Fun polework exercises! Suggestions please???

[Sol]

Few weeks ago I found out that my silly creature absolutely adores polework

Someone offered to leave poles out and I thought well, why not! Thought he might break his neck as he's all legs and tends to tie them in knots but he proved me wrong!

Have since done poles in straight lines mostly a few times over the last week (usually only do anything with poles if I have a helper!) and tonight did canter poles on a circle which he loved on the right rein and hated on the left! (his weaker rein)

Can anyone suggest any fun/good/useful exercises using poles?? He always seems to settle so much quicker if there are poles out!

Guess he enjoys it!

 

[carthorse]

Raise pole on one side then the next on the other side and so on down the line, trot poles on a circle and use middle then shorten stride and do nearer the middle then lengthen stride and do the outside , always keep to the same part of the pole[ no cheating and letting him slip out]
A line of poles 3 strides apart, walk over centre of first pole then circle around end of pole come back over pole and walk over second pole and circle other way around the end of the pole and so on up the poles , then try it in trot

 

[Bert&Maud]

There's a book called "Schooling with ground poles" by Claire Lilley which has some really good exercises in it.

 

[Peanot]

Place 4 on a circle at the points of a clock, eg, pole at 3, 6, 9 12 o clock. Walk, trot and canter over these aiming for the same mark in the middle.
Place 4 poles in a square a canter stride apart, but a small canter stride as it will collect the horse. Start on one rein and keep on this rein eg, over pole, through middle, over next pole so in canter. it would be a canter stride, then go straight for 2 strides, then turn on same rein, then round to the next side and repeat then do same on other rein. This exercise makes you precise in your turns. Aim for the centre of the poles. It is hard to get at first but well worth it esp in canter.
These 2 exercises are the ones that I use a lot as it gets the horse listening and precise.

 

[Sol]

Thanks all!
Tass - I think that's the book I plan on buying, but a little short on cash right now! xP (I remember seeing it but not the title... must go search on amazon!)

 

[Shazzababs]

Try putting 2 poles on a slight diagonal line to each other. The poles need to be parralell with the track, and not the diagonal if you know what I mean.

You can then either ride a stright line between the poles (or and this is more fun), ride over the first, and then leg yield until you are over the centre of the second and ride over the second. You can do it in walk trot and canter, and vary the angle and the distance between the poles to make it easier or harder. Its good practice for placing the horse at a paticular point on the fence.

Another good one is to place 2 poles 4 'easy' canter strides apart. First get 4 canter strides between the poles. Then try for 5, 6, 7, 8 and so on and see how many you can get in between. Then try the other way, can you extend and do it in 3? This advanced version is to get someone else to shout out the number of strides to put in as you go over the first pole.