Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity.
This week’s question posed is: What is your favorite pole exercise to help a student, horse, or both in practicing skills for jumping?
Here are their answers:
“I like to use a single takeoff rail. I can adjust the distances based on what it is I’m working on and how much space there is. If a rider seems tight, I make the takeoff rail a bit of a forward two or three strides. If a rider seems to be rushing, I can make that same two or three strides a bit on the short side. This rail can also be very helpful placed about 9’ in front of a trot jump to help with timing.” -Stacia Madden
Read more about Stacia and listen to her on the Plaidcast here.
“There are so many exercises I like to use, the most popular are:
- Single rail on the wall cantering to a straight line halt in the corner
- Two poles 60 ft apart counting strides land 1, 2, 3, etc.
- Four caveletti 4’9” apart trotting
All exercises help a rider’s concentration and focus while working in heels, eyes, and timing.”-Diane Carney
Read more from Diane and listen to her on the Plaidcast here.
“At least two times a week, I set polls up either in a straight line or a bending line. I make my students (and myself) practice getting the correct step count, then the add, and then the leave out.
Sometimes we only work on getting the correct step count. It’s a great exercise to work on pace and train your eye without having to jump. I think it’s actually harder than jumping because there is nothing to back the horses up off of. You have to really work on their canter.”-Julie Conner-Daniels
“A simple pole exercise that I like to use with riders who are learning to find distances and manage their horse’s stride and rhythm is to set canter poles both before and after a jump.
Usually I will set the first ground pole about 5 strides in front of the jump, and the second pole about 3 or 4 strides after the jump. This exercise trains the rider to maintain a steady, balanced rhythm without making last-minute adjustments on the approach to the jump, and then it helps them recover quickly on the landing side and manage their horse’s stride and balance to fit 3 or 4 strides in before the second pole.
By focusing on consistent pacing and proper balance, the correct distance to the fence naturally falls into place.”-Alex Arute-Kacheris
Read more from Alex and listen to her on the Plaidcast here.
“My favorite pole exercise to help a horse and rider over fences really focuses on creating a more adjustable horse and allow the rider to better understand how to ask the horse to be more adjustable.
To do this, I like to set poles that measure a 5 or 6 stride line. First, have them do the correct number of strides, then try to add as many strides as they can as well as leaving out a stride or two. So if the line is set as a 6 stride, have the rider try to do 7 strides, and then 8 strides, and then go back and do 6 strides, or even 5 strides.
If the rider can make their horse do all these different strides, I think it makes it easier for the rider to adjust the horse’s stride over jumps. This is especially helpful for a horse with a big stride that isn’t as good at collecting it naturally. I also like to set up poles in a circle. We call it “The Circle of Death”. I like to set the poles 4 or 5 strides apart and have the rider keep a consistent canter and track to go over the center of each pole. This helps the rider understand how to ride a bending line, keep the horse straight, and turn with their leg. If the rider steers off their inside hand, they will likely end up jumping the far side of the pole and will not get an easy 4 strides as a result. I think this helps a rider learn how to control and balance their horse, which then makes it easier to do when jumps are involved.” – Madelyn Van Tiem
Read more Trainer Tuesday Responses from Madelyn here.
