Raised Canter Poles Distance?

[AngG]

Hello

Anyone able to provide me with an approximation of the distance for raised canter poles? Horse is 15.3h but he has a big canter and struggles with his balance in canter, he does however get very excited by jumping and even a pole on the floor is enough to ignite him.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

9ft (you can stretch out to 12ft, but would start @ 9ft).

 

[Lotty]

When I do canter strides using poles I don't raise them until she goes over them balanced and in rhythm, then I will raise every other one at one end only. I normally start with 1 x canter pole and when she's balanced and her rhythm is nice I will introduce 3. When she's going nice I put down 5 x canter poles approx 8/9ft apart. My mare is 16.1hh and this suits her fine. Be careful not to over do it as its quite hard work for them, especially when raised.

 

[AngG]

thanks for the advice, very grateful!

i definitely will follow your advice Lotty as that sounds like a good way to gradually build them in to his work. As what i am aiming to do (as a working progress) is to to help him sit back and balance himself in the canter.

Just an additional question on when we progress to raising them, do you raise either end alternately?

Thank you!

 

[scheherazade]

once you are confident going over the canter poles nicely, you can raise alternate ends, then gradually build up to a grid of bounces (keep them very small though and don't do too much cos this is really hard work for them)