𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊!

Polework is often recommended for horses with a kissing spine.. But did you know that it matters a lot 𝐇𝐎𝐖 the horse goed over the poles? In this post I will explain two different movements.

I recommend making videos of your training very often so you can see how your horse is moving so you can make adjustments. Sometimes you need to be able to pauze the video to be able to look critically at what's going on.

So these were my first attempts of polework with Reaven when she was only 4. She lacked a lot if strenghth and wasn't fully ready for this kind of work yet. We are not looking for perfect polework but I do want to give you a reference what to look out for. Polework in the beginning is hard, that's why I first start with only one pole. After they can handle that I will start adding another.

So take a look at the pictures on the left lead. When you look at the hock you see that it's pulled almost behind her making more an '𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛' movement. The back is hollow here and she falls on the forhand. This gives a short stride, missing the pull on the pelvis that makes it tuck in and through the SI joint lift the spine.

When you take a look at the pictures on the left lead you see that the hock is more lifted 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑. This does give the pull on the pelvis and in the last picture you can see her becoming even a bit uphill. That is the movement that you're looking for.

You can imagine that continuing polework in a bad movement is not beneficial for your horse and you might want to do some other exercises first before picking up the poles again.