WINTER WORKSHOP

[susanne]

These wet, winter evenings are a great opportunity to catch up on reading, so I was hanging out over at Andy Marceaux's Doachman's Delight website, reading his excellentarticles in the Coachman Guide.

My topic du jour is trot poles and cavaletti:

http://www.coachmansdelight.com/CGuidePage.asp?pg=GUI51&k=56

Very informative article, but I'm curious what those with more experience than I can add to this topic.

Andy recommends a 20 ft. circle, spacing 4-6 poles wagon spoke style evenly around 1/4 of the circle, then working the horse at a distance that best suits its stride. Have you done something similar or something completely different?

He suggests walking until the horse is comfortable with the poles and is placing his feet properly, then trotting at a controlled, steady trot until he is comfortable. Then, once the horse can handle this comfortably, he repeats the layout of poles on the oppposite quarter of the circle.

So what are your thoughts and experiences using cavaletti for your horses? How high have you set your cavaletti for a VSE or small pony?

 

[Farina]

We use cavaletti for all our CDE ponies. I use them to shorten (smaller circle) and to lengthen (taller circle) the stride. I can't ride my shetlands so I have to train them with this help to explain to them what my goal is.

I also like to use cavaleiit for building up muscles and forming the topline. I think they are great variety.

I never put them higher than the middle position.

 

[R Whiteman]

Susanne,

We use caveletti with our horses for a number of reasons; preparation for jumping and also to regulate the trot and show them how to stretch and contract. We built our caveletti out of two by fours. We cut 4 inch sections of 4x4 and then cut those diagonally for the end pieces. We then put the 2x4s on the front faces of 2 triangles. Consequently they are never taller than 4 inches tall, but by changing the distance between them, we are able to encourage the horse to stretch. I've actually had horses in the round pen choose to go over them for fun

Dorothy

 

[susanne]

Thanks, Dorothy and Jessica!

 

[MiLo Minis]

I use trotting poles to work both my driving horses and my halter horses. It is great work for muscling them up. I use them in my round pen to teach them and then I can move out to a line of them in the paddock. If you don't have that fence on one side it is really difficult to keep them going forward over the poles without them running out. Once they get the hang of going over them they are more likely to deal well with them without a fenceline on one side. I have also set a line of jumps up along one side to encourage them to keep on the line but the round pen is much easier.

I don't raise them over the 4" (4 x 4's on the ground) for Miniature driving horses being longlined but will set them up higher for halter horses that are being loose run - usually only 2 or 3 in a line so that they pop them without a stride in between.