Pole exercises are a very effective yet simple way to help train any horse. A pole exercise is when one or multiple poles are laid out on the ground, usually making one or more box shapes. The horse can do poles at the walk, trot, or canter, and in different directions.

Body Building

First, these exercises are a bodybuilding workout for the horse. The poles encourage the horse to pick their legs up, allowing them to build and gain more muscles. The effect of this depends on how high the poles are. You can use risers under the poles in order to make them lift their legs higher and engage their hind-end more.

Coordination

Another way pole exercises help the horse is by forcing the horse to gain an understanding of where they are putting their feet. With the horse now having to consider the poles as an obstacle that they need to go over within their strides, it forces them to look and judge where and how large their strides should be. The more a horse practices this, the more likely they will be able to put this ability into action when jumping.

Stride Improvement

Pole exercises will also allow the horse to get used to changing the size of their strides depending on a certain course. Once again, if this exercise is continuously reinforced, the horse will become more comfortable with changing the size of their stride when given bigger and more technical courses.

Patience

Finally, pole exercises will also teach the horse to learn how to wait. A common problem seen in horses during this exercise is that they try to gain more speed when going over the poles, and effectively running off with the rider. This is an instinct that many horses also have when doing any type of jump or gymnastics. Therefore, working on this exercise tries to prevent the horse from running and help them to understand how to wait.

Want to Try for Yourself?

A suggestion for anyone wanting to do this exercise is to make sure you are using 9-foot boxes for cantering. You can add more poles or boxes and use raised poles depending on the difficulty you want.
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The videos below show DeeDee (a resident warmblood) and Evelyn doing a pole exercise. DeeDee’s main problem is not waiting, and the video demonstrates how this problem showed in her pole work. Evelyn completes this exercise correctly, showing what it is supposed to look like.

Learn More

For more helpful tools to train your horse, read our blog on Horse Gymnastics: A Necessary Evil.

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