Schooling exercises with poles

Hi KirstyKate, I'm basically looking for new things to try in the school and my horse hasn't been great with poles in the past (nervous/spooky etc.) so I'm just trying to do as much with them as possible so they become normal/non-scary/everyday.

She learns quickly and goes better when we do lots of different exercises (neither of us are impressed by trotting round the track endlessly!).

Ultimately, I want to improve on suppleness through her back and flexibility. We do lots of stretching exercises, circles, surpentines and lateral exercises like leg yeilding etc. but i wanted to involve some poles too! She is quite an active horse with a decent amount of impulsion naturally so it's mainly getting her relaxed and supple and used to poles!
 
Hi Elle,

I've got a gridwork lesson on Saturday and will do some jumping every other week-ish (she's got a huge jump so it's more backing her off them a bit than anything!). Although I want to do lots with poles I don't want to hammer her too much jumping-wise!
 
Not sure if will be any help for you, but noticed you said shes spookyish, i did do an exercise for mine where i do lots of different coloured poles around the arena on the floor in different places angles straight on a corner etc and just practice trotting,canter and walking over them in all different directions some with related distances where you can practice shortening and lengthening your strides. is good as dont have the consistency of having lots of poles in a straight line, great for practicing circles and suppelness as can fit a few togeather. Hope this helps :)
 
How about putting the poles around individually at random(ish) so that you decide when she goes over one?
So she can't see them in a long line and tense up to go over them.

Also a couple of poles then a 90% turn and then a couple more (obviously leaving space to do a good turn and get straightened)
 
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