Simple Pole Work Exercises for Building Strength and Suppleness During Winter
With winter right around the corner and approaching fast, your horse might find themselves spending a little more time inside their stables than usual. As horses transition from summer turnout to winter stabling, it’s important to ensure that their exercise routine compensates for the lack of mobility now that they’re standing in their stables for longer periods of time.
Particularly if you’ve got an older horse, or one that often feels a bit stiff, pole work that keeps them soft and supple is a great addition to their workout routine. Even if your horse doesn’t struggle with coming in for the winter, pole work exercises to build their strength and condition is an important training exercise that can be incorporated all year round to make sure your horse is feeling in tip top shape and up to any challenge.
Whether you’re getting a head start on your winter training or just want to keep your horse’s body feeling as great as possible, these simple but effective pole work exercises are a must-have in your riding routine!
Benefits of pole work for horses
Pole work is so beneficial for all horses, no matter their shape, size, workload, or discipline! Because pole work can be done in walk, trot, and canter there are exercises for everyone to try out.
When schooling our horses, it can be difficult to ensure each horse is using their body correctly, are level on both sides, stay balanced, and are using their muscles effectively- there’s a lot to think about! Poles are an amazing training aid to take away a lot of the guess work. Pole work exercises encourage horses to use themselves correctly and build up strength and condition in a safe and sustainable way, without putting too much pressure on their joints or muscles.
It isn’t just suppleness that pole work is good for though! There are tonnes of physical benefits to incorporating poles into your exercise routines:
- Building strength and condition
- Balance and stability
- Muscle development
- Encouraging symmetry in movement
- Flexibility and suppleness
- Improved coordination
- Mental stimulation
Pole work exercises to try at home
Before you jump into trying out all these pole work exercises, have a think about what you’re looking to achieve. If your horse is feeling stiff being stabled for winter, then start with some pole exercises to help him loosen up and become more supple. If you’ve got a young horse, then exercises to improve their balance and aid muscle development would be a good place to begin.
When it comes to setting out your poles, getting the distances right between each pole is vital to setting up the exercise correctly! Here is a quick guide to help you space them out…
- Walking poles: 0.8 – 0.9 metres approximately 1 human step
- Trot poles: 1.2 – 1.7 metres or approximately 1 ½ human steps
- Canter poles: 2.8 – 3 metres or approximately 4 human steps
Remember to adjust the distances as you work through the exercise! Getting the distances right to suit your horse’s stride pattern is the key to maintaining balance and confidence with your horse.
Walking poles for mobility and core strength
Set out 4 poles in a straight line with 2 poles on either side. If your horse is just getting into pole work or they’re young horses, start with them all flat on the floor. If your horse is more experienced, you can raise one end of each pole about 1 foot, alternating each side of the poles as you go.
There are two ways to use this exercise, the first is simply asking your horse to walk down the line of raised poles. This is excellent for building strength through the core and hind end, as well as increasing mobility in the pelvis and hocks. As there is no moment of suspension in the walk, the horse’s body must work harder when walking over poles than in a faster pace, meaning it is excellent for building their condition and strength.
You can also practice balance and accuracy by riding between the walk poles over the two poles at either end. This can be done in any gait and is a super test of the horse’s balance and brain!
Fan of poles
Setting out a fan of poles is a great exercise for increasing rideability and improving suppleness through the horse’s body. This exercise can be done in walk, trot, or canter, so pick your gait and set the poles out accordingly. This exercise can also be done on the lunge, which gives them even more freedom to move their body.
To begin, aim for the centre of the poles and ride through them with a small amount of bend through the body. Try to exit the fan of poles at the same point that you entered, so your horse isn’t drifting too much to the inside or outside. Once you have mastered riding through the centre of the fan, you can make it harder by riding further to the middle which shortens the stride, or riding to the outside which lengthens the stride.
Be sure to work your horse equally on both reins so you build up the muscles evenly on both sides!
2 circles with 7 poles
This is another versatile exercise and can also be ridden in all three paces. With your poles set out on two 20-metre circles, sharing the pole at X, there are lots of different routes through the poles that you can take. Here are a few ideas:
Ride the poles on a 20-metre circle maintaining the same rhythm and balance all the way around the circle. This not only helps to improve balance but engages the hind end and encourages flexion.
Ride over all the poles on the outside track and make upward and downward transitions between them to help develop rhythm and rideability.
Ride the poles in a figure of 8 formation. This helps the horses to supple their bodies as they’re constantly bending and changing direction, as well as challenging their brains!
Now that you’ve got the training knowledge, you need the tools to do it! Head over and take a look at PolyJumps extensive range of Poles, Mini Blocks and PolePods so you’re kitted out and ready to hit the arena. If you aren’t sure what you need or have any questions, make sure to contact us and one of the team will be happy to assist you.