Pole work exercises

[oldie48]

I have just started introducing Rose to pole work which she seems to enjoy without being silly about it. What are your favourite exercises that you can set out and use when you are on your own, please?

 

[Littlebear]

I follow 'inspire dressage' on facebook and she gives loads of good ideas for polework exercises - worth a look!

 

[ihatework]

I follow 'inspire dressage' on facebook and she gives loads of good ideas for polework exercises - worth a look!

I was just about to say this.
I’m very unimaginative but copied a lot of their ideas last year!

 

[Denbob]

I loooooove pole work! Over the winter I've had at least two poles out for a good 3/4 of my schooling sessions, even if they're just to practice halting between. Quite often I'll just set up two poles a non-measured distance apart and work on controlling the gears within the paces so seeing if I can shorten to add a stride or lengthen to take one away. Pinterest usually has some good ones!

 

[scats]

I love pole work but I’m on my own and hate lugging poles about so I tend to only put one set out.

 

[scats]

I do like using the bridge exercise and it’s great coz you only need 2 poles. Two poles creating a tunnel somewhere near or on the 3/4 line (nearer track for novicey horses and further away for more established horses)
Ride a shallow loop off the track just after the second short side, straighten up down the tunnel and then leg yield back to the track. You can play around with this depending on the horse and have them shoulder-in through the tunnel or whatever you want. The tunnel acts as a visual guide for you as a rider to aim for perfect steps down that tunnel.

 

[Chippers1]

I googled pole work and some good ones came up, I've been doing some with mine (when I get a chance!) and I like the square of 4 poles that you can go any way over, across corners and straights sides and everything. I mix it up each time I come back across so he's can't anticipate which side he's supposed to be going across.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I love pole work but I’m on my own and hate lugging poles about so I tend to only put one set out.

Have to agree! I see these ace exercises with 30 poles.. would take me 30 minutes to set it out, to ride for 30 and then have to put them away, just not time efficient! I prefer to hire a outdoor arena up the road for £15 that has tons of pole exercises out on alternative weeks.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

I like putting 4 trot poles out slightly inside of the track at both A and C (so 8 poles total). I start out by riding walk diagonals over the poles, so ride from one corner to the other then half 10m circle back towards the poles and then repeat until the horse is relaxed and striding out nicely. You can also do this in trot. This is also a great exercise to use during long and low work to stop the horse dropping onto the forehand.

The layout also works great for checking your centrelines so ride between the poles at A either straight down to C or to X and then HP/LY to change reins.

I'll also use them as part of a 20m circle, so trot over the poles and then ask for canter to encourage the horse to bring its back end underneath it and then back to trot before the poles. I find this really helps me to focus on the rhythm of the canter and riding back over the poles after my canter/trot transition really helps me stay disciplined in making sure that we don't rush the second trot transition.

 

[oldie48]

Thanks for all your idea so far keep them coming! Rose is weak behind and anything that helps to strengthen her up is really helpful as we don't have much in the way of hills that I can ride easily.