Getting bored of the same old routine? Looking for some pole work exercises for horses or training tips? Need a fun horse course to spice up your arena work? Well, you don’t have to look far – dig out those poles and have a go at these pole work exercises! Pole work can be a great addition to your riding and training routine, keeping things fresh and interesting for both you and your horse. Plus you can use pole work exercises to build topline. And the best thing is, all you need is a level surface and a few poles, and you are ready to go! Lets take a closer look at why why is pole work is good for horses.

Here at Listenology, we recognize the importance of keeping your horse’s training sessions varied and fun. We’ve got all you need to know about pole work exercises for horses, and we’ve found the best pole work exercises to inspire you as well.

Horse Pole Work

So, what exactly are pole work exercises for horses? Pole work exercises involve laying poles on the ground on a level riding surface such as an arena. The poles are laid out a set distance apart, to allow your horse to pass over or through without knocking the poles. This distance is determined by the size and stride length of your horse, similar to when setting up a jumping grid.

When setting up pole work exercises, the poles are normally laid on the ground or one end is raised slightly from the floor. The aim is for your horse to step over the poles with a normal stride, rather than jump them. Pole work exercises can be ridden in walk, trot, or canter, and the complexity of the exercise can be adjusted to suit the training level of you and your horse.

Some pole work exercises don’t involve stepping over the poles at all; instead, they are used as a navigation guide to improve your accuracy and control. You would be surprised how difficult it can be to ride through two poles laid on the ground in a perfectly straight line!

Pole work exercises can be done under saddle or as a ground work exercise – either in hand, on the lunge, or in long reins. Which of these you choose depends on the complexity of the exercise, the training goals, and the experience level of the horse and rider or trainer.

The best thing about pole work is that you can be as creative as you like, and there are endless possible exercises for you and your horse. This helps to keep your training sessions exciting and interesting, as well as enabling you both to develop and progress towards your training goals.

Remember to always build your pole work exercises up slowly. Your horse will be engaging muscles he is unaccustomed to using, and even though he might not be puffing he may well be feeling the strain.

Why Is Pole Work Good For Horses

Pole work exercises are good for horses as they are flexible and can be tailored to meet the individual training needs of the horse and rider. Here are just a few of the reasons why pole work is good for horses:

• Improves balance and proprioception
• Creates increased bend and flexibility through the body
• Improves rhythm and coordination
• Strengthens and engages the back, hindquarters, and topline
• Develops suppleness, elasticity, and range of motion of the limbs and joints
• Encourages the horse to become lighter in front and lift up the forehand
• Improves stride lengthening and collection

If you’re starting out on horse pole work exercises, or looking for new ideas, the best tip we can give is to work with your horse – see what pole work exercises he enjoys, and build on that! Think about what you want the pair of you to achieve, and be realistic about your starting point. It is always better to start basic and work upwards, rather than knock your horse’s confidence with an over-complicated exercise. And don’t forget to use a horse training journal to track your progress.

So, what are your pole work aims? Whether you’re completely new to pole work exercises for horses or just looking for ideas, we’ve put together a selection of pole work exercises to help inspire you.

Pole Work Exercises To Build Topline

Using pole work regularly as part of your riding routine will reap huge benefits, not least of all in developing and building your horse’s topline. Most of the exercises described in this post will help to build topline, but this is one we particularly love!

Fan Exercise

This is one of those exercises which will improve impulsion, collection, balance, and rhythm – all essential elements if we want to build topline.

Set up 3 or 4 poles in a fan along the line of a 20-meter circle. The distance between them depends on whether you are doing the exercise in trot or canter. Measure the distance between the middle of each pole – this should be one stride. The distance between the outside of the poles should be bigger, and the inside smaller.

Work your horse on a circle over the poles, aiming to cross each pole at the center. Maintain your rhythm and bend throughout the whole circle, without jumping or rushing over the poles. This exercise will encourage your horse to engage his core, pushing through from the hindquarters and lightening the forehand.

Take this exercise up a level by increasing and decreasing the size of your circle, which will encourage your horse to lengthen or collect his stride length accordingly. Try to maintain this stride length as you continue around the circle, and switch between circle sizes to fine-tune your lengthening and collection technique.

Pole Work Exercises To Improve Suppleness

Pole work exercises which involve navigating around rather than over poles are great for improving your horse’s suppleness. You can also use pole work exercises where the poles are laid out in a curve or fan shape, or even place poles at key points along a serpentine.

The Maze

We love this maze pole work exercise, it is versatile, fun, and a great training exercise. This is an exercise that horses and riders of all abilities and experience levels will benefit from!

Lay out a grid of poles in a maze-like pattern on the ground, leaving occasional gaps wide enough for a horse to pass through. Start simple and build up to more complex patterns as your confidence builds. Remember to make sure that there is a clear route through your maze though, you don’t want to get stuck!

The lovely thing about the maze is that it is as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. For a novice horse, this can be a fun and engaging groundwork exercise, helping to build confidence and agility. More experienced horse and rider combinations can use the maze to work on improving suppleness, by controlling how each bend is navigated and encouraging the horse to step under with the hindlegs.

Circle Exercise

Adding just four poles to a circle is a simple but effective way to build up your horse’s suppleness and bend. Set up four poles across the track of a 20-meter circle, placed an equal distance apart. Viewed from above this looks like the points of a compass!

Ride in a circle over the poles, starting in walk and working up to trot and canter depending on your ability level and training aims. Using ground poles turns riding a circle into a much more engaging exercise, as it encourages the rider to work on bend and controlling the outside shoulder.

When starting this exercise aim to cross each pole at the center – a good opportunity to work on accuracy! As you progress, start to increase and decrease the size of the circle, crossing the poles at different points. For added complexity, try setting up this exercise with two 20-meter circles at either end of the arena. This will help you to build suppleness and bend by working on a figure-of-eight exercise over poles.

Pole Work Exercises For Straightness

Pole work exercises are fantastic for improving straightness, as they require accuracy and controlled movement. Using poles with a center marker or striped poles can help to give you a point to aim for.

The Triangle

Place three poles in a triangle shape with their ends touching. On each side of the triangle add two more poles parallel to the triangle poles, each one canter stride apart from the next one. This will give you a line of three poles on each side of the triangle.

There are two routes you can take through the triangle. The first option is to ride a straight line, which takes you over the two outer poles, through the triangle, and out over the point of the triangle.

The second route is a controlled curve, where you enter the triangle over the two outer poles, bend to the left or right, and exit the triangle over another of the long sides.

This is one of those pole work exercises which can be set up in minutes, yet it is surprisingly tricky to navigate! Because the route can be changed and there are multiple approaches you can take, this exercise will keep both the horse and rider engaged and focussed.

The triangle pole work exercise is brilliant if you want to practice and improve straightness – aim to hit the center of each pole and the tip of the triangle points as you enter and leave the triangle.

Pole Work Exercises To Engage Hindquarters

There is nothing like a good pole work session to completely transform how your horse engages his hindquarters! Using pole work exercises can help your horse to build hindquarter strength and agility, leading to lightening of the forehand and overall improvement in the way of going.

Raised Poles

Raising the poles for pole work exercises is a great way to engage the horse’s hindquarters. Lay out a row of six poles in a line, each one stride apart.

Start by walking your horse over the poles, and then go over them in trot – you may need to amend the distance between them for this. Once he is trotting through them smoothly, it is time to build things up a bit!

If this is the first time you’ve done this exercise, we’d suggest raising just one pole at a time. Pop one end of the last pole in the line onto a low block – don’t be tempted to go too high, we’re not jumping here! If your horse navigates this without any problems then start to raise the other poles one at a time, working backward from the end. Raise alternate ends of the poles, so you end up with a cross shape down the middle of the line.

It is important to allow your horse to find his way through the raised poles – your aim here as a rider is to simply keep him balanced and straight. Raising the poles will mean your horse will have to step through with the hind legs, resulting in engaged hindquarters and a lighter forehand.

Pole Work Exercises For Dressage

Pole work exercises are not just a warm-up to jumping, they can bring huge benefits to your dressage training as well. Poles can be used to improve accuracy and straightness, helping you and your horse to hit perfect dressage competition scores.

And as we’ve already seen, pole work exercises can bring huge benefits to your horse’s topline, suppleness, and engagement – all key to improving our flatwork and dressage.

Accuracy Pole Work Exercise

Now this one sounds simple, but it is deceptively hard! Simply place poles in key points around the arena, such as the center line and diagonals. During training, used these poles to guide you – ride to a specific point or aim to keep parallel to the pole. This exercise can be a huge help if you are struggling with straightness on movements such as changes of rein. It also helps if you struggle to keep your horse straight between the hand and leg.

Stride Length Exercise

Place two poles on the long side, without measuring the distance between them. Ride down the long side at trot or canter, and count the strides between each pole. The aim is to then lengthen and shorten your horse’s stride to fit fewer or more strides in between the poles.

Looking for more polework exercises?

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You’re here because you are looking for ideas to make riding in the arena more interesting for you & your horse right? Polework exercises are a wonderful way to do that & I many riders use pole work exercises to build topline. Have you done polework training or a polework horse course with your horse? Let me know in the comments.