a few really great trainers over the years, one of whom was a gridwork specialist, who built grids to solve just about any problem. He'd come to the yard I was on every week and every horse would do a 20 min gridwork session, specially tailored to that horse, from green babies to the old former 4* horse. This trainer's gone now, bless him, but he was an absolute superstar and I just try to keep his ideas going around, really.
R.I.P. Derrick, a great guy, taken far too soon.
 
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