My horse is terrified of Poles and nothing is working!

[LunaS0009]

Hi everyone, I am in dire need of advice regarding my 9 yo gelding.

I bought him when he was 4 and initially he would refuse to go over a pole - he would rear, bolt, buck etc and put up a hell of a challenge. I have worked with him for five years and there has been some slight improvement but considering the time span not really. When he walks over a pole he will tense and either stop and jump it, or dart over it. On a bad day he will refuse and be a challenge. In Trot he does the same however in canter he is very explosive and will leap over it from a mile. Cavalettis are a no go. I decided to take him back to basics, like in hand work over poles, walking through parallel poles and many pole exercises - you name it and I have probably done it. I made myself follow a consistent for two months with no improvement. I decided to try this riding but he still has a very worried eye and is very uncomfortable.

Ironically he is super at cross country, to include ditches, hurdle fences, water jump, and many scary fences. To add he is an excellent hacker and brilliant on the flat. He has had his back, teeth, eyes, feet checked and I am regular with appointments. This means that he is healthy and happy to do anything else but poles. I was able to take him over sj fences when I had a lead from his best horse buddy, but unfortunately he passed away and leads from other horses don’t work. He has not managed to jump and sj fence without a rodeo show since then..

He has undoubtedly had a bad experience. I have managed to desensitise him to many things such as cars, motor bikes, tinsel (lol), and anything he seems scared of and it has worked - just not with poles.

Feel free to ask me any questions. Advice is very much appreciated! Thank you.

 

[DabDab]

He sounds identical to my old horse that I lost last year. Though in the case of Dabs I don't believe he ever had a bad experience as I had him from an unbacked 3yo, he just never liked poles on the floor (he was also an excellent xc horse).

I did get him showjumping before he would readily go over a pole on the ground because he was much more comfortable once they were made into a recognisable jump. Unfortunately muscle issues always made him inconsistent to compete so we just jumped at home. And after methodically working through the technique below with him I could also do pole work with him without his brain falling out.

The best technique I found to help him was not to immediately ask him to go over the pole but just walk up to the point that he would start to get sticky and then stop. Allow him to stand there for a 30 seconds or so, and as long as he was looking at the pole, engaging with the question, then pat him and turn away from the pole. Then represent and do the same thing, and again and again getting slight closer each time, then stepping over. All this was done in hand in just a headcollar and leadrope, with the focus on just keeping everything calm and non dramatic.

After a few days of doing that with a single pole I then built it up to two poles spaced far apart and so on just gradually over time increasing the question at literally a snails pace. Then I repeated the whole process while riding him.

To the end of his days he would still be a bit funny about poles on the ground unless you presented him to them properly, but we could at least do pole work clinics etc in a civilised manner.

 

[HopOnTrot]

Stick a load of poles in the field. Make them a boring common place thing to step over.

 

[scats]

Stick a load of poles in the field. Make them a boring common place thing to step over.

This is a good suggestion. Also, is it just coloured poles, or rustic aswell?

That said, does he need to do polework? If he enjoys cross country and hacking, does he really need to enjoy showjumping?
Perhaps in my old age I’m becoming more relaxed about what horses should or shouldn’t be doing.

 

[McGrools]

A friend has an old boy in his 20’s now that is still extremely suspicious of poles. Every lesson was pretty much a reintroduction of the poles on the ground that were in the same place week after week. I think some just never get over it. Perhaps they are thinking snakes! Like huge big snakes! Sorry to not be more encouraging.
Xx

 

[LEC]

Tbh it’s probably too late as poles are now a major drama. I have had massive success with the Warwick Schiller method. It’s the story about the water jump on his FB. It’s about calming down the adrenaline and making them less anxious. It probably took me about a month of doing it nearly every day with a horse who was very anxious about my brush fence.

I have also found liberty work brilliant for building confidence if your horse is one who loves a treat.

I have kind of got more open with the way I think about stuff and find it often works really well on a horse who is anxious.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Does he really need to do poles?

 

[humblepie]

A friend has an old boy in his 20’s now that is still extremely suspicious of poles. Every lesson was pretty much a reintroduction of the poles on the ground that were in the same place week after week. I think some just never get over it. Perhaps they are thinking snakes! Like huge big snakes! Sorry to not be more encouraging.
Xx

My previous horse won BE and had a super jump. He was terrified of poles on the ground though and never got over that. We just didn’t do them. Good luck. Think lots of random poles a good idea.

 

[Dasher66]

Put poles in his field, feed him next to them, put a short one across the stable door and gateways.

 

[DabDab]

Poles scattered about the field and feeding next to poles made zero difference to my horse with a pole on floor issue. It was being asked to step over them that he had brain melt about, not the presence of poles themselves.

Even when turned out in a relatively small area like the arena, with poles scattered everywhere and other horses that were casually walking over the poles without a second thought, he would still choose to go around them.

 

[tda]

Tbh, if he was mine , unless I had a burning desire to be a showjumper, I'd leave him be, and not discuss the issue again....stick to what he's good at and enjoys

 

[eggs]

I once had a horse who was happy jumping show jumps and xc fences but really did not like poles on the ground. My instructor who was a BHSI said that some horses just don't seem to like / understand poles so as he didn't need to do pole work we didn't force the issue as they just made him very tense and anxious.

 

[dougpeg]

What's he like stepping over other things? A water tray, peice of carpet etc?
If he is comfortable walking past poles ypu could try walking him between two parallel poles and gradually bring them together, making the gap smaller and smaller.

 

[maya2008]

Clicker training. Done properly, it can change the association from 'bad' to 'good'. Done properly, it does NOT lead to them mugging for treats (I've found the opposite, as no 'click', no expectation of a treat). I learned off some YouTube videos and a bit of reading. It's been the only way in with the really traumatised feral ponies.

 

[Jellymoon]

I think he’s trying to tell you something and if you’ve had him 5 yrs, tried everything, and he still doesn’t like them, then give the poor guy a break and don’t do poles !!

 

[Jellymoon]

I’m not keen on birds, so if someone put loads of them in my house, doorways, by my dinner, I think I’d be constantly freaked out…

 

[MagicMelon]

Stick a load of poles in the field. Make them a boring common place thing to step over.

This, Id fence off a paddock for him (perhaps even a track round the edge of his field with poles all round it crossing his path so he HAS to step over the many times a day. Id think he'd get so bored of it, thatd fix him! To be fair though, if he really doesnt like them do you really need to do them? Some horses have certain jobs they enjoy and some dont. I had a horse once who simply didnt enjoy competing showjumping, in the end I sold him to a hacking home. If its really important to you to have a showjumper then maybe hes not the right horse. Sounds like a great XC horse though! Is he the same with brown poles? Would he do a WH course for example which is brown poles and natural XC jumps?