Pole exercises to develop the canter

[HayleyUK]

Anyone got any lovely exercises up their sleeve they’d share with me?

My little Connie arrived from Ireland in Jan, and is coming on leaps and bounds - she’s super trainable, mega chilled about life and just an all round good egg.
I’m thrilled with her.

Walk and trot are really coming along and are already much softer over the back and her topline, her canter still needs some work to help her soften her back and lift it up under me to stay soft over her topline rather than flattening it underneath me.

I’ve got some flatwork exercises, but trying to mix it up a bit so looking for some pole work exercises to help her out a bit and avoid her being bored!

Thanks!

 

[Sprat]

I think in all honesty, any kind of polework that you can incorporate into your canter work will benefit. I’m crap at doing canter poles as it’s a faff to put right if one gets knocked, but I always feel the benefits afterwards.

A simple line of poles will help, and when established at this you could begin to raise alternate ends. Another exercise I like is to drop two poles at a fairly decent distance away from each other, and count the strides between. Next time you come around, try and shorten the canter to fit an extra stride in (not as easy as it sounds!). Equally, you can then try to lengthen to reduce the strides between.

There’s loads of polework pages on facebook, and pinterest is a good place to look for inspiration.

 

[SpringArising]

I like to put poles out at a set distance and then play with increasing or decreasing the stride length between. E.g. if you set them out at four strides apart, try for five strides, then six, then back to five etc.

I also really like just simple canter poles - five or six of them to teach an easy rhythm. Or one pole over X and working on getting a change over it.

 

[oldie48]

I have booked into a polework clinic with Rose for Saturday so if the trainer comes up with anything, I'll let you know. Focus is developing med trot and canter so there should be something that's helpful.

 

[Fiona]

1. a trot fan
2. a canter fan

Both or these can be set up in a corner of the school so you have plenty of space left.

3. an approx. 20m distance between 2 poles, and vary the strides in between.

My connie couldn't canter more than half a circle until he was 6 though, his canter was definitely very late to develop.

Fiona

 

[HayleyUK]

Thanks everyone!

 

[Bernster]

The fan shape is a good one and you can use the inner or outer to help develop in between the pace (shorten or extend).

My ins did a fab one with two straight poles in the middle, then two outer on both sides of the school in an arrow formation pointing towards the middle of each straight pole, I took a note of it but I really should have taken a pic as I can’t remember now how to set it up! It was brill for learning flying changes though. Will ask her again!

Put fewer out at the earlier stages and over time increase the number and raise them, as their balance and strength improves.