Walking, Lunging and Jumping over poles

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Amys_Babies

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I want to get buddy starting to go over poles when lunging but i haven't tried walking him over poles since xmas and he weren't to keen on it and i just let him get away with it. Now that he is getting close to 3 now i would like him to be a bit more confident and walk over them plus i think it would be something new for him do to whilst lunging.

Any tips or ideas to get him going with this???
 
start with one on the ground but maybe put one at the side so if he tries to dodge it he still has to go over one. definitely do it in hand first. i've just done this with mine and we started doing it in hand and then i just got further and further away until he lunged over them. make sure you do it both ways though as mine definitely has a preference and is far more likely to try and avoid it one way round on the circle than the other. also make sure you just use one pole until he's totally happy with it. i personally then move up to a row of 4 because otherwise they just try to jump the lot!
 
Balance poles on blocks at right angles to the trotting poles and then lead horsey over them on a lunge line but in hand, so you have 20 ft of rope at your disposal in case he has an epi, but he can follow you through the channel of poles.

Do on both reins and then as alex said just move further away from his head.

This is how I started my now 3yr old and she loves the pole work. She's progressed to doing trotting poles and small jumps with her saddle on, and will walk over and jump over plastic and paper feed bags confidently, held down with poles, plus long rein over the same, and round barrels etc. She finds it all a lot of fun I think.

My unbroken New Forest fillies were never that keen on jumping on the lunge, OK with trotting poles so I guess it depends on the horse. They weren't frightened, they just wanted to climb over everything rather than leap!
 
Thanks for your replies everyone...you have all gave me some great ideas to try with him over the weekend.
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