trot poles in front of jumps

[EventPony]

if i wanted to put trot poles in front of a jump to keep maya slow, how far would the last one be from teh jump? thanks!

[rockstar7]

depends on how big your jump is. distance between one trot pole to the next tends to be 2 feet, so if your fence was 3 feet, then you'd want 2 feet + 3 feet, and that would be your distance. 2 feet plus whatever the height of your fence is...

[lamprellsarah]

do you know the distances between fences then it's the same as this!!! but i find sometimes they work sometimes they don't it tends to muck my horse, up, she perfers a small jump then another jump, with poles she concentrates soo much and slows down sooo much, it doesn't feel like you can get over the jump, she literally is walking!!!

[horselover]

I sometimes have found trot poles to help. I have only used them when a horse is rushing fences to get them to slow down, which goes along with what lamprellsarah said. I would recommend that if you are not trying to slow your horse down before a fence, just use the ground pole in front of the fence to helpp the horse find the distance. That pole is as far away from the fence as the fence is high. It just gives the horse a reference pointfor the takeoff.

My new instructor has been using trot poles with me since I am starting jumping again after being off for awhile. I hate them. And I am at a loss as to what they exactly accomplish in my case. The horse is kinda a slow poke anyway, and I end up pushing so much harder to keep her going to the fence. But she isn't fond of jumping, so she tends to rush the last stride anyway. Sigh. Sometimes, I have my doubts about instructors knowledge.