When to start pole work and jumping

xxxloz123

xxxloz123

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Hi I have a rising 4 gelding (4 3rd of may) Was back and hacked out over the summer last year and has had winter off. I will be bringing him back into work in a couple of weeks. Just wanted to know what other people thought about when the best time is to start introducing poles etc. Thanks
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now - why not?
little 'n' often does the job, 4 years old is old enough to cope with relatively hard work - obviously dependent on fitness....
 
My horse was 4 years and 3 months when I bought him and his previous owner had already schooled him over poles and small jumps. There is no need to jump anything big as to be honest I've always thought that its the approach that counts rather than the height.
Even now (he's 5 in May) we dont jump anything big at all (I'm too chicken!) and we concentrate on the approach, speed, steering etc. Even in flat work lessons we pop small cross poles so that jumping is not seen as an "exciting" thing to do. I hate horses that rush or panic or get excited and fizzy when jumping so am keen for him to just accept the fact that they are apart of every life. Pole work is great as it really helps him to work out what he's doing with his legs!
So far he's doing great!
Good luck!
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Mine is the same age....and done the same
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Tbh we have already done poles, but only as part of groundwork and to keep things varied. He totally accepts walking and trotting over poles now, either as a row of three or just single poles. We also put wings and blocks and water trays etc around the place to get him used to them!
Hoping to do his first walk trot dressage test in May, and then we are off to RC camp in mid june so etween those two dates we will try a couple of crosspoles I think. The intention is all being well to have him trotting round a course of very small (up to 2'3) by the end of the summer - he is 16.2 so they would be less than knee high!
 
I usually start my 3 year olds over poles and introduce small jumps when they are in the 4th year.

If you go to Brightwells show jumping sales you will see 2 year olds free jumping over decent sized fences.

As a side note, one of my foals jumped the post and rail fence to get to him mate and another foal jumped the five bar gate when one of the yearlings was chasing him.
 
Theres nothing wrong with starting with the poles now as long as he is fit enough to do some trot/canter work. Polework is very good for lots of things, I use poles a lot when I`m schooling.
As for the jumping, you will know when to progress as he will let you know.
 
Cool
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il probably introduce then in a month or so as he hasnt done anything for a while, so maybe il start hacking him out to start off with
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