Distance between canter poles?

[tasha]

I want to start work on canter poles with Kal, but Im unsure as to how far apart they should be. I usually have 5 dolly steps between trot poles and this gets her to stretch a bit. Any ideas for canter poles? She's 15.2hh with a flat canter although not particularly long striding. Answers preferably in dolly steps please!!

Thanks!

[CER1389]

Well I can tell you related distance between two jumps if thats any help? :confused: I can't remember canter poles!

Landing/Taking off space is 2 stretched walking strides
one normal canter stirde is 4 human strides.

Therefore I'd presume that in between canter poles, you'd do 4 walking strides...don't quote me on it though!

[Goldie'sGirl]

I don't know myself, but I just googled 'distance between canter poles' for you and the average seemed to be 5 strides, also found this (http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~rose/equine/jump.htm) link, if it helps?
xGGx

[tasha]

Great link, thanks Goldie! CER1389, what you are saying is the upper end of what the linked page recommends, so I'll try slightly less and see how we go!

Thanks!

[Iron Maiden]

I do 3 big me-strides, if that makes sense (it'd be about 3 yards). Seems fine for a fairly standard sized horse doing a working canter. Bit less for a pony, I wouldn't make them further apart because it'd enourage the horse to go a bit flat. Knocking out every other pole from a row of trot poles that suits your horse is another way to do it.

[tasha]

Thanks! Another question - can you raise canter poles, or would the horse just try and jump them? (Only a few inches, as you would trotting poles!)

[8-legged-pony]

Thanks! Another question - can you raise canter poles, or would the horse just try and jump them? (Only a few inches, as you would trotting poles!)

I'd imagine that most horses would jump them (mine would anyway!), however it is still good to canter over raised poles - it would be like doing a mini grid of bounce jumps, so woudl get the horse using her hindquarters properly and help build up her athletisicm.

[CER1389]

Thanks! Another question - can you raise canter poles, or would the horse just try and jump them? (Only a few inches, as you would trotting poles!)

Yes you can raise canter poles, and yes your horse will try to jump them ;) Eventually with lots of perserverance they can be traised to canter over them, nicely and not bunny hop each and every one...although I have enough difficulty getting my guys to trot over trot poles - let alone go into raised poles!

A good raised canter pole exercise is raised poles on a circle. You keep striding similar - from the middle of each pole. But obviously the poles are curved. You then raise the ends furtherest away from the centre. I've always found less horses jump the raised poles like this.

Not sure if I've explained this very well. But if you go to this link
http://www.polepods.co.uk/usingpolepods.html
and then scrolled down to Curved formation. they've raised both sides, but you only need to raise the side away from the centre to make a diagonal pole if you wish. Or alternate - raise one on the outside, then one on the centre, and then one on the outside.

[tasha]

I like the sound of that exercise! Although will wait until regular poles are less exciting first! :D

[tasha]

Hmmm. Had a go at lunging Kal over canter poles last night. Thought it would be a good way of fiddling about with distances without weight on her back and also mounting/dismounting to change them. We started walk/trot/canter over a single pole, then progressed to a line of 3 canter poles. 10 dolly steps seems to be fine, although I may try 9 or so to shorten her flat canter a bit.

The thing is, Im not sure if she jumped them or not!! There was more of a bounce to her canter, and she did get the pole in the right place (between the diagonal pair of legs), but it was too fast for me to see if she was doing a regular canter or bouncing them. I know jumping them will still develop msucles etc, but I want her to canter them at the moment so that I can then use them as approaches into jumps to teach a relaxed canter approach.

Gahh! Any suggestions/ideas? Thanks!

ETA: Had had a gander on youtube...she was jumping them!!! Horse labelled as jumping the canter poles ( in this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jpB-UkJ-x8) video) is doing what Kal did (although we didnt have a jump). So - how can I encourage her to canter them? Should I stick to lunging her over them until we've sorted it, or will I be more successful riding her over them?

[Pibstar]

Hmmm. Had a go at lunging Kal over canter poles last night. Thought it would be a good way of fiddling about with distances without weight on her back and also mounting/dismounting to change them. We started walk/trot/canter over a single pole, then progressed to a line of 3 canter poles. 10 dolly steps seems to be fine, although I may try 9 or so to shorten her flat canter a bit.

Hi, Been reading this thread this morning and I am going to give some canter poles a try too..... How you getting on tasha? I have only had a few jumping lessons but want to practice the poles on my own before having another lesson.

QUESION: what are dolly steps? Mollie is 15.2 so I would need 9 or 10 dolly steps between the poles too????

also what should the distance be for trotting poles?

please reply as i want to give this a go today!!!:D

[tasha]

Dolly steps: when you walk toe-heel-toe-heel! Distance varies for each horse regardless of height, although should be in the same ball park. I use 5 dolly steps for trot poles and 9-10 for canter poles. The best thing to do is just give it a go and adjust according to how the horse manages it. If they really have to stretch then shorten it slightly, if their stride is short and choppy over them, lengthen the distance between the poles a bit.

As to how we're getting on, Ive been very successful with trotting poles and have finally managed to teach Kal to think about her legs rather than blindly crashing through everything. Canter poles are proving to be a challenge - see earlier post :D