Raised canter poles? also in CR

[tonitot]

ust been watching Team Fredericks on H&C to try and get a bit of inspiration for when I bring my horse back into work next week and saw them doing raised canter poles before a jump. I was thinking of giving this a go with my young green horse who finds schooling very boring unless it's kept varied with new challenges, I wouldn't have the jump at the end though just the poles. She loves her jumping but flat schooling she gets fed up with after a while and she doesn't pay much attention to poles on the ground (apart from when theyre first put down and she tries to jump them ) This means she tends to just trudge round the school and not put a lot of effort in and raised poles seem like they could help build her muscle up.

My question is, is doing raised canter (or trot actually) poles too much for a young green horse to do? I obviously wouldnt introduce them on the first schooling session after having a break, I would give her a few weeks/ a month or so before starting them but should I wait until she's older (she's 6) and more experienced?

 

[tonitot]

Bump

 

[be positive]

If she does not work correctly over poles on the ground in all 3 paces she is likely to do exactly the same with raised ones and potentially hurt herself in the process as she rushes over them trying to jump. To work over raised poles in any pace requires a level of fitness and concentration that she may struggle with so I would go back to basic pole work with her once she comes back into work.

Start with some random poles anywhere in the arena, they can be on angles, in 3s or individual, on a circle or just there! try and encourage her to focus and take care about where she places her feet, doing this in hand can help as you can see what they do, praise her when she picks up and makes an effort to do them properly, they can learn to take care and need to understand what to do, it does not always come as naturally as jumping but the realisation that they are supposed to pick up each foot and place it over a pole will help with both the jumping and flatwork.

Once she is more interested and careful start to raise one end, keep moving them around to help with focus, use them at different stages of your work with her, you can also put them in a row to help with balance and regularity in walk and trot, I often place them at canter length so they can be used in all 3 paces and have alternate ends raised, once she is able to do raised on one side you can try both ends but if she gets muddled go back a step.

 

[tonitot]

Thanks be positive Glad I asked now as I wasn't really sure about when to introduce them and your advice has helped a lot