Improve Your Performance With Poles

Pole exercises for horses can be a great addition to your schooling sessions, keeping things exciting for both you and your horse. You can be as creative as you like, setting out as many different shapes and lines as your imagination will allow! As well as making flatwork more exciting, horse polework can also help develop your horse’s core stability, improving balance, control and steering, as Petplan Equine vet Juliette Edmonds explains.

‘I find polework for horses very useful for many things and advocate its use during training and rehabilitation from a wide range of injuries,’ she says.  ‘It is a versatile training method, which can be used at walk, trot or canter, in-hand or ridden and can help increase the range of motion in the limbs and spine, while providing low-impact exercise particularly when used at the walk and in-hand.

‘Poles can improve a horses’ proprioception (awareness of the placement of the limbs), balance, rhythm, suppleness and straightness. In young horses I find walking over poles in-hand can noticeably improve their proprioception, which benefits their balance when ridden, particularly when jumping or crossing uneven ground, for example, during cross country.’

For horses returning from injury, there has often been a period of rest and possible confinement, which can lead to stiffness and muscle-mass loss from inactivity. Juliette will often recommend walking over poles during the ground-work period between box rest and returning to ridden exercise.

‘This can help to encourage improved joint flexibility and start to build topline and hindquarter muscle with controlled in-hand exercise,’ she explains. ‘There is also the benefit of increasing a horse’s interest levels in slower ridden work or ground work – by keeping the work varied, they are more likely to stay engaged and interested, and hopefully enjoy the work more.’

Trot poles can be used to help train a horse to shorten or extend the trot stride, and the exercise can be made more strenuous by raising the poles to increase the activity required and add elevation to the pace.

‘Canter poles are particularly useful prior to jump training to establish the correct canter rhythm and pace required so that the stride pattern is correct when the poles become fences on related distances,’ Juliette says. ‘I use poles on a curve to add engagement of the inside hindleg. Used in both directions, this will improve hindlimb engagement evenly and therefore encourage the horse to move and jump straight.’

Fancy having a go? We’ve put together a selection of polework exercises to help inspire you:

Click the icons below to reveal some great pole, jump and grid exercises for you and your horse to try.

Find Out More

Find Out More

Find Out More

Pole Work Exercises

Pole work can be a great addition to your schooling sessions, keeping things exciting for both you and your horse. You can be as creative as you like, setting out as many different shapes and lines as your imagination will allow! As well as making flatwork more exciting, pole work exercises can also help develop your horse’s core stability, improving balance, control and steering.

We’ve put together a selection of pole work exercises to help inspire you...

The 20m Circle

This exercise is great to test the balance and rhythm of your horse. Suitable for all levels of riders, this will really highlight whether your horse can keep a consistent rhythm around the circle.

• Ridden in walk, trot or canter, make sure to hit the centre of each pole and count the strides between each pole to make sure you’re consistent
• Make sure your horse is moving forwards through the circle and over the poles but watch out for rushing and drifting
• Once a consistent rhythm is established on the flat, try raising the poles or making them small cavaletti jumps

The Clover

This exercise is good for testing your horse’s rhythm, accuracy and suppleness, testing you to ride between straight lines and around corners.

• Ride this in walk, trot or canter equally on each rein, keeping an even rhythm and watching out for rushing or drifting
• Ride straight to your first pole and then ride a circle, if you start on the right rein, you will always be circling left
• Focus on riding straight over the poles and asking for bend around the circle

The Related Distance

This exercise is very easy to set up and is great for testing the adjustability of your horse’s paces. This is especially good for playing with your horse’s canter.

• Ride straight over the two poles in a natural rhythm for you and your horse in trot or canter. Count aloud the number of strides between each pole – this demonstrates your horses normal stride pattern and you should achieve this number each time you ride between the poles
• Try extending the pace (fewer strides) or collecting the pace (more strides) between the two poles
• You could make the poles upright jumps to advance this exercise

The Triangle

This exercise is useful to practise your centre lines and straightness, as well as riding a curved line. Easy to set up, this exercise is loved by all!

• Place the poles one canter stride apart and ride this exercise in walk, trot or canter
• Practise your centre lines or changes of rein, making sure to hit the centre of each pole and the tip of the triangle points
• If your horse is more experienced, try introducing or practising your flying changes over the pole tips. The poles will naturally encourage an elevated step which can be used to ask for the change. Be sure to sit tall and not collapse or twist to one side

The Interlocking S-Bend

This exercise is great to work on suppleness and straightness and will highlight if your horse is really listening to you.

• Ride this in walk or trot with some lines canter
• Make sure your horse is truly bending through their bodies and stepping under. This is hard work for your horse so take it slow to begin with and watch out for your horse swinging their head and neck or falling out through the shoulder on the turns
• Add in some diagonal lines and change it up! Keep your horse thinking by taking new routes through this layout

The Diagonals

This exercise is so easy to set up and gives you lots of options! Suitable for all, this one can really help your accuracy, control and direction.

• Repeat a mixture of straight and diagonal lines in walk, trot or canter
• Be sure to look up and warn your horse where you are planning to go, guiding them with your seat and hand
• Try incorporating some of the poles into a shallow loop or leg-yield, as pictured, or practise your half 10m circles using the pink and orange poles.

The Double Triangle

This exercise is so diverse and can be used to help your horse’s suppleness. Ridden in walk and trot, this exercise will really get your horse thinking about where their feet are.

• Ride straight down the middle, or add in circles and curves – this layout is totally up to you!
• Make sure the shapes you ride are smooth and your horse maintains balance. If your horse is struggling, slow it down and let them rebalance
• Lay the two triangles further apart for easier, more sweeping lines or closer together to increase the intensity of the exercise

The Serpentine

This exercise requires a lot of poles but can really help your test movements, for example your centre lines or serpentine! Use as many or as few poles as you have and enjoy this creative layout.

• Use the centre line to also practise your transitions, for example trot down the centre line, walk before the centre square, halt in the square, walk out and then trot away – try doing your own!
• Use the blue line to practise your ½ 10m circles to the centre line
• Practise your four-loop serpentines, or miss out the middle turn to ride a (slightly misshapen) three-loop serpentine

The Transitions Circles

This exercise can be really useful to help sharpen up your transitions in a fun way for both you and your horse. Suitable for all levels of riders, this will really help focus your transitions.

• Lay this out over 20m circles at either end of the arena, with the pink/purple poles one canter stride apart and the green/orange pole one trot stride apart
• On a circle, trot over the green/orange poles. At X, pick up canter and canter the pink/purple poles. At A/C, transition back down and repeat!
• You can advance this exercise to work in a figure-8 pattern instead, incorporating a simple change (or flying change if your horse is more advanced) over X

The Criss-Cross

This exercise gives you so many options, helping you to work on straightness, suppleness or even just control! Easy to set up, this exercise is suitable for all levels of riders.

• Rhythm and balance are key for this exercise. Make sure your curves are smooth and your horse is bending through their body
• Challenge your straightness by taking a straight line route (instead of the curvy route) over the right hand zig-zag poles, making sure to cross the centre of each!
• Keep your horse guessing by changing up the lines. Try the ones pictured or make up your own – the options are endless!

The Hourglass

This exercise is great to practise your straightness by riding down the centre, or add in some curves and circles to help your horse’s suppleness. Suitable for all levels of riders, this is an easy layout to try!

• Ridden in walk or trot, make sure to think about your rhythm and balance, especially on the turns
• Keep your horse guessing! Change up the lines and try new routes; this one is so diverse and totally up to you
• If you’re feeling balanced and brave, why not try cantering straight down the middle (do check the striding first) as this will really test your straightness!

The Flying Changes

This exercise is good for all levels or rider and can be ridden in walk, trot or canter. It’s a great one to help introduce a change of canter lead, whether it is a simple or flying change.

• Think about the rhythm and balance of your horse, ensuring they’re even through both reins and engaged through their bodies
• Ride across the diagonal and use the central purple pole to ask for your flying change, or as a marker to ask for the downward transition for your simple change
• Make sure your horse is forward and in front of your leg, but not rushing

The Octagon

This exercise is a bit more creative and gives you so many different options - follow the guide lines or make up your own!

• Use this exercise to practise your change of rein or centre line. Aim to keep a straight and hit the centre of the poles. Why not add in a halt to the centre?
• Try adding in some transitions, or practise your circles by riding around the outside of the pole set up
• Allow your horse to take frequent breaks. Lots of poles can be both physically and mentally tiring for your horse

The Spider

This exercise is useful to work on centre lines, changes of rein and suppleness and balance around a circle, and can be ridden in walk, trot or canter.

• Places the poles one canter stride apart and ride this exercise in walk, trot or canter
• Practise your centre lines or changes of rein, making sure to hit the centre of each pole and the tip of the triangle points
• If you horse is more experienced, try introducing or practising your flying changes over the pole tips. The poles will naturally encourage an elevated step which can be used to ask for the change. Be sure to sit tall and not collapse or twist to one side

The Centre Line Circles

This exercise is really simple to set out, but is more of a challenge than you think! It can really get both you and your horse thinking, as well as help work on rhythm and balance.

• You can ride this exercise in walk, trot or canter. Start in walk and progress through the paces if you are able to
• Change up the pattern as much as you like by riding straight, circling and making transitions between the poles
• Make sure to sit up tall and use your body to help your horse around the turn. You should plan ahead, let your horse know where you intend to go and not have to pull him around the corner

The Four Triangles

This exercise is great for practising straightness and encouraging suppleness! As well as going over the poles, you can also use them as a guide to ride a circle around the edges, or a figure-of-eight through the middle.

• Consider the rhythm, balance and bend of your horse, especially on the circles
• Riding the same lines over and over could lead to your horse becoming bored and switching off. As there are so many options to this exercise, keep your horse guessing and engaged by changing things up!
• Use this exercise to help you ride a 20m circle more accurately by using each triangle tip as a point to ride to and bend around.

The Two Points

This exercise is so diverse and has lots of options in walk, trot or even canter and will really help your horse to think about where his feet are.

• Test your straightness through the purple and green poles or follow the curves to add in some bend.
• Transitions with polework are great to help build muscle so make sure to incorporate lots of them. Why not try going horizontally across the middle, transitioning up or down inside of each triangle before/after the orange poles
• Allow your horse to take frequent breaks. Lots of poles can be both physically and mentally tiring for your horse

Jumping Exercises

Not all horses have the natural ability to jump, however if this is something that you and your horse enjoy, jumping can add great variety and a lot of excitement for both of you! Whether you compete in British Eventing, pure show jumping or are just looking to have some fun at home; jumping exercises can be key to helping your horse improve their strength, agility and balance, requiring precision and control.

Even if you are mainly a dressage rider, jumping can be beneficial to you and your horse. Dressage rider Amy Tilston says how she likes to use jumping and grid work as it “really helps with balance and strength as well as using it to get the horse to be a little quicker on their feet”.

We’ve put together a selection of jumping exercises to help inspire you to give it a try...

The Zig-Zag

This exercise is great to practise your turns and line on the approach to a fence, and also for practising lead changes over a jump. Set this one up down the centre of your arena and off you go!

• Follow the pictured path, continuing after the pink jump around the top of the arena and back down and around to the purple then green, linking all four fences in a double figure-of- 8
• Make sure to ride square turns off the track toward the fence and hold a straight line both before and after the jump. Tall X-poles are good for ensuring accuracy to the middle of each jump
• Make sure you’ve got a good, forward canter in a steady rhythm

The Off-Set Three

This exercise gives you the chance to really test your control, straightness and accuracy! Set this up as pictured, with each jump two to four strides apart.

• Place the jumps with the offset fence overlapping enough so that you can jump all three fences but with enough of an indent so that you can go around the middle one too
• Notice if your horse drifts left or right when riding through the blue line – too much drift may result in a run out!
• You should aim to ride smooth curves, hitting the centre of each fence

The Related Distance Circle

This exercise is great for horses who like to rush between fences and get a bit ahead of themselves! Use this one to work on rhythm and balance.

• Jump the first fence and ride over the pole, starting a 15m circle. Straighten up and ride positively to the second jump
• The first time around, your horse may be confused as to where they’re going but it should certainly get them listening and waiting for instruction
• Use the circle to work the canter, rebalance and set up for the second fence

The Square

This exercise has a couple of different options which can help you work on your control, especially for horse’s that may start to anticipate where they’re going and stop listening to you as the rider.

• Set the fences up as uprights with a ground line each side meaning you can jump all the fences and lines from both directions
• Work on keeping an even rhythm between the fences. If your horse tends to rush, try incorporating ‘The Related Distance Circle’ exercise too, as pictured above
• If your horse is capable, ride the green line as a leg yield off of the track. By leg yielding, your horse should naturally step under themselves and transfer some weight on to their hind quarters, which should result in a better jump

The Right Angle Turns

This exercise may help horses who like to rush before or after a fence. It can equally be beneficial to those just wanting to work on their turns!

• Start with a small jump and plenty of space between the poles and the fence. Lay the tramline poles wide enough apart so that your horse has enough space to turn and avoid standing on the poles
• The landing pole tramlines should help you and your horse focus on landing, stopping them rushing away and getting them thinking about where to go next
• If your horse is landing and still rushing, try asking them for a halt before you get to the orange pole and before you make a turn

The Jump-Off Turn

This exercise is easy to set up and can help you practise course riding and perfect your control, rhythm and those jump-off turns!

• Concentrate on your rhythm around the course and be aware of your horse rushing between fences. Equally, keep a nice forward canter around the course, making sure your horse doesn’t lose impulsion around the turns
• Change up the line to keep your horse listening and focused. Ride straight through the related distance or take the dog-eg line to the purple
• Practise those jump-off turns by including the yellow line!

The Serpentine

This exercise is so simple to set out, and is great to help work on the suppleness, rhythm and balance of your horse!

• Start with straight lines before and after the fence making sweeping half circle turns, as through you are riding a serpentine. If you find this easy, try making the turns shallower and on a tighter an angle to increase the difficulty.
• Keep the jumps low to begin with. This exercise is more about balance and control, rather than the height on the fence
• Think about the keeping an even rhythm as you ride the exercise. Use the half circles on each serpentine loop to help establish a good balance

The Figure-8 Bounce

This exercise can inject some gymnastics to your schooling and help you practise your changes in canter leads over a fence.

• Introduce each fence gradually and keep the fences small – this exercise is about gymnastics rather than height, especially if your horse is young or green
• A strong canter with an even rhythm is essential to make sure your horse has enough power and balance to bounce over the fences
• Allow your horse to take frequent breaks. Lots of gymnastic jumping work can be both physically and mentally tiring for your horse

The Landing Lead Test

This exercise is great to practise your landing leads, but can also help to keep your horse guessing and not rush away from a fence.

• Make sure to think about the rhythm and balance, but be careful not to kill the canter. Going slow may help with your control but a flat canter will make jumping harder
• Look for your turn and it will come! Just keep sitting up and looking where you’re going – you may be surprise how easily your horse naturally follows
• Allow your horse (and you!) to take frequent breaks and make sure to work within your own limits

The Compact Course

This exercise is perfect to practise course jumping in a tighter arena. Use your cross pole fence as a warm-up, and then start linking the jumps together however you want!

• Why not try this: Yellow (landing right) – purple – green – orange – pink – green – orange – purple – pink! A nine jump course, using only 5 compact fences!
• Plan your route and really focus on what you are your horse are doing in-between the fences, not just on the actual jump itself
• Between the fences ask yourself, do you like the canter (or trot) you’ve got? If not, what are you going to do about it?

 

Grid Work Exercises

Grid work can be extremely beneficial to your horse, teaching them to be supple and reactive. It can be really useful to help young or green horses learn to keep a steady rhythm, not to rush and increase their confidence in jumping as the striding and take off points are set out for you!

The possibilities of grid layout are endless and different layouts can help improve different aspects of your jumping. For example, Petplan Equine rider Laura Gordon says “I also add in a lot more gymnastic exercises; such as bounces in a grid to help strengthen muscles but also to get him reacting and thinking quicker”.

We’ve put together a selection of grid work exercises to help inspire you to give it a try...

The Simple Grid

This exercise is a great starting point, especially for greener horses or those who have not done much grid work.

• Use a placing pole 1 stride (3-4 of your strides) in front of the first cross pole to help encourage a good stride into the grid. Use our stride guide video to help set up the jumps if you’re unsure
• Start with the jumps as poles on the floor and introduce each element one at a time
• Focus on keeping straight, balanced and in a good rhythm throughout the grid

The Confidence Giving Grid

This exercise can be particularly useful for horses who tend to rush through their grids or who need a little extra help to find a good take off spot, helping to build their confidence.

• The placing poles in front of the first cross pole and between each jump will help encourage a good stride into and through the grid. Use our stride guide video to help set up the jumps if you’re unsure
• Think about sitting up between each fence and keeping a good rhythm throughout the grid, not getting ahead of your horse especially if they do tend to rush
• Start with the jumps as poles on the floor and introduce each element one at a time

The Y-Grid

This exercise is great to make sure you are in control and your horse is listening and not anticipating where they’re going next! This can also help you practise your landing leads in canter.

• Set up the first two pink fences on the centre line, one or two strides apart, with the third one another 2 or 3 strides after. Then place the green/orange jumps on each side as pictured
• Keep alternating which lines you choose to make sure you horse is waiting and listening for instruction
• If you jump up the grid and out over the green jump, continue your loop around the top of the arena and then jump back down the grid, starting with the orange fence

The Curved Grid

This exercise will really test the gymnastic ability of your horse, working on suppleness and balance. This exercise is something to work toward with greener horses as it is physically demanding and may be unsuitable for the less experienced horse.

• Set this out using as many or as few poles/jumps as you would like, placing each pole/jump one canter stride apart. The shallower the curve, the easier the exercise
• Start with the grid as poles on the floor and if you can comfortably canter through the centre of the poles (watch out for drifting), begin turning alternate poles into small jumps
• This exercise is about control, rhythm, suppleness and balance rather than height so the jumps do not need to be big

The Rushing Grid

This exercise is great to help your horse keep a steady rhythm to a fence and reduce rushing. Use as many or as few poles as you have!

• Start with just a line of canter poles to warm up, then add one fence at the end. If you’re unsure of how to set the striding, take a look at our stride guide video below
• Once you can maintain a rhythm along all the poles to the fence, take the orange pole closest to the jump away. Keep taking poles away until you just have the initial pink pole and are able to still keep a consistent rhythm and number of strides to the fence
• Advance the exercise by making the first pole a jump too!

The Bounce Grid

This exercise aim of this exercise is to help supple your horse, however can be physically demanding and you may need to work up to this if your horse is weak or green.

• Add the fences in one by one and keep them small, this exercise is about gymnastic jumping, not height
• Try and keep out of the way of your horse and off their shoulders to let them figure this exercise out. Sit tall, don’t fold too much over the jumps and do not get in front of the movement, as this will hinder your horses jump
• Use the cross pole elements as a guide to help keep you straight

The Gymnastic Grid

This exercise is great for gymnastic jumping and to encourage your horse to snap those knees and bounce along, using their back.

• Take it easy and build your grid gradually. You don’t want to over-face your horse straight away so by taking it slow, you will help build their
• Sit tall and look forwards to the jump ahead thinking straight, rhythm and balance! Arrive at the first fence well, and the rest should follow
• Allow your horse (and you!) to take frequent breaks. Gymnastic jumping is hard work so make sure to work within your and your horse’s own limits

Stride Guide

Unsure how to correctly set out your poles? Check out our Stride Guide with Petplan Equine's rider Laura Gordon.

Polework with Charlie Hutton

We're here with International dressage rider, Charlie Hutton who explains to us the benefits of using polework as part of your horse's training. Petplan Equine's rider Charlotte Wadley also runs through some of Charlie’s favourite polework exercises.

The benefits of polework with Charlie Hutton

Using poles for suppleness and engagement

Using poles to work on balance

Using poles to ride an accurate 20m circle

Using poles and a cone to guide a turn on the forehand

Using raised poles to work on elevation and elasticity