Corrective Exercise #1: Ground Pole Fan
Over the years, ground poles have proven themselves to be such a potent training tool that I can no longer imagine conditioning horses without them. They develop symmetry and rhythm in the horse’s gaits, they activate his core, they help resolve postural faults, they fix problems like dysfunctional stifles, and on and on. Not only do they make positive demands of the horse’s muscular system but they also activate the nervous system to adopt new motor patterns.
Ground pole exercises exist for all gaits and can nearly always be modified for ALL ranges of intensity, from very low impact rehab scenarios to strenuous gymnastic routines. To learn more about using poles in your everyday riding, check out my FAQ page about them here. Meantime, one of my favorite exercises for ease of set-up is Exercise #1 from my book 55 Corrective Exercises for Horses.
This exercise can be performed from the ground or ridden. I’ll warn you it is deceptively tricky. It requires absolutely precise foot control and coordination. If the horse is unstable in his pelvis or hind joints, you will surprise yourself by hitting more poles than you expect. Remember that you can modify as needed. During a clinic last year one of the fancy dressage horses was so tight in his neck and shoulders that he could not step his feet over the raised ends of the poles and was quickly getting frustrated. We lowered all the poles to the ground (but kept them spaced apart the same distance) until he could at least get through a few repetitions of the pattern, then we began raising one pole at a time.
Here’s how it works:
Arrange your poles in a fan shape as shown in the diagram above. Space the RAISED ends of the poles approximately 1 to two feet apart, place the opposite ends of the poles flat on the ground and spaced approximately 5 feet apart.
Now ask your horse to bend his body around a tight circle to cross over the raised ends of poles. TAKE YOUR TIME and ask him to very carefully take one tiny step between each of these poles. When horses are tight or stiff, they will try to step over two poles at once rather than shortening and lifting their stride to step in to each gap between the raised poles.
After this initial pass, ask your horse to drift outward to now cross the poles at their widest spacing. Ask him to extend his stride and take TWO steps between each pole.
Then tighten your circle up and repeat step #2. Continue this sequence.
(for more detailed instructions, check out page 11 in the book)
Exercise #1 alternates recruitment of the horse’s flexor and extensor muscle chains, which helps develop good posture and efficient movement.
In the photos above, I have the poles raised to a height of about 8 inches at their narrow end. If your horse is pretty agile, though, feel free to raise them up to two feet high if you have risers to do so. Be sure not to set the raised ends on an object where they will roll around. This gets frustrating for everyone involved.
How many times should you perform this exercise? Assuming that your horse is not knocking the poles down like bowling pins, a good rule of thumb is to practice the full routine 10 times in each direction. Again, you can practice this one under saddle OR on a longe line. If, however, your horse IS knocking poles everywhere and taking time to get his coordination, give him at least 6 attempts to make a clean pass. THEN, begin counting up to 10 reps, even if they are not perfectly executed. The idea is that you get the exercise somewhat organized before then aiming to get the conditioning benefits of it.
***If you’re feeling motivated to try a progressive program of conditioning your horse using poles, you might be interested in checking out my on-line self-paced course Conditioning Your Horse with Ground Poles.