This is a really useful jumping exercise that Scott Brash shared with H&H, to help stop your horse rushing either on the approach or landing. It should also help your develop your eye for a confident, forward-going stride.

The aim is to achieve a level, rhythmic four strides both before and after the fence.

It also helps with straightness, because the horse focuses on the pole on landing.

Aims

• Develop canter rhythm and balance
• Hone rider’s ability to see stride
• Prevent rushing

The setup

A ground pole, then four canter strides (approximately 17.5m but this will depend on the individual horse) to a small upright. This is followed by another ground pole four strides after landing.

The upright can be raised during the exercise, and built into an oxer. If you make an oxer, roll the pole on the landing side out about 45cm to accommodate the extra width of the fence.

How to ride this exercise

• Before you start jumping, ride a couple of 20m circles incorporating either or both of the ground poles to get your eye in.
• Tackle the line of pole, fence, pole, counting the four forward strides into and away from the fence.
• Analyse how your horse coped with the line. Were the four strides each side comfortable? Did you need to push for the fence or lose balance afterwards?
• Raise the fence when you’re ready. The distance will feel shorter on landing due to the bigger fence, and you want your horse still to fit in the four strides, by backing off, not veering to the side to give himself room. This will help with his straightness and engagement.
• You can also build an oxer, but roll the second pole back to allow for the extra distance covered in the air.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Rushing

If your horse rushes on landing, sit tall, close your legs and the contact softly. The pole should do some of the work, and so your horse is likely to improve on repetition.

You want to feel your horse waiting consistently before and after the fence, sitting back on his hocks.

2. Not making the distance

You need plenty of revs. If your horse is struggling to make the distance to the fence on four strides, ask for a bigger canter and move into a more forward rhythm so you don’t have to chase.

If you get to the fence on an easy four strides, he’s more likely to land in balance, too.

3. Level up

Once you’re doing this exercise comfortably, and feel ready for more of a challenge, roll the second pole back 10cm so it’s a shorter distance on landing.

This will encourage your horse to sit back on his hocks and increase the engagement. Hopefully, this should give his stride more bounce.

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This “diamond” exercise is ideal for training young or green horses that wobble when they are meant to be on a straight line, and fall out or in when they are meant to be bending round your leg.

This flatwork exercise can be done in walk, trot and canter, getting progressively harder as you move up the paces.

Another way to increase the difficulty level is to make the diamond shape smaller, which requires quicker response to the aids to bend and straighten.

Aims

• Straightness
• Bending
• Clear aids with focus

The setup

Setup: four cones in a diamond shape with enough room to ride around them. This can be in a field or an arena.

Ideally the dimensions should start at approximately 20m x 30m, although more supple and experienced horses can do much smaller.

How to ride the diamond exercise

• First, do the exercise in walk on both reins. Imagine a diamond shape connecting each cone and ride around the diamond on the outside of the cones.
• In between cones, concentrate on your horse’s straightness – looking ahead and keeping your body in balance and straight – before giving the aids to bend around each cone and then riding in a straight line to the next.
  • Half-halt a couple of strides before each cone to make sure your horse is listening and engaged.
  • Look around the cone in the direction you want to go.
  • Your inside leg should be on the girth to encourage your horse to bend around it; the outside leg slightly behind the girth to control the outside hindquarter.
  • Squeeze the inside rein to ask for soft flexion, keeping the outside rein steady to prevent the shoulder falling out.
• Next, try the exercise on both reins in trot on the outside line.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Level up

To make this exercise more challenging, try riding a smaller diamond, inside the cones (green line on diagram above). The tighter turns inside the diamond will require more suppleness, and also more accuracy as you don’t have the physical focal point of a cone to bend around.

2. Crookedness

This exercise quickly exposes if your horse struggles with either straightness or bending. Most horses are stiffer on one rein than the other.

Establish clear aids in walk first.

3. Adjustability

The diamond shape means the cones at the top and bottom of the diagram require a tighter turn than the ones on the sides. This means you need to fine-tune your aids rather than letting your horse anticipate.

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This slow and simple groundwork exercise asks your horse to straddle a single pole, separating the right and left sides of his body.

Horses naturally move in diagonal patterns, so it is mentally and physically challenging to move in this wide stance. It is excellent for engaging the core, as well as providing mental stimulation as they work out where to place their feet without standing on the pole.

It looks straightforward but is surprisingly difficult for horses, so do give them time to suss out the challenge.

Aims

• Release tension from horse’s nervous system
• Coordination
• Proprioception

The setup

Setup: one pole on the ground. This can be in the arena, the field or just the yard.

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle.

How to do this exercise

1. Stand your horse at one end of the pole, with the pole lying out vertically in front of him.
2. Ask your horse to inch forward one step at a time so he is straddling the pole, near fore and hind feet on one side, off fore and hinds on the other side.
3. You may only get a couple of steps with the front feet to start with as they figure out the challenge. The position is slightly unnatural for them, even if they typically stand with their feet this distance apart, which engages their core stability and often triggers their nervous system to release.
4. They may stand on the pole while they are working it out – allow them time to place their feet. Give them time to stand with the pole in between their legs and relax.
5. It may take a few sessions, but you should gradually be able to move your horse all the way along the pole.
6. Guide your horse to take small, slow careful steps, never rushing.

Tips and troubleshooting

Level up

Once your horse has mastered moving forwards straddling the pole, you can ask for a step or two backwards and then forwards again. This really improves their coordination as they work out where to put their feet.

Always take it slowly, this exercise is all about awareness, activating the core as they feel and work out where to put each individual foot.

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Taking away your stirrups is good, but riding through targeted no-stirrups exercises is better. The goal in this flatwork exercise is to test and improve your seat and stability, and sitting deep and still in canter transitions is usually when a rider’s seat is most challenged.

Upward and downward transitions (where the gait and rhythm changes) have the biggest effect on your balance, and taking away your stirrups might reveal that balance is an area to improve.

In this exercise, you will work on a 20m circle performing trot-canter and canter-trot transitions, aiming always for quality, precision and suppleness from your horse and independence of seat and aids from you.

Aims

• Develop a deep, still seat and feel both your seat bones in the saddle
• Test your balance
• Focus on accuracy of aids and transition

The setup

No set-up required. You can do this exercise in a field or an arena.

How to ride this exercise

• Take away your stirrups after warming up
• In trot, ride a 20m circle
• Ride an upwards transition into canter
• Canter three-quarters of a circle, then trot and repeat
• After a break, ride the exercise on the other rein

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Stamp out grippy knees

If your seat isn’t as secure as it could be, your instincts will kick in to try and help you feel safe. One of these might be tightening through your knee and thigh in a bid to keep you glued to the saddle. Unfortunately, this doesn’t tally with your horse’s movement and will cause you to draw up your heel and perch on top rather than move with him.

Instead, lengthen your leg and focus on pushing your weight down, as you would into a stirrup.

2. Look up

Keeping your posture in check and your upper body tall is a sign of good balance. You are more likely to achieve this with your head up, shoulders back and looking ahead around the circle.

3. Neck straps are your friend

Many of the world’s most accomplished and decorated riders use a neck strap as a fail-safe. Neck straps (like this adjustable one on Amazon) can be especially useful when your balance is challenged with no-stirrups exercises, so never be put off reaching for one.

4. Accuracy

When an exercise is simple, it’s easy to discount its usefulness. However, when you accept nothing less than perfection, there’s suddenly a lot to work on – especially with 20m circles and transitions.

Your horse still needs to be set up correctly for a quality transition on the correct lead. Focus on a rhythmical working trot, slight bend around the inside leg, connection and correct canter aids – i.e., apply the inside leg on the girth, the outside leg just behind.

Focus, too, on riding a quality canter, an accurate circle and a well-planned downward transition.

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This valuable three-fence jumping exercise is deceptively simple, because you can create a huge variety of lines that test straightness, adjustability, balance and communication between horse and rider.

Each line or pattern asks a different question and challenges your partnership to react accordingly.

Aims

• Test and improve the canter quality
• Establish rhythm and balance
• Work on adjustability
• Practise flying changes

The setup

All you need is three fences, which you can set at whatever height is a appropriate.

Place them along the centre line, one at A, one at X and one at C, perpendicular to the ends of the arena. Whether you’re in a 20x40m or larger arena, this is a flexible set-up.

This is an exercise that H&H news editor Eleanor Jones loves to use even in a small arena, to practise a range of lines without needing to get on and off to change the fences.

At its simplest, this exercise works well with simple cavaletti, or you can use larger uprights with wings so that you can raise them or even build oxers for more variety.

The possibilities are endless. You can jump single fences, or connect them via S-shapes and figure of eights, approach off tight circles and large, or on angles.

How to ride this exercise

• In canter, start by simply jumping the single fences at each end of the arena and then link up the fences according to what you want to work on.
• You could try:
  • straight lines
  • curving lines
  • figure of eights with change of leg
  • small circles
  • large circles
  • angled approaches
• Curving lines help improve balance, suppleness and control of the shoulders.
• Straight approaches develop accuracy, straightness and the quality of the canter.
• Figure-of-eights are ideal for practising flying changes and maintaining rhythm through the change of bend.
• Alternating between direct, angled and curved approaches encourages your horse to stay rideable, adjustable and prevents him anticipating.
• Jumping many small fences in multiple directions and via different approaches helps build confidence.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Rhythm is everything

Don’t sacrifice rhythm for the sake of pulling off a particular line or pattern. If the canter loses balance or quality, simplify the pattern and re-establish the canter before continuing.

2. Too long or too deep

If you’re consistently arriving at the wrong take-off point, it probably goes back to your canter quality, which is key in this exercise.

A balanced, active canter will typically produce a better distance than last-second adjustments. Improve the canter quality overall, thinking “engagement, balance, rhythm” and resist the temptation to chase the stride.

3. Rushing

This exercise is great for horses who rush or anticipate because of the constant changes of direction. Don’t repeat sequences; instead mix up the patterns by repeating or skipping a fence, or holding counter canter. This will encourage your horse to wait for your instructions and improves rideability.

4. Level up

Include an oxer or two among your three fences, to add a spread element and give even greater variety to the challenge.

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It’s often hard to gauge the right cross-country speed. It depends on the terrain, the gradient, the weather, the fences, the type of horse you are riding. However, if you don’t know the feel of what tempo is correct, making the optimum time can be something of a lottery.

This exercise trains you to judge distance and pace, and develop feel for the correct speed. Plus, it builds fitness and stamina at the same time – and gets you used to operating a stopwatch.

It’s an exercise I loved using with my eventers at all levels up to intermediate to help me judge our cross-country pace, especially when moving up a level. Only ever having one horse at a time and doing few competitions a year, I found it hard to develop the judgement and feel required. This gave me both practice and added variety to our fitness plan.

Aims

• Develop feel for riding at the correct cross-country speed for your level
• Build fitness, speed and stamina

The setup

For this galloping exercise, you’ll need sufficient space to ride at least 500m in a stretch on good, safe going. Typically, where you do your usual fitness work.

This could be on a gallops, around a large field, or making the use of set-asides, where you have the landowner’s permission.

You'll need a trundle wheel (such as this one on Amazon) to measure the distance and a stopwatch. You can just use an ordinary watch if it has precise digital timing and you can operate and see the figures easily, or a specific eventing watch, such as this Optimum Time watch, which you can also get on Amazon.

According to the level you are riding at, measure and mark out the distance as shown in the diagram above. For instance, if you are riding at BE80, measure 435m, marking the start and end points – you can use bushes or fence posts if they’re memorable enough.

You need to have space before and after, so that you will be able to maintain a consistent gallop throughout the measured stretch. This allows sufficient space to start and pull up safely.

How to ride this exercise

• Set a 1min countdown on your watch, so that it is ready for you to press start.
• Warm up in walk, trot and canter so that you are ready for a fitness session.
• Well in advance of the start marker you have set out, establish a good canter/gallop rhythm at the pace you feel is right for your competition level.
• Press start on your watch as you canter past the start marker.
• Maintain this canter tempo all the way to the end marker, noting when the minute beeps. Are you at the end marker or way off?
• Walk or trot to recover, then repeat the exercise, adapting your tempo according to whether you were too fast or too slow.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. No obstacles

Don’t forget that when fences are added in competitions, this will slow your overall tempo, so you ideally need to be well inside the minute over the measured distance – but this exercise will give you a good rhythm in your head to aim for.

2. Ask a friend

If you don’t have a watch, or struggle to operate the buttons while on a galloping horse, ask a friend to time you. However, it’s handy to practise using a stopwatch as they are permitted at all levels.

3. Variation

You can also practise a standing start, as if you were in the startbox. Once you have the feel of the tempo at your level from a galloping start, this will show you how much time you lose – if any – at the beginning.

4. Keep it up

Not everyone has the space for this, but if you have access to a long or circular gallop, the ideal situation is to measure several consecutive 1min distances, so that you can maintain the gallop for longer, as appropriate to your horse’s level and fitness. This will show you whether you lose time after minute one, and will also help improve your horse’s stamina.

5. Level up

If you’re thinking about moving up a level, also measure out the distance for the level above – for example, you could measure both 435m for BE80 and 450m for BE90, and try riding to time over one minute for both distances and seeing how much you have to increase the tempo.

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Sometimes, the most straightforward training exercises are the most productive. This simple but challenging flatwork exercise practises counter-canter on a figure-of-eight, to help boost the quality, lift and balance of the canter.

I once had a lovely Irish three-quarter bred eventer who jumped superbly but was built on his forehand. I discovered that counter-canter really helped him lift his shoulders and go in self-carriage. We would do this exercise before every dressage test, and our marks improved dramatically.

This is an exercise for horses whose canter is well established. They should already be able to shorten and lengthen in the pace, perform loops in counter-canter, and canter 15m circles, all while maintaining rhythm, balance and impulsion.

If you are further back in your training, try the teardrop exercise for introducing counter-canter.

Aims

• Use counter-canter to improve the canter
• Develop balance, lift and self-carriage
• Improve suppleness

The setup

No setup required. You can do this exercise in an arena or in the field – anywhere you can fit in two 20m circles.

How to ride this exercise

• Warm up in walk, trot and canter on both reins. You may want to ride some loops in counter-canter to prepare the horse for the forthcoming exercise.
• Establish a balanced, active canter and go large. Collect the canter a little to ensure your horse is listening and engaged.
• Starting on the left lead, begin a figure-of-eight shape with a half 20m circle to the left. As you cross the diagonal, continue on the left lead in counter-canter as you embark on the second 20m loop to the right.
• Keep your weight centred and you upper body aligned with the new direction of travel.
  • Your left leg should stay on the girth for bend and impulsion; your right leg slightly behind to control the hindquarters and maintain the left canter lead.
  • Your horse’s poll should be gently flexed to the outside of the circle, keeping the bend over the leading leg.
• Complete the second loop of the figure-of-eight in counter-canter, returning to true canter as you cross the diagonal again, and complete the pattern.
• Repeat on the other rein.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Quality not quantity

If your horse goes disunited or changes leg while trying to complete the loop, it shows that their canter is unbalanced or lacking engagement. Start by attempting just a few good strides of counter-canter across the diagonal and into the corner as the quality and suppleness improves. Only ride as much counter-canter as your horse can maintain with good quality.

2. Back to basics

If a 20m half-circle is too challenging, practise shallow loops in counter-canter to develop the suppleness and understanding of the aids.

The key principle is that counter-canter should improve the canter not compromise it, so you may need to simplify the exercise until your horse developed the strength and balance to maintain a correct, rhythmic tempo.

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Course-designers love to build a related distance where horses and riders have to make decisions. A typical example is two fences that can be jumped on a forward five strides, or a collected six.

The key is canter adjustability. As a rider, you need to be able to choose what sort of canter you have on the approach to the fence, which gives you options.

It also enables you to react quickly. If your horse makes a big jump into the first, that will impact how many strides you take to the second, and the reverse.

This jumping exercise also helps you see a stride, as you judge your stride length on the approach to each fence.

And remember, it’s not about kicking or pulling the reins – or even going slowly or fast. Maintaining a quality canter will give your horse the best possible chance of clearing the fence well.

Aims

• Adjustability
• Impulsion
• Engagement
• Hone your eye for a stride

The setup

Build two fences on a straight line, at about 22.5m apart. This might vary a little according to the terrain and also whether you’re inside or outside, but the aim is for six balanced, collected strides to cover the distance.

The fences should be at a comfortable height to start with – you can even use poles on the ground or cavaletti. They can be raised as appropriate during the exercise.

How to ride this exercise

• Establish a good rhythm in a nice, balanced, collected canter and approach the line. Aim to fit six strides in between the two fences.
• For the six strides, think balance with impulsion, maintaining enough leg so the horse doesn’t lose oomph.
• Repeat until the six strides are reliable and comfortable.
• Then ride the same line with a more forward, open canter. You want your horse to lengthen his stride without losing balance, so don’t chase.
• Once both stride patterns are established, deliberately alternate. This helps you to decide on and produce the required canter, and also helps you both learn that you can negotiate the same space with different striding.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Long and flat on five

This means you’re increasing the speed rather than the stride length. Ride positively, thinking “elevation”, maintaining the impulsion while opening up the stride. Don’t throw your body forward but follow with your hands.

2. Losing impulsion on six

You’re making the canter too slow, rather than more compact. You still need plenty of activity and energy in the hindleg to jump the fence. Use your seat and core to contain your horse while encouraging impulsion, and keep your leg on.

3. Level up

Make the second fence an oxer. This allows you to see whether your horse can maintain the same adjustable canter when the jumping efforts become more demanding. On five strides, resist the temptation to open up the canter too much to make the spread, while on six strides, you’ll need to ensure the canter is super active and energetic to clear the oxer off a shorter stride.

If you make the first fence an oxer, this will affect the five- / six-stride distance as the spread eats into space between fences. You may need to push the second fence out a little if it is too tight, but it can be good practice for jumping off a deeper spot.

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German dressage legend Christoph Hess suggests this flatwork exercise to help your horse work towards collection, without losing impulsion.

First you ride a small, balanced circle, in trot, in a corner. Then you move straight into shoulder-in down the long side, which is useful for testing your horse’s balance, energy and suppleness.

Christoph says: “Collection without impulsion is worthless, and I’ve yet to see a horse at any level who has no issues with straightness.”

Aims

• Collection with impulsion
• Suppleness
• Straightness

The setup

No setup required. You can ride this in an arena or a field, but you’ll need markers to help you stay disciplined on straightness and circle sizes.

How to ride this exercise

• Approach the short side of the arena in an active trot. Before the second corner, half-halt and, instead of a normal corner, ride a very small circle (6–8m) keeping your horse in balance.
• You’ll need to bend your horse around your inside leg, controlling the shoulders with the outside rein. You want to keep the trot’s activity but ask for more engagement. This helps collect your horse.
• As you finish the little circle and return to the long side, straighten your horse’s body while keeping that energy you have created.
• Immediately ride in shoulder-in down the long side. This asks your horse to maintain the balance and engagement from the small circle while moving forward and sideways.
• This lateral work can help with straightness as the horse needs to align his shoulder and quarters rather than drifting or falling out.
• Straighten up and do the same exercise at the opposite end of the arena.
• Repeat several times on each rein.

Troubleshooting tips

1. Losing impulsion

Make the exercise a little easier. Don’t force it – a slightly larger (8-10m) but correct circle followed by a few strides of good shoulder-in is more productive than a messy circle and the lack of balance that follows.

2. Falling on to inside shoulder

Use your inside leg to support the bend, and the outside rein to control the shoulders, do not try to lift with the inside hand. Make the circle bigger so that your horse can stay in balance.

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Even when you don’t have time for a full ride, you can keep developing your horse’s way of doing with this simple groundwork exercise.

All you need is two poles and 10 minutes – and you will reap the long-term benefits as your horse develops his foot-eye coordination and activates his core.

Aims

• Fine tune horse’s motor control
• Activate postural muscles
• Improve rideability from the ground

The setup

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle.

Place two poles at a right angle to each other, with one end touching.

You can raise the outside end of either or both poles on to a block to create a slightly more demanding groundwork pole exercise.

How to do these exercises

Exercise 1

• Position your horse with his head in the corner, adjacent to and parallel to one of the poles
• Ask him to move his hindquarters round, stepping underneath his belly. He should keep his head in the corner and step round with the hindlegs to stand parallel to the other pole. It should take three to four steps.
• Keep the front feet in the corner; he should not pull backwards or step over the poles.

Exercise 2

• Position your horse in a square halt, with this front feet just behind one of the poles (you can stand just in front of the pole and slightly to the side).
• Ask your horse to take a step forward over the pole with both forelegs, then step back over the pole.
• Do this five or six times.
• You can also ask the horse to step just one front leg over, pause for a few seconds to stretch the shoulder, then step back, alternating front legs

Exercise 3

• Ask your horse to do a small circle, over both poles. Stand outside the setup and, as if you were lungeing, ask him to do a 5m circle around you, incorporating the poles.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Knocking poles down

The whole point of these groundwork pole exercises is to help the horse lift his core, and fine-tune his proprioception so he knows where he is putting his feet. His foot-eye coordination will develop through practice.

Make sure you are not restricting your horse’s head and neck with your lead rope, as he needs the release in front to drop his head and look at the poles.

These are simple exercises at a slow pace, so keep practising – little and often, rather than drilling him in one session.

If possible, use heavy wooden poles rather than lightweight ones which the horse will be less aware of hitting. Raise both ends of the pole on to blocks to encourage him to lift.

2. Ride it

This exercise can also be ridden in walk. As you have practised it from the ground, your horse should understand what you are asking from the saddle with your seat, hands and legs, which consolidates your aids.

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Joe Stockdale shared this simple two-fence jumping exercise with H&H. He often uses it as a warm-up because it helps builds connection between horse and rider, checking all the buttons are working and your horse is listening to your aids.

The two fences – while built on a related line – are jumped on an angle as single obstacles, which gives multiple options for different lines, angles and patterns.

The angled approach focus here is more demanding than the usual straight lines. This requires your horse to be more engaged and connected, listening to your instructions rather than jumping on autopilot and going through the motions with a lacklustre canter.

Aims

• Jump fences on an angle
• Dictate which lead to land on
• Increase responsiveness to aids

The setup

You need three sets of jump wings and poles for an upright and oxer. You can do this in an arena or field.

Set up a one-stride double, with an upright and square oxer, across the diagonal to give you maximum space around the fences. Both fences can be jumped from either direction.

This jumping exercise is suitable for all levels, so build the fences at the height at which you are comfortable. Joe demonstrated this with his 1.60m jumper Cacharel, over fences at about 90cm-1m, and says he “rarely jumps more than 1.10m at home”.

How to ride this exercise

• Warm up in walk, trot and canter on both reins. Make sure your horse is listening to the aids, with plenty of transitions.
• You may want to jump a warm-up fence before starting the exercise, such as a cross-pole – whatever you usually do at the start of a jumping session.
• For the exercise, both the upright and oxer should be approached on an angle and jumped as single fences, not as part of a double. You can play around with the lines.
• Always approach the fence you want to jump as the second part of the double. This is so that you are not asking your horse to run past a fence it has already locked on to, which would be more likely if isolating the first fence, with the second fence in their vision. This means you always have to come in on an angle.
• Try circles, turn-back and figure-of-eights, dictating which lead you land on, as shown in the diagram.
• At the end, jump straight through the double a couple of times to reset.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Back to basics

For young or green horses, you can set the double on two strides to make it less demanding. This makes the angle of approach less sharp, and gives horses more time to see where they are going.

2. Work on the weak spots

Each horse will naturally have a favoured lead on which to land. You can play around with approaching and landing on different leads. Avoid leaning, but look in the direction you want to go and open the inside rein slightly, which should influence your horse’s landing lead.

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Riding round in circles can seem pointless, unless you create an aim and focus. The goal in this flatwork exercise is connecting simple 20m canter circles and 10m walk circles, with canter to walk, and walk to canter transitions.

The emphasis on precise upward and downward transitions provides huge benefits in terms of accuracy, which helps your horse to be more responsive, lift the forehand and move better overall.

While the focus is on accurate transitions, you’ll also be working on rhythm, balance and bend, which should remain consistent as you change pace and continue on whichever size circle.

It also helps with engagement, suppleness and collection, because of the use of the hindleg when riding a circle and the horse bending his core around your inside leg.

Aims

• Improve walk to canter transitions
• Develop engagement, suppleness and collection
• Help lift your horse’s shoulder

The setup

No setup required. You can do this exercise in a field or an arena.

How to ride this exercise

• Canter at 20m circle at either C or A.
• At X, make a transition from canter to walk and, staying on the same rein, walk a 10m circle.
• When completing the circle, at X make a walk to canter transition and ride a 20m circle again.
• Repeat the sequence five times.
• Change the rein and repeat.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Level up

If you’ve nailed your walk to canter transitions and vice versa so that they take place on X, without drifting, losing balance or outline, the next step is to do one set of circles on the left rein, then change leg over X and repeat a set of circles on the other rein in a figure of eight. Switch leads either through a couple of steps of trot or a flying change.

2. Late transitions

Preparation is key. For the downward transition, prepare three to five strides before X, quietly rebalancing the canter, sitting up tall, and thinking “soften and walk” rather than pulling down into it.

For the walk to canter transition, make sure your walk is forward on the 10m circle but not hurried. Ask for a clear aid up into canter, rather than rushing through a few strides of trot.

3. Anticipation

Your horse anticipating is partly useful because it enables you to use lighter aids for a more accurate transition. However, if your horse is acting before you’ve given the aids, change the exercise slightly. Continue over X without making a transition or switch the moment from X to A or C so that he waits for your aid rather than assuming what comes next.

4. Back to basics

If the walk-canter-walk transitions are too advanced for your level at the moment, swap the canter for trot. You’ll still be working on your transitions, bend and accuracy.

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This hourglass polework exercise only requires four poles, but provides multiple options to improve your horse’s straightness, suppleness, transitions and adjustability.

Sometimes in a training session, you want to work on a variety of things to benefit your horse, rather than focusing on a specific issue – and this polework exercise does just that.

Aims

• Improve balance and straightness
• Develop suppleness and rideability
• Hone accuracy

The setup

Place two poles on the quarter lines between H and M, at a 45º angle as shown in the diagram. Do the same between K and F.

It doesn’t matter if they are not precisely placed – they represent focal points rather than exact markers.

How to ride the hourglass exercise

• There are many different lines you can ride in this hourglass exercise and you can do all the patterns in walk, trot, or canter, which all have different demands.
• First try the loops, incorporating the poles as you leave and return to the track. You can vary the depth of the loop as you fine-tune your aids. A bigger, sharper loop – as far as X – requires more bend and balance, while a gentle curve is easier for a horse to maintain its rhythm.
  • You can go from loop to loop on the same rein, or turn directly up the centre line after finishing a loop to change the rein, and repeat on the other side. This works on both bending and straightness and helps stop your horse anticipating.
• Elongated figure of eight: rather than a classic figure of eight made up of 20m circles, the poles dictate that you ride into the corners before making a straight line across the diagonal to change the rein. This works on accuracy into the corners, balance on the turns, straightness across the diagonal and maintaining rhythm through the change of rein.
  • Within this figure of eight, you can practise transitions on the diagonal line, for example, halt at X, trot-to-walk and so on.
  • If doing the exercise in canter, you can do simple lead changes through trot over X, or more advanced partnerships can execute flying changes.
  • You can also practise shortening and lengthening between the two poles across the diagonal, counting a different number of strides.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Back to basics

If your horse is losing balance on the turns, falling out through the shoulder or swinging the quarters, take it back a step. Don’t get hung up on completing the pattern.

You can break up the patterns so you do segments, such as one loop then go large. Or go through the lines in walk first, so that he understands the challenge at a slower pace.

2. Level up

Raise the poles or add cavaletti to add to the challenge.

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This simple flatwork exercise is a favourite of H&H deputy art editor Sophie Cheeseman to do at the start of a session to encourage your horse to be supple, off the leg and to “get your own legs working too”.

This is a great suppling exercise to do at the start of a session to warm you and your horse up, and is great for practising riding accurate circles.

It entails consecutive 10m circles off the centre line, on alternate reins. This works on your horse’s suppleness, collection and connection with the rider.

Aims

• Suppleness
• Collection
• Connection

The setup

No setup required. You can do this exercise in an arena or a field, though it’s best to mark out an arena to help you stay disciplined on circle sizes.

The diagram below shows the exercise in a 20x60m school. If you are riding in a 20x40m, just do one circle fewer.

How to ride this exercise

• Establish an active walk working into a contact and go large on the left rein. Turn down the centre line and almost immediately ride a 10m circle to the right.
• On returning to the track, walk a few strides straight then ride a 10m circle to the left.
• Establish straightness again on the centre line, then circle on the right rein, and so on.
• Continue with these alternate circles until you reach the end of the arena. You should aim to fit five 10m circles in a 60m school – adjust according to the length you have available.
• You can repeat this exercise in trot.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Space out the circles

When you start doing this exercise, you may want to space out the circles so you’re not rushing your horse. Work on ensuring you have the correct bend on both reins.

Equally, it’s beneficial to practise a few strides of straightness in between the circles as well as the tight turns.

2. Build up slowly

Your horse needs to be established and balanced on single 10m circles before attempting this sequence, which requires significant suppleness and multiple changes of rein in quick succession.

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The butterfly jumping exercise was first developed by showjumper Luciana Diniz. It uses more fences that we usually set up for a daily training exercise, but it’s worth it as if offers some 60 different lines. You can leave it up for the week and revisit.

The focus is on riding through the turn and concentrating on landing on the correct lead. At the same time, you’ll be building your canter rhythm as you jump from fence to fence.

There are several different version of the butterfly jumping exercise. Here, we outline the simplest version.

And it’s not just for jumpers; it’s a handy pattern for those who enjoy polework exercises, too.

Aims

• Land on the correct lead
• Course visualisation
• Link fences in a good rhythm and quality canter

The setup

Set up five jumps in a butterfly shape. One obstacle forms the butterfly”s body in the middle, and four obstacles as its wings.

Build the fences at a height at which you are comfortable. It’s best to start small, as you will be jumping a lot of fences in a session. It’s less about the height, more about the quality of canter through the turns.

Although the butterfly is primarily used as a jumping exercise, you can do this with poles on the ground, cavaletti, or fences that you can adjust. You might also want to incorporate an oxer on either side to give a variation of uprights and spreads.

How to ride the exercise

• Start small – even with poles on the ground – and only once you are taking the lines you intend smoothly and confidently should you consider raising the fences.
• With some 60 different lines that you can take around this set-up, you can simply play around. The diagram shows one potential sequence.
• Decide before each line exactly where which route you will take, as you need to be accurate with your aids.
• Visualise your course before starting, so that you are ready over each fence to influence the correct lead on landing.
• Focus on riding through each turn in balance and landing on the correct lead.
• To land on the correct lead, look in the direction you want to travel, towards the next fence. Very slightly open your inside rein. Do not lean to try to influence the horse as this will throw him off balance.
• You’ll also practise switching from jumping off a turn to in a straight line over the “butterfly’s body” fence.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Landing on the wrong lead: rider influence

Do not lean to the inside as your horse may try to counterbalance. Look and turn your head as you leave the ground in the direction you want to travel.

Slightly open the inside rein but don’t overdo it, and keep a steady, supportive outside rein.

2. Landing on the wrong lead: help with poles

You can also add a pole on the landing side, on a diagonal at least 3m from the fence to close off the rein he favours (see example below).

For instance, if he always wants to land on the left rein, place the left side of the landing pole 3m from the fence so there is no chance of landing on it, at a slight angle as shown in the diagram below. This forms a natural barrier, encouraging him around the turn to the right and automatically landing on the right lead.

Or you can add a half cross-pole behind the fence, with the side raised of the horse’s favoured leg. Putting it behind the fence is safer as if your horse hits it, it will simply fall down.

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“Around the clock” is a relatively demanding polework exercise on a 20m circle, which can be ridden in both trot and canter. It helps you see how well you can control the outside shoulder, requiring the horse to negotiate four poles while bending around your inside leg.

Aims

• Maintain the bend and direction of travel while lifting the shoulder
• Work on your horse’s posture and outline
• Ride from inside leg to outside hand

The setup

Setup: Four poles set up on a 20m circle like a clock face. There should be four canter strides between the centre of each pole.

How to ride this exercise

1. Warm up in walk, trot and canter.
2. First, walk over the circle of four poles on each rein, keeping up a good active pace, and allowing the horse to lift his shoulder and lengthen his neck over each pole.
3. Next, in trot on both reins. Approach each pole in the middle, using stripes if you have them to guide you. Keep looking round to the next pole to maintain the bend. Focus on how you ride each quadrant rather than each individual pole.
4. Now, in canter on both reins, add in one pole at a time rather than going straight over all four poles at once. Start by riding two poles, then missing a pole, then two poles and so on. Take a break on a long rein.
5. Then, do three poles at a time, and miss a pole, for a few circles, and repeat on the other rein. Again, give your horse a short break between each set.
6. Finally, do all four poles.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Level up

Although this exercise is quite demanding in itself, you can ramp up the difficulty level. Try shortening the canter to five strides between poles, and doing two quadrants on five strides, and two on four. This requires your horse to lengthen and shorten the canter without tension, because the poles will disrupt it if your horse is not sufficiently adjustable.

2. Self-carriage

It’s tempting for your horse to drift out to make this exercise a bit easier. Give him a gentle pat with the inside hand over every other pole to check he can maintain his position and bend without relying on that inside hand.

3. Rider position

You can vary your position between sitting in the saddle and a light showjumping seat. One is likely to feel easier to you, so practise both until they both feel as natural as the other.

4. Take a break

This is a demanding exercise both mentally and physically, so make sure you give your horse plenty of breaks on a long rein between sets.

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Transitions – as Olympic dressage rider Becky Moody always emphasises – are the most important part of daily training, whatever pace you are working in. This flatwork exercise incorporates rein-back as well as transitions to increase the difficulty level.

It improves your horse’s balance, engaging the hindquarters to carry more weight while lifting the core. Rein-back is also useful for testing your horse’s response to the rider’s correct seat, leg and hand aids.

We may think that we can’t make much progress in walk, but this is a great exercise that really helps develop your horse’s way of going and your own riding skills. Furthermore, it can be done in an arena or out hacking, and is useful when the ground is hard or your horse is perhaps older or lacking fitness but still needs stimulating work.

Aims

• Improve responsiveness
• Develop balance and straightness
• Hone rider’s coordination

The setup

No setup required. You can do this exercise in a field or an arena.

How to ride this exercise

• Establish an active walk in a straight line, concentrating on your position as a rider – your posture, straightness, soft hands and weight in the heels.
• Count approximately eight steps of walk, then halt for five seconds, squeezing the rein and legs, while sitting tall so that the horse steps into the contact. How early you have to prepare will depend on your connection with your horse.
• Analyse your halt – is it square? Did you horse respond when you gave the aids?
• Ask your horse to go forward to walk for eight steps and halt again.
• Now, rein-back for four steps or as much as is comfortable for your stage in training – pressing with the inner thigh, keeping your abs tight and gently half-halting, softening as soon as he responds.
• Analyse your rein-back as you go. Does your horse move straight back with his legs in diagonal pairs? Does he remain soft and consistent in his outline or resist?
• Go straight back into walk and go large.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Level up

If you are working in an arena, you can start this exercise alongside the fence (or out hacking along a hedgerow). This will help keep your horse straight.

Next, try it on the centre line without any fence keeping him from swinging quarters out or in. Concentrate on maintaining a straight line both in the walk, through the halt and the rein-back.

When you can do this exercise easily, vary the number of steps in walk and rein-back. Be strict with yourself on achieving however many strides you decide so that you don’t drift.

2. Poor halt

Preparation is paramount. If your horse is late to halt, prepare earlier and give clearer aids.

If he halts crookedly, analyse your own position: are you sitting with your weight on both seatbones, with your hands level? Visualise keeping your horse’s shoulders and quarters aligned, rather than forcing the head straight with the reins.

Use the arena fence to help keep you straight.

3. Poor rein-back

If your horse is new to rein-back, try teaching him rein-back from the ground first. When ridden, start by asking for just one step and immediately release and praise him.

Again, this is easiest to attempt initially at the side of the arena, using the fence as a natural barrier. You could also set up some poles to ride between.

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Counter-canter is useful for developing balance, straightness, strength and obedience to the aids. While it also appears as a movement in dressage tests as you progress up the levels (from novice in pure dressage, and in eventing), it’s also very effective for improving the overall canter quality and self-carriage.

However, when you first introduce your horse to counter-canter, like any new move, it’s best to take baby steps.

This teardrop shaped is handy for teaching a few strides of counter-canter in an unpressurised, simple way, so your horse can gain strength and understand of the aids before progressing to more demanding flatwork exercises.

Aim

• To achieve a few strides of counter-canter while maintaining straightness and balance.

The setup

No setup required. You can do this exercise in an arena of field, but if using the latter it’s best to mark out an arena with boards or poles to help you stay disciplined regarding straight lines and circle sizes.

How to ride this exercise

• Warm up in walk, trot and canter on both reins, including doing circles of various sizes. This spiral circle exercise can improve engagement and balance on a smaller circle.
• Pick up an active canter, and go large on the left rein. At the short end of the arena, ride a 15m half circle.
• At the end of the half-circle, take a diagonal line back to the track, thereby changing the rein. Keep control of your horse’s shoulders, and maintain your leg aids for left canter, so that your horse doesn’t drift or anticipate a flying change.
• Maintain counter-canter for a few strides on a straight line, making a transition to trot before the corner. The canter should feel of the same quality and balance, not losing rhythm.
• Repeat on the other rein.
• Next, try the same exercise but with a 10m half-circle. This will require greater collection and rebalance for the smaller circle, and give room for more strides of counter-canter on returning to the track.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Circle size

If the circle is too tight, your horse may lose balance or fall out through the shoulder. You want to go into counter-canter in good balance and maintain those quality steps, so make the circle size relative to your horse’s suppleness. You can make it tighter as your horse develops.

2. Anticipating the change

Some horses are so used to changing leads automatically, they may swap as soon as you turn back towards the track. Work on establishing a quality, balanced canter, and maintain your aids for the leading leg.

For example, if starting on the left lead, the rider’s left leg is on the girth, right leg just behind, with poll flexion slightly to the left – which will be slightly to the outside in counter-canter.

3. Level up

If you horse is doing the teardrop easily and confidently, try maintaining counter-canter through the corner, and eventually into a figure-of-eight. However, if your horse breaks into trot, loses rhythm, changes or goes disunited, take it back a step. Re-establish a quality canter, and try again. The priority is canter quality not completing the pattern.

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Young, weak or unbalanced horses sometimes pick up canter on the incorrect lead. Over time, this has potential to become a habit.

Thankfully, there’s a simple flatwork exercise that requires you to ride a few steps of leg-yield to help your horse pick up the correct canter lead.

Aims

• Correct your horse’s flexion
• Connect the horse into the outside rein
• Improve the canter transition

The setup

You need: a 20x40m or 20x60m arena

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, turn onto the three-quarter line in trot.
• As you pass X, begin to leg-yield to the track. You can sit or rise, depending on what’s best for your horse. Aim to hit the track just after the corner marker.
• Ask for canter as you reach the track going into the corner.

Things to note

1. Avoid over-flexing

When ridden correctly, your horse should show slight flexion away from the direction of travel. Too much flexion often leads to the shoulders leading, and often means the horse drifts rather than crossing the legs.

However, ensure you maintain the flexion, and the connection into the outside rein, into the corner. Alongside balancing him, this is what helps set your horse up to lead with the inside leg in the canter.

2. Ensure your horse’s body is straight

While the shoulders should be slightly in advance of the quarters, they should not be dramatically so. Likewise, the hindquarters should not lead.

3. Maintain the rhythm

Look to maintain the same trot you had while riding large up the three-quarter line and throughout the leg-yield.

Some horses lose their engine in leg-yield, dropping behind the bit, while others might rush forward and away from your inside leg aid.

Ultimately, the contact and rhythm should be consistent. You may need to adjust your aids to help maintain them, or remain in a rising trot to help keep to a regular rhythm.

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Groundwork exercises can be highly effective for building your horse’s strength as they can develop core stability, balance and muscle tone without needing to compensate for the added weight and restriction of a rider.

All horses have a dominant side – like us being right- or left-handed – and with this exercise you can target developing the weaker side as well as building overall core strength. The use of raised and angled poles make horses lift their knees and bend the hocks, think where to place their feet, engage their core and and open their shoulders.

Aims

• Develop weaker side
• Engage core and get horse working through the back
• Improve proprioception

The setup

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle

Setup: You can use as many poles as you have time to lay out, but six is a good number. Arrange them in a zig-zag as shown in the diagram, raising the points where the poles meet on to 15–20cm blocks on one side.

Because this is a walk exercise, don’t worry too much about the spacing – they can be quite close together or at right angles. It’s up to your horse to work out where to put his feet.

How to do the exercise

• Before you try the polework exercise, warm your horse up by leading him on both reins for about 10min. You should do transitions from walk to halt, to check he is paying attention to you. You can also ask him to rein-back from the ground or do some basic lateral work. Your horse should be walking actively forwards and straight, as you would expect under saddle.
• Approach the zig-zag directly in the centre. As you are working in-hand, you should keep yourself parallel to your horse’s head but outside the poles, rather than stepping over them as this may affect how you lead and balance your horse.
• Because the spacing between the poles varies, and they are higher on one side than the other, this will encourage your horse to think about where he puts his feet, constantly adjusting his balance and stride length. Stepping over uneven, raised obstacles asks your horse to lift their core, thereby building topline.
• You should do this exercise several times in each direction, bearing in mind one side is higher than the other. To work on your horse’s weaker side, do more lines where he has to lift that side higher. For example, if his weaker side is the left, have the raised side on the left.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Alternate raised poles

This exercise is equally effective if you alternate the raised sides, so your horse has to keep adapting as they go down the line.

2. Don’t overface

If your horse has never done this exercise before, he may find the visual challenge of a line of asymmetric poles offputting. You can build up from three poles rather than going straight into six.

Likewise, don’t underestimate the impact of this polework exercise, even though you’re not riding. It requires plenty of physical and mental effort.

3. No drifting 

Although you’re leading your horse and cannot use your legs and hands to keep him straight, the asymmetric layout should do the job for you as the angled poles channel the horses into a straight line. Give them plenty of freedom with the head and neck to assess the layout and use their back.

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The versatile in-hand pole setup that will give your horse plenty to think about – even in walk

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Extended canter is all about energy. Dressage judges want to see an increase in stride length and ground cover, not just more speed, with the horse staying straight and connected.

The same applies when jumping: you want lift, airtime and adjustability, maintaining your rhythm – not simply a faster canter that’s flat and hollow.

This very simple flatwork exercise works on boosting the quality of the steps in extended canter – not the quantity.

Aims

• Increase stride length and ground cover
• Develop an uphill, open frame
• Maintain the rhythm while increasing the reach
• Stay straight and connected, both into the extended canter and back out again

The setup

No setup required – simply the space to ride a 20m circle on the flat.

How to ride the exercise

Many riders try to practise their extended canter by firing off down the long side of the arena. However, it’s best taught over short, repeatable efforts where the horse can learn to make a distinction in stride length.

• Warm up in walk, trot and canter on both reins, including plenty of transitions to make sure your horse is listening and responding to your aids.
• Establish an active working canter and go large.
• Now go on to a 20m circle in working canter, and make a transition to five or six bigger strides, before collecting back to working canter. Use your inside leg to push the shoulder up without blocking. The circle should encourage your horse to step under with the hindleg, rather than running flat on the forehand.
• This short effort discourages the horses from becoming flat and running, because they’ll anticipate the re-collection. It also teaches riders to feel a few good steps as the quality is developing and not chase for more.
• Each horse will vary on how much you need to push and how much to hold. By practising, you’ll find your own horse’s sweet spot.
• Repeat a few times on each rein.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Running

Keep the increases short, before collecting back. While the horse is developing the extended canter, he may only be able to manage a few good strides, then unravel, losing balance and energy. It is better to make the transition back before that happens. Prioritise quality over quantity.

2. Flattening

To extend properly, your horse needs to lift. Think shoulder-fore going into the circle, so you encourage you horse to keep his inside shoulder up, without establishing a full shoulder-in. The frame needs to be open to be able to extend, not overly flexed.

3. Too much hand

Some riders hang on to the reins to try to control the canter, so you need to work on your hands being independent. Work on giving and retaking the rein on a circle. And when you come back to a more collected canter from the increased strides, don’t just pull! Use a half-halt and soften.

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This groundwork exercise is handy for keeping your horse engaged and stimulated in walk, because of the constant changes of direction combined with negotiating poles.

Aims

• Provide mental and physical stimulation
• Strengthen core and hindquarters
• Focus on changes of bend while negotiating poles

The setup

Setup: Three sets of two poles set up in like chevrons, with about 4m between the points of each set.

You will need: training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle

How to do this in-hand exercise

• Just because you’re working in hand doesn’t mean you don’t need to warm your horse up. Before you start the polework exercise, spend 5–10min in walk. Your horse should be walking actively, as you would expect if you were riding. Incorporate plenty of transitions to check your horse is focussed and working with you, not being distracted.
• First, approach the chevrons on a straight line (orange line above). The poles should draw the horse into the point.
• Approach the points in the opposite direction, aiming for the points. Without the poles guiding you both into the point, you need to be accurate so the horse doesn’t meander to the side.
• Now you can play around with the formation. Do circles and loops making a cross-section through the chevron, varying whether you cross near the point or where the poles widen out (green line). Taking the poles on an angle like this will increase the emphasis on footwork as the horse needs to work out how to lift and put down his feet.
• You can also approach the sides of the chevron at a right angle, then dogleg off to the opposite arm of the next chevron (blue line). This works on changing the bend while negotiating poles. All the time, you are asking you horse to assess, react, be supple and precise with his footwork.

Make sure you work equally on both reins.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Layout

If you only have four poles – or are short on time – just two chevrons will also provide a great workout.

2. Accuracy

Striped poles are really useful for keeping disciplined on accuracy. If you decide to cross from, say, white stripe to white stripe, can you stick to it?

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Lengthened or extended trot strides are often seen in a dressage test across the diagonal. The consequence is that many of us practise them by speeding across the longest straight in the arena, inadvertently encouraging our horses to become flat, hollow and rushed. The trot strides don’t so much lengthen as simply speed up.

Instead, we want to encourage our horse to push off the hindleg, with the strides getting longer but, crucially, not quicker. To do this successfully, the horse needs to be supple, which will produce longer steps with more airtime thanks to a looser back and more engaged hindleg.

This flatwork exercise works on suppleness alongside lengthening the steps to improve the latter.

Aims

• Longer, but not faster, trot strides
• Increased suppleness

The setup

No setup required. All you need is sufficient space – and an arena is ideal. If you are riding in the field, it’s helpful to lay out arena boards, poles or other markers so that you can be disciplined about where you make transitions.

How to ride the exercise

• Warm up in all paces, incorporating plenty of upward and downward transitions to ensure your horse is responding to your aids or cues.
• Establish an active working trot and go large, riding around the edge of the arena.
• As you come round the short side, turn up the quarter-line in the same trot, and leg-yield to the track.
• When you reach the track, ask for a few lengthened strides, thinking “bigger, but slower” to prevent rushing. The leg-yield should help loosen your horse’s back, while engaging the inside hindleg so that it can push off more for bigger, longer strides. This is particularly helpful if your horse has a choppy trot.
• Before you reach the end of the next short side, collect the trot again, keeping the energy but containing the stride length.
• Do this exercise the same number of times in both directions. Because it loads the inside hindleg more, you need to work both sides equally.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Tempo control

If you do this exercise in rising trot, you can use your rising to help control the horse’s tempo. This is useful if your horse tends to go faster, not bigger, when you ask for the extension.

2. Rushing

For horses that rush or hollow, you can practise lengthening on a circle. The curve of the circle will encourage you to ride from inside leg to outside rein to engage the hindleg. You can change between rising and sitting trot to help your horse by allowing the back to swing more in the longer strides.

3. Trouble re-collecting

For horses that struggle to come back into a balanced more collected trot after lengthening, ride a 10m circle at the end of the lengthened strides. This will encourage you to keep your horse in balance so that he is ready to do a small circle, rather than allowing him to rush down the side of the arena.

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This polework exercise can be done in-hand or ridden, but it’s best to teach it as a groundwork exercise first to give your horse the chance to learn the concept without the additional weight of a rider. The act of simply stepping over a line of poles can bring huge benefits to your horse in terms of both stimulation (mental and physical) and building strength, coordination and horse-rider harmony.

Aims

• Develop your horse’s core strength
• Improve foot-brain coordination
• Develop horse-rider relationship and understanding

The setup

Setup: Four poles laid end to end in a line. They can be on the ground or sightly raised on small blocks or bricks. You need to have space either side, so ideally down the middle of an arena or field.

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle.

How to do this in-hand exercise

• Begin by leading your horse in-hand around the arena or field for five minutes or so, checking he is walking purposefully without pulling you around. Do transitions to and from halt to ensure he is responding.
• Approach parallel to the line of poles so that they lie just to right of your horse. When you are level with the first pole and their right foreleg is about to leave the ground, ask the horse to step over the pole until all four legs are on the right side of the pole.
• Walk in a straight line away.
• Next, approach so that the poles lie to your horse’s left. When their left fore is leading, ask the horse to step to the left over the line of poles and walk away in a straight line.
• Once the horse understands the concept, you can link up several step-overs. Starting with the poles on the right, step over the line leading with the right fore, then take an odd number of steps parallel to the pole until the left fore is leading, and ask the horse to step to the left back over the line of poles. Again walk an odd number of steps and then move sideways right.
• Continue until you reach the end of the line.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Difficulty level

This exercise is more demanding the higher the poles are raised, and the more frequently you ask the horse to step over. Start with seven steps on each side, progressing to five or then three as your horse understands.

2. Stay parallel

It can be tempting to serpentine over the poles, but the aim is to step laterally, one foot after the other. Stay parallel and don’t meander!

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In this exercise to improve medium trot, we are using lateral work – specifically the half-pass – to improve the push in the more extended paces. Half-pass should only be attempted once your horse is established in both shoulder-in and haunches-in (travers), being able to bend around the inside leg, maintain a forward rhythm and move sideways in good balance.

The half-pass enhances a horse’s longitudinal and lateral suppleness, enabling the hindleg to step under more and therefore boosting the power and push, to encourage ground cover without your horse losing balance. It also frees up the shoulders, which gives your horse more reach in the medium trot.

Aim

• Improve impulsion and engagement

Setup

No setup required: This flatwork exercise is easiest to do in an arena. If you are riding it in a field, we suggest marking out an arena to help your accuracy.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active working trot and go large.
• As you come out of the corner, ask for half-pass across the diagonal.
• After six strides or so, straighten the horse and ask for some lengthened or medium trot strides.
• Proceed in medium trot across X. This should improve impulsion and engagement.
• After around six strides of medium trot, half-halt and position your horse in half-pass again.
• Half-pass back to the track.
• Repeat on both reins and from both ends of the arena.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Failing to prepare

Without preparing your horse properly either for the half-pass or the medium trot, he will lack engagement and balance. Try a couple of steps of shoulder-in before the half-pass to engage the hindleg and establish the bend.

When it comes to the medium trot, make sure he is straight before asking him to lengthen.

2. Too much, too soon

Half-pass is a lateral movement for established horses. If your horse is twisting his head or struggling with his balance and bend, go back to basics. He should be well established in shoulder-in before you start attempting some steps of half-pass.

3. Twisting head

This can occur when the inside rein is forcing the bend, with the outside leg pushing the horse, which blocks the inside leg from coming through.

Or, the rider is asking for more sideways movement than the horse is ready for.

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Teaching sidepass and other lateral work from the ground encourages your horse to “think” with his feet, as well as listening and reacting to what you are asking of them. It can take a while initially for the penny to drop for some horses learning this lateral sidepass pole exercise, but it’s great for creating engagement and learning how to move the hind and front end.

The pole provides a visual and tactile boundary, which is a tool in this exercise. All you are asking the horse to do is move sideways along a pole which separates the hind and front end. However, it is quite a demanding exercise mentally, requiring your horse to understand your cues to move laterally and not to step forwards over the pole with the hindlegs.

Before you attempt this groundwork exercise, your horse needs to understand how to move his front end and his back end from your cues on the ground. These are simple movements that you would do, for example, when you open and close a gate.

Aims

• Develop lateral coordination, suppleness and precise footwork
• Engage the core as the horse learns cross their legs over in balance
• Improve your horse’s overall manoeuvrability and responsiveness

The setup

You will need:

• A pole on the ground – ideally a heavy one that doesn’t roll easily when kicked or stepped on
• training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle
• Lunge line, long rope or reins
• Schooling whip (or you can spin the end of your line or reins as the cue)

Once your horse is comfortable standing over a pole, ask him to move sideways along the pole, keeping his hind and front legs on either side

How to do the sidepass pole exercise

• First lead your horse towards the pole, asking him to halt when just his front legs are over it, and the pole is dividing his front and hindlegs. It may take some adjustment and steps of rein-back for him to understand where you want him to position himself.
• Make sure that your horse is comfortable standing squarely with the pole dividing his front and hind end. This may take time initially, especially if he is used to walking over poles rather than stopping halfway.
• In the middle of the pole, stand facing your horse and slightly to his left side, and ask your horse to move to the right, away from you.
• Your left hand should steer the horse sideways to his right, containing any forward movement so that he does not walk over the pole with the hindlegs.
• To move the hind end laterally, either spin or shake the loose end of lead rope in your right hand, or point to the horse’s ribcage with your schooling whip to ask him to move right.
• The moment your horse makes a step or two sideways, release the pressure and praise. Over time he will understand to move laterally along the whole pole, crossing his legs over as he goes.
• To start with, just try going from the middle of the pole to the edge, and eventually you’ll be able to side pass along the whole pole.
• Repeat in the other direction.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Patience

Break this exercise down into small steps, so you do not overface your horse – it takes time. In one session, you may only get as far as standing quietly over the pole.

2. Confidence and competence

To start with, your horse may move the front end and hind end separately, but as they grow in confidence and understanding, they will step sideways with both fronts and hinds simultaneously.

3. When to step away

If your horse starts to get frustrated with the exercise, which can feel claustrophobic as he gets used to the pole in between his legs, break it up with some forward trotwork.

4. Ridden work

You can also do this exercise ridden, and having already taught your horse from the ground, it should be much easier to achieve.

5. Progress

You can develop this exercise by adding further poles, for instance into an L shape or a zigzag so the horse they have to negotiate corners, requiring a little turn on the forehand or haunches to move onto the next pole.

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We know straightness is a crucial element of how our horse goes, and one of the scales of training. Canter, being asymmetrical, is the hardest gait to achieve straightness, with many horses falling out at the shoulder and swinging the quarters in.

This flatwork exercise uses shallow loops to straighten the canter, improving engagement and encouraging your horse to accept the outside aids. Straightness still applies when the horse is bending. The horse is straight if their hindlegs are following their front legs travelling on the same two tracks in self-carriage.

Quarters-in is a common fault at lower levels. As the outside hindleg strikes off (and starts each canter stride sequence), it carries the most weight. Horses may try to compensate for this by swinging the quarters in so this weight-bearing leg doesn’t have to step under so far.

Aims

• Straighten the canter
• Teach your horse to accept the outside aids
• Achieve self-carriage

The setup

No setup required: This exercise is easiest to do in a school to help you be disciplined about the size of loop. If you do it in a field, we suggest you mark out an area to work in.

How to ride this exercise

• Once warmed up in walk, trot and canter on both reins, go large in a balanced working canter.
• At the first quarter marker on each side of the area, ride a 10m shallow loop. The bend of the horse’s head and neck should follow the direction of travel.
• Repeat, progressively decreasing the size of loops to 8m, 5m, 2m and 1m.
• Finally, ride the same exercise with barely noticeable loops of 20cm – with the aim that your horse is completely straight.
• Repeat on both reins.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Your horse goes disunited or hollows

Just come back to trot, try to relax, and then try again starting with shallower loops.

2. You lose the quality of canter

Some horses rush as they anticipate cantering across the diagonal. Perform a half-halt in the corner before starting the loop to keep him on the aids.

3. An unintentional flying change

Maintain the existing canter lead (the lead you started the loop on) with your true inside leg and the outside leg slightly behind the girth. While the horse’s body should bend around the loop, their nose should be slightly pointing toward the leading leg to prevent the horse from interpreting the turn as a cue for a flying change.

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This S-bend or maze exercise is designed to be done in walk. However, you can choose either to ride it or do it in hand – both have benefits. As your horse navigates their way through the maze of poles, it’s a mentally stimulating challenge to encourage suppleness, build core strength and balance, while teaching your horse to take care where he puts his feet.

I personally love this polework exercise and find it to be really beneficial. Plus, walk is a very effective pace for polework because there is no moment of suspension, which means your horse has to use muscular effort, thereby building core strength.

Aims

• Improve proprioception
• Boost balance and core strength
• Provide mental stimulation

The setup

Setup: six poles arranged in a maze or S shape

You will need: if working in-hand, a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle. Otherwise, your usual tack.

How to ride the maze exercise

• Whether you are riding or working in-hand, warm up the horse for 10 minutes or so, including transitions and circles. Check he is responsive to your aids, listening and ready to work.
• Let’s say you want to ride the exercise. Approach the entry to the maze (blue line) in a nice active walk.
• The corners will be tight. Open your inside hand to encourage your horse to bend through his body in the direction of travel. Control the shoulder from falling out with the outside rein. Apply pressure with the inside leg, to encourage him to step under and cross over with his hindlegs, like you would in turn on the forehand. The outside leg behind the girth should be in contact with their side to stop the quarters swinging out.
• To do this exercise in-hand, you will need to use your body positioning, line and stick to encourage your horse to bend and step under.
• You can also use this layout to walk and trot over the poles as shown in the diagram by the orange and yellow lines.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Start simple

Start with wide channels (around 1.5m) when introducing this layout. You can reduce them to about 1m when the horse is proficient at this exercise.

You can also start with a basic L or U shape rather than the full maze while the horse works out the challenge.

2. Rushing

Horses can feel trapped by the narrow boundaries and rush, or try to go over the poles rather than chicane around them. If this happens, widen the channels. You can also walk the horse around the layout first so they can inspect it.

3. Steering problems

Your horse may be confused by the layout and what you want him to do in the tight space, or lack lateral suppleness. Take it slowly, using clear aids whether you are doing the exercise ridden or in-hand.

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This simple groundwork exercise might not look demanding, performed at a walk on a loose rein, but it works your horse’s back, strengthens the hindquarters and core, and improves their proprioception as the negotiate poles of different heights and angles.

Aims

• Provide mental and physical stimulation
• Strengthen core and hindquarters
• Focus on footwork

The setup

Setup: four poles set up in a cross shape, with the outer ends raised on blocks

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle

How to do this in-hand exercise

• Warm up your horse first in straight lines in walk by leading him around the arena or field for around 10min, checking that he is active and obedient to your aids. Do frequent transitions from walk to halt to ensure your communication and your horse’s responses are working well. You can also do some rein-back in-hand.
• This polework exercise has two patterns – one a circle and the other in straight lines.
• For the circle, stand toward the middle of the circle and ask the horse to circle around you, stepping over the poles. You can touch your horse behind the girth to encourage him to bend around you. (You will need to be in one quarter, and step over the poles as you turn). The bigger the circle, the higher your horse will need to lift his feet to clear the raised poles.
• Give your horse plenty of rein or rope so that he can lower his head and use his back. The uneven heights require him to look down, assess, and improve hoof-brain coordination.
• For the straight lines, simply lead your horse into the middle of the cross so that he has to take a big step over the X.
• You can add variants, such as small circles over each pole, or making serpentine shapes.
• Perform these exercises equally on both reins to promote symmetrical muscle development.

Tip

Circle sizes

Asking the horse to circle around the edge of the poles requires less bend, but for the horse to lift and engage his core more as he’s travelling over the raised ends. If you bring the circle in closer to you, it will require more bend and suppleness. Either size brings benefits.

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While a horse’s paces are largely down to natural talent, there’s plenty you can work on to improve their quality, scope and cadence. Paces will typically improve as your horse strengthens and you can use poles on the ground to help them develop.

This polework exercise uses just three poles, but by putting them on a fan, you can vary the line and therefore the adjustability of your horse. This works on the ability to collect, lift and lengthen, while staying in a rhythm to negotiation the poles.

Aims

• Improve your horse’s paces
• Encourage a forward, balanced rhythm
• Stop your horse falling in round the corner

The setup

Setup: place three poles in a fan anywhere in the arena, as long as you can ride a straight line towards the fan and away at a right angle. Ideally you will use matching poles so that you can visually ensure you stay on the same curved line.

To ride the exercise in trot, set the poles at around 1.25–1.50m apart (approx 4.5 to 5 toe-to-heel steps for most adults)at the centre point, making a wedge shape.

To ride the exercise in canter, set the poles at around 3–3.5m apart (approx three adult walk steps) at the centre point.

Ponies will need shorter distances (or to take a tighter inside line).

How to do this exercise

• Once warmed up, pick up an active trot and ride over the fan crossing the centre of the poles making a smooth curve around the corner.
• Keep the rhythm and ride over the inner line, again with a smooth (albeit tighter) curve. This is to shorten the stride and encourage your horse to use his hocks.
• Then try the outer line, encouraging your horse to take a longer step, while keeping the rhythm. He cannot simply go faster, as the poles will guide his stride length.
• The inner and outer lines enable you to practise lengthening and shortening the stride, using the poles as an aid to help the horse to stay engaged as he has to lift his shoulder and use his hocks.
• Once your horse is working well over the fan in trot on both reins, widen the distance between the fanned poles for canter.
• Repeat the exercise in canter, working on inner and outer lines and always maintaining a smooth curve.
• If your horse is confident with this exercise, you can then raise the middle pole into a small fence.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Falling in or escaping through the shoulder

Make sure you are following the line through the poles, looking forward around the bend and keeping the contact from inside leg to outside hand. Identically marked poles can help you stay on the same curved line throughout the fan.

2. Shorten and lengthen

This is a great exercise to help your horse’s medium or extended trot. Ride the fan on the inner line to encourage a correct collected trot, giving your horse more lift. Then take that energy and put it into a medium trot across the diagonal or down the long side.

3. Simplify the setup

If you have six poles, you can set up two fans – one at trot and the other at canter distance so that you don’t have to get off and reset the poles.

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A correct halt is not achieved by simply closing the rein, it is the result of preparation, engagement and control in the preceding strides – and this polework exercise will help you get one step closer to riding a perfect square halt.

The halt is a key movement at every level of dressage. Whether it appears at the end of the final centre line, at X on the first centre line, or any other location during the test, it offers the judge a clear opportunity to assess balance, straightness and obedience. This exercise to improve your square halt will help develop all of these skills.

Aims

• Help the rider create an active balanced trot
• Help with accurate placement of the halt
• Create a square halt

The setup

You need: four poles

Setup: place two parallel poles either side of the centre line at X, spaced approximately one trot step apart (around four to five heel-to-toe steps), with two additional poles placed before and after them to frame the exercise.

How to ride this exercise to improve square halt

1. Before introducing halt transitions, it is essential to establish an active, balanced trot. Ride over the pair of trot poles on the E-B line. They will encourage the horse to step more actively underneath with the hind legs, promoting engagement and rhythm.

2. Start by practising trot–halt–trot transitions on the track. The long side provides a natural guide for straightness, which means you can focus on the quality of the transition without worrying about line. At this stage, the higher scales of training (impulsion, straightness and eventually collection) become increasingly important.

As you prepare for the halt, maintain an active trot with a closed leg and steady contact. Use your seat and core to ask for the transition, thinking of the horse stepping into the halt rather than stopping abruptly. A good halt should feel balanced and attentive, with the horse ready to move off again without resistance.

3. Ride the trot-halt-trot transitions on the centre line within the pole layout. As the horse steps over the pole into the halt, the hind legs naturally engage more deeply beneath the body, often resulting in a straighter, squarer halt. Moving off again over the following pole encourages an active, forward transition back into trot while maintaining alignment.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Halt not straight

When preparing the halt ensure your hips stay square and level, a horse wanting to be crooked will often push one of the rider’s hips forward or upwards. For example, if your horse is halting with their haunches to the right, they will have pushed the riders right hip up or forwards.

2. Knocking pole on the way in

This often means your halt is not square. Make sure the trot is active without being quick. While the upper leg helps maintain the straightness of the trot, the lower leg encourages activity. Your horse should feel short and bouncy as opposed to slow and flat.

3. Overshooting the layout

This is often due to lack of preparation, or the preparation being too late. If you overshoot by a stride, next time try starting the preparation a stride earlier. Half-halts should be clear and quick, followed by a release. If you hold for too long the horse will likely lean on the rein and be slow in their reaction.

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It’s all too easy when out hacking to do long stretches in one pace. By mixing it up and incorporating transitions, this will ensure your horse is listening to your aids and engaged, and improve your flatwork while you’re at it.

If you’re hacking out in company, you can still do this flatwork exercise. Count strides together and make it fun!

Aims

• Improve your accuracy in making upward and downward transitions
• Be disciplined about making the transition at the intended moment, rather than drifting into the new pace
• Ensure your horse is listening to you in a distracting environment, and that your aids are clear

The setup

No setup required. You can do this in an arena, field or out hacking.

How to ride the exercise

• Decide on a sequence of transitions that you will stick to. For example, trot 20 strides, walk 10 strides, trot 20 strides, walk 10 strides. You can also include canter and halt.
• Be disciplined about when the transition happens, rather than drifting into walk or trotting two strides after you intended. Prepare early, using one or more half-halts, so that your horse is ready, then execute the transition at the designated point.
• If you’ve nailed the straightforward transitions, work on transitions within the gait, for example lengthened strides, free walk to medium walk, collected trot to working, or skipping a gait, like halt to trot or walk to canter and back again.

You may find your horse is more easily distracted out hacking than he would be schooling in the arena, so this is a great way to keep him listening.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Lack of response into trot

Your horse does not have enough impulsion. Transitions are an excellent remedy for helping the horse be sharper off the leg, so try doing more frequent transitions. Also use transitions within the gait to build responsiveness and engagement.

2. Falling into walk

This reveals a lack of engagement, and could also mean the rider is leaning forward or collapsing through their core into the downward transition. Wrap your leg around your horse’s belly, close your thighs, sit up tall and maintain a consistent contact to keep the quarters engaged as he steps forward into walk.

3. Horse hollows

Your horse may hollow its back and lift his head as you make a downward transition. This can occur when the rider blocks with the reins. Soften your hand slightly during the transition, without losing the contact completely, to allow the horse to lift its back and step under.

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When you don’t have the time or motivation to ride, but still want to give your horse a constructive session, incorporating polework exercises as part of your groundwork training is one solution.

This in-hand groundwork exercise is ideal for establishing good communication with your horse from the ground, engaging them physically and mentally, as well as building their core strength and proprioception (body awareness). With one groundwork setup, you can practise a variety of lines and work on different areas of the body.

Aims

• Encourage accuracy and precision on the straight lines
• Develop flexion, core strength and engagement over the poles and round tight corners
• Mental stimulation and increased proprioception

The setup

Setup: four poles arranged in a square shape with each one touching end to end

You will need: a training halter, lunging cavesson, or your horse’s usual bridle

How to do the exercise

• First lead your horse around a few laps of the arena on each rein, checking he is listening to you by making frequent transitions to halt. You can also ask him to rein-back or do some basic lateral work. Your horse should be walking actively forwards and straight, as you would expect under saddle.
• Approach one side of the square in the centre of the poles and walk directly through, keeping on the same straight line as if you were riding a centre line in a dressage test (see green line above). Repeat this on the opposite axis and on both reins. You can incorporate halts in the middle of the square.
• Next, try diagonal lines through the square (see orange line above), walking in and out over the corners. This requires a bigger step from the horse to clear the right angle. Always focus on staying straight – it’s easier for the horse to veer away from the point. Also incorporate transitions to halt in the middle.
• To introduce bend, set up a curved line which asks the horse to step over each pole on an angle (see black line on the left above). You can adjust the curve to make the bend easier or harder to improve your horse’s flexibility and work on both reins.
• Another pattern to try is loops in and out of the square, changing bend through the centre – it’s a small space, so your horse will have to be clever with his footwork
• Work up to walking a complete circle over one corner of the square (black line top right), which requires your horse to bend through their ribs and be aware of their foot placement to clear the poles. Adjust the size of the circle to suit your horse.
• Finally you can ask your horse to work on his suppleness by turning a small circle around the inside of the square (black line inside the poles). This will require him to engage the inside hindleg and develop his flexibility (see note below).

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Larger circles

If walking a tight circle around the inside of the square is too taxing, try initially circling around the outside, which gives your horse more space. However, he should be able to work up to manoeuvring around the inside with practice.

2. Progress

To increase the difficulty level, raise the poles (using risers like these) to place a greater demand on the core strength and hindleg engagement.

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When it comes to lengthening and shortening the canter, this simple exercise is a must-try

Speak to any event rider about how to improve canter adjustability and, more often than not, they’ll recommend this polework exercise – but it’s not just useful for competitors.

When you’re schooling at home, this simple two-pole setup takes the guesswork out of lengthening and shortening the canter stride. It will reveal much about your horse’s strength, as well as just how effective your aids are, all while you’re working on improving the canter.

For young horses, it offers a framework for learning to shorten – establish the aids and mechanics here to set him up for dressage movements, variations within the pace (such as extended canter and collected canter) and course riding.

Aims

• improve canter adjustability
• refine the rider’s aids
• engage the hindleg

The setup

You need: two poles placed on the three-quarter line – it doesn’t matter about the distance between them

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, approach the poles in an active, rhythmic working canter. Aim for the middle and to maintain the rhythm without interfering too much. Your horse should look and adjust to meet the poles in the middle of the stride.
• Repeat, noting how many strides your horse fits comfortably and consistently down the line without interference.
• Now, still your seat over the first pole and make the shortening adjustments needed to fit an extra stride.
• Re-establish the working canter pace. Then ride forward over the first pole and open the canter to travel down the line in one stride fewer.
• Repeat, varying the number of strides you aim for each time.

Things to note

1. Don’t panic about half strides…

… or if your horse breaks into trot. This only means your horse is finding it tricky to engage the hind leg to shorten or maintain the power for a longer stride. Practice will improve his ability and interpretation of your aids.

2. The exercise doesn’t end with the second pole

Be mindful of your approach and getaway; you should still aim for a straight line and a quality corner. Furthermore, ensure the canter retains its quality, balance and control away from the second pole, and that your horse doesn’t lose momentum or get too onward bound.

3. Take breaks

Your horse may get tired, and some may become excited as they anticipate what’s to come. Take care to walk your horse if he’s blowing, or spend a couple of minutes working on something else if he lights up. It can help to give young or sharper horses a shorter approach to the poles. As ever, match the length and intensity of a schooling session to your horse’s age, fitness and ability level.

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This spiral circle exercise can help you avoid getting stuck in a rut of riding aimless 20m circles. With a bit of focus, you can turn those circles into a really productive flatwork exercise.

Aim

• to improve your horse’s suppleness, engagement and focus.

The setup

Setup: No setup required. All you need is enough space to trot a 20m circle.

How to ride the spiral circles exercise

• Once warmed up, pick up an active trot on a 20m circle. Make sure your horse is bending correctly on the line of the circle, with your inside leg on the girth and outside leg just behind.
• Use the outside leg to spiral in to a 15m circle, then 12m then 10m.
• Your horse should not be falling in or out, but maintaining the bend through his body as the circle gets tighter.
• Leg-yield back out to a 20m circle, using your inside leg to outside rein.

You can repeat a few times, working on your horse’s suppleness and response to your aids, and they should soften. Adjust the size of the smaller circle, and how quickly you return to the larger circle, to be appropriate for the horse’s level of training.

Repeat the exercise in canter if you’re both ready for it. When you spiral in, your horse will need to collect the canter strides a little while maintaining their bend and impulsion.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Falling in

All horses will be stiffer on one rein and this spiralling exercise will help. Keep the inside leg on the girth, encouraging your horse to bend through his body, and your weight on the inside seat bone. Support the outside shoulder with the outside rein.

Check you are not pulling the horse’s head round and back with your inside hand, instead opening the inside hand to guide him. Turn your shoulders in the direction of the turn, don’t lean inwards.

2. Falling out

Use your outside leg behind the girth to prevent the quarters swinging out. The outside rein should guide and contain the shoulder.

The inside leg should encourage your horse to lift through his ribcage rather than sinking. Keep your weight on the inside seat bone.

3. Slowing down

This is a sign that your horse is finding this exercise is challenging. Stay in trot and repeat little and often in your schooling schedule as it will gradually improve their suppleness. You should find that he is much softer on a 20m circle after doing this exercise.

In canter, your horse will have to take shorter strides to make the tighter circle. Keep the rhythm and impulsion to enable him to maintain the canter quality throughout the spiral.

4. Flying changes

Sometimes in canter, when riders apply the inside leg to leg yield back out to the 20m circle, the horse does a flying change. Make sure your leg is on the girth and not behind.

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This zig-zag polework exercise is particularly useful for encouraging more lift, cadence and expression within the paces.

Polework exercises are a really effective way to develop a horse’s strength, balance and way of going. The unusual shape created by the zig-zag poles, combined with the spacing between them, encourages the horse to sit more on the hindquarters, lift through the core and open the shoulder. It is an excellent exercise for horses who tend to run onto the forehand or become flat through the body.

Aims

• Improve your ability to keep your horse straight and upright
• Encourage your horse to push more actively from behind
• Develop greater lift, cadence and shoulder freedom within the pace

The setup

You will need: four standard 3m poles

Setup: Set the poles out in a zig-zag formation along the three-quarter line. The gaps between each section should be approximately the length of one pole. A simple way to build this is to create an initial triangle shape, then move the base pole to begin the next section of the zig-zag.

How to ride the exercise

1. After your usual warm up, start by riding walk-trot-walk transitions, focusing on your horse reacting promptly from the leg, stepping forwards into the contact while remaining balanced and waiting for the half-halt.

2. Before introducing the full exercise, ride over a single pole on different lines across the school. This allows the horse to understand that poles are part of the session and helps establish relaxation. You can ride over the single pole in walk, trot or canter.

3. When ready, turn onto a line that takes you directly through the centre of the zig-zag. Make your turn early enough that both you and the horse are completely straight before reaching the first pole. Ride through in an active, forward-thinking trot, maintaining rhythm and balance throughout. Straightness is crucial. If the horse drifts left or right, the distances immediately become uneven and the exercise loses its intended effect.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Loss of straightness

If the horse drifts off line, the distances between the poles will no longer ride correctly. Practise riding straight lines away from the track before attempting the exercise. When riding through the poles, some horses benefit from the rider carrying the hands slightly lower and wider, with a more supportive upper leg to help maintain straightness and alignment.

2. Spooking or stopping

The unusual pole angles can look visually challenging to some horses. This is partly what makes the exercise effective, as horses do not naturally have strong close-up vision and must learn to assess the question while staying relaxed.

If your horse feels tense or unsure, begin by riding the line in walk to allow them time to process the exercise. You may also choose to remove one or two poles initially until their confidence improves.

3. Rushing or breaking into canter

Horses who find lift and lengthening difficult often try to solve the question by quickening or cantering. Focus on the clarity of your trot aids. Use more half-halts if needed, alongside a quieter, slower seat.

Some horses find the exercise easier with the rider rising; others prefer a sitting trot. Whichever you choose, stay tall through your upper body, avoid tipping forwards and remember the value of the voice. A quiet “steady” or “trot” can often help maintain rhythm and confidence.

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One of the easiest ways to impress a dressage judge is by riding accurate corners. But it’s not just about scoring high marks; improving how you ride corners encourages the correct bend, suppleness, straightness and balance from the horse with the rider prioritising using their seat and leg, over their hands. This is the foundation for all lateral movements and more advanced work.

Here’s how to work on your discipline and accuracy round the bends with the help of a simple flatwork exercise.

Aims

• to ride into the corners of the arena
• achieving bend through the horse’s whole body, without drifting in or out
• to encourage straightness and suppleness
• improve your transitions

The setup

Setup: No setup required, but you do need an arena – whether permanent or marked out in a field – so that you have corners to ride into.

How to ride the exercise

• Once you’re warmed up, ride a 20m square in trot, turning across the school from E to B (or B to E, depending on the rein).
• Two strides before each corner, ask your horse to walk. Imagine your horse’s whiskers touching edge of school so that you ride deep into the corner, then turn and trot out. The downward transition should help rebalance your horse.
• As you approach each corner your horse should begin to naturally take their balance back on to the hindleg as they anticipate the downward transition. When you feel this, you can continue around the corner in trot without walking.
• Build up to a consistent trot rhythm on the whole square, without changing tempo or cutting any corners, then repeat on the other rein.
• If you feel the horse fall in or try to cut a corner, do the next one in walk.

Tips

1. Stop the drift

If your horse tries to cut the corner, half halt and check your inside leg is there to encourage them to bend their body around your leg through the corner.

2. Building up

Once your horse is becomes more consistent, instead of walking in the corners, just half-halt to rebalance the trot before the turn.

3. Progress

As the balance of both horse and rider develops, you will be able to ride a consistent trot rhythm through the whole square without cutting any corners. If you lapse at any stage, go back to walk and establish correct corners again so the horse understands what you are asking him to do.

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Being able to change your horse’s canter lead while in the air over a jump might seem daunting, but it’s a necessary skill if you want to ensure a smooth jumping round – and be competitive. Plus, horses do flying changes naturally in the field all the time. Use this figure of eight jumping exercise to master lead changes in the air at home so you can save vital seconds when it counts.

Aim

• use a four-fence set-up to practise and improve lead changes over a fence

The setup

You will need: four fences – you can use cavaletti, full jumps with wings, or ground poles – and cones or markers if you have them.

Setup: construct two sets of two fences at right angles with a distance of approx 20m between the points of each set as shown in the diagram. You can set the fence at whatever height is appropriate, or even start with poles on the ground.

If you have cones, place them as a guide about 10m from the point where each set of two fences meet, at each end.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up and ready to jump, in left lead canter ride around the cone to the first fence (red) – follow the black line in the diagram above.
• Change lead in the air. By looking round to the next fence in the sequence (yellow), the natural shift in bodyweight and direction sends the message to the horse to land with the new leading leg. If you and your horse have not yet established changing leads over fences, see “tips and troubleshooting” below.
• Go round the outside of the other set of fences (blue/green) on the right leg.
• Jump the next fence (yellow), changing to the left lead in the air.
• Go round the cone and repeat. After a rest, repeat on the other rein.

For a more testing challenge, you can come inside the second set of fences making a tighter circle (following the white line), increasing the focus on your rhythm and balance.

Do the same over the blue and green fences to mix it up. Just switch the direction of the set-up, starting on the left of the diagram above, so that you jump the blue and green jumps and go around the yellow and red ones.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. My horse won’t change leg

All horses have a favourite leg to land on, so training them to land on a particular lead takes practice, starting by making sure your aids are super clear and consistent.

Do not lean into the new direction as this can throw your horse off balance. Instead, sit straight and balanced, looking ahead in the new direction.

Support your horse with the new outside rein, and put the new inside leg on at the girth while opening your new inside hand in the direction you are turning.

2. Course-building tactics

If you build one set of fences small and the other slightly higher, you can start over the small set and not have to dismount to adjust before jumping the bigger one.

3. Mix it up

With this set-up you can also practise riding dog-leg turns.

4. Keep it smooth

Being able to change legs in the air will save you time and enable you to produce smooth, rhythmic rounds in competition. Keep thinking ahead, preparing for the next fence as you jump each one.

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Improving your horse’s way of going doesn’t require a perfect arena or a strenuous workout – this halting exercise is an excellent example. You can make significant gains using simple transitions without ever moving faster than a walk. You can ride this flatwork exercise out hacking, in the field or in an arena.

Aims

• to improve your horse’s responsiveness
• hone your horse’s walk-halt transitions, so you can perform them on demand with light aids
• for the horse to understand that go means go, and stop means stop

Setup

No setup needed: You can practise this exercise in an arena, field or out hacking.

How to ride this exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active walk. Choose a marker, whether it’s a letter in the school or a bush on a hack, where you will aim to halt.
• Sit up tall and reduce the amount your core and hips are following your horse’s back, then gently close your fingers around the rein to ask for halt.
• If the horse doesn’t stop within two strides, check your aids. Were they clear? Repeat and be black and white. As soon as your horse halts, release the rein and praise, with the voice or a stroke on the neck. How long it took to achieve the halt will give you feedback on how early you need to prepare next time, but your horse should become more responsive as you practise.
• Take a moment to assess the halt. Is it balanced? Is your horse square? Does your horse stand still when you release the reins?
• Ask your horse to move off in walk by giving a light leg aid. If he doesn’t react positively from first touch, immediately reapply the leg clearly. If he still doesn’t react, don’t nag, but give a stronger leg aid – it doesn’t matter if the horse trots off as long as he goes forwards. More refined seat and back aids can come later, but the horse can only interpret a limited amount of information, so start with the basics.
• Practise this exercise at regular intervals until your horse is responsive while remaining soft and in a good balance through both the upward and downward transitions. You can do it after four strides or after 40 – what matters is that the horse is listening and responding to your aids.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. It’s a conversation

Give your horse a chance to understand what you’re asking him and try to make it enjoyable. When he tries, show him you appreciate his effort.

2. Don’t fidget with your hand and leg

Many riders never stop twittering with their hand and leg, so the horse learns to ignore them as he doesn’t understand what’s being asked. Ride with clear intent. Ask for a reaction and then leave your horse alone as a reward. Be decisive and have clear boundaries.

3. Let your horse find his balance

If your horse needs to put his head up initially to find his balance, let him. To start with, it’s about the legs: do they go, do they whoa?

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Poles are a useful tool to improve the quality and balance of your horse’s paces, strengthening the core and boosting cadence. You don’t need intricate patterns and dozens of poles to work on the canter – this polework exercise to improve canter quality requires just three or four poles.

Aims

• to improve your horse’s canter quality
• work on the quality and balance of your horse’s canter
• help the rider to feel the canter rhythm and see a distance

The setup

You need: three or four poles

Setup:

• Place three or four poles on a straight line with approximately 3m between each (adjust this according to what suits your horse or pony, aiming for an easy, balanced canter).
• If setting up in an arena, place the poles in the middle of the long side, so that you have sufficient space both to approach and after.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, ride a good corner to give a straight approach to the canter poles, counting your horse’s strides out loud.
• Focus on the centre of the poles and aim to canter smoothly over them in the same rhythm, without your horse having to stretch or chip.
• If your horse is rushing, sit up and half-halt. If your horse is struggling to reach each pole, keep your leg on, and if that still doesn’t work, shorten the distance so he is comfortable.

You can repeat this exercise several times on each rein, aiming for a regular, relaxed canter rhythm without resistance.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. I can’t see a stride

If you keep getting the distance to the first pole wrong, the whole exercise can disintegrate with poles flying everywhere. It may be too much for your horse to handle mentally, so start with just one pole and practise cantering into that. Once you’ve nailed meeting a single pole correctly, build back up to three or four poles – avoid two as that encourages your horse to jump the lot.

2. My horse rushes towards the poles on the approach

Sit up and ask your horse to halt and stand as soon as he grabs the bit. Reassure him, then quietly turn away and approach again. Keep asking him to stop and stand until he approaches on your terms.

3. My horse jumps the poles

Some horses just do! Repeat the exercise a few times until hopefully he relaxes and canters through quietly. Don’t worry too much if he jumps them, so long as he’s maintaining his canter quality.

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Rein-back from the ground involves working with your horse, unridden, to train him to step backwards calmly and without resistance in response to simple cues.

We use groundwork exercises to teach our horses cues from the ground, so that they clearly understand what is being asked, while also improving balance, suppleness, coordination and core strength.

Aims

• establish good manners, relaxation and softness from the ground
• engage your horse’s core and achieve response to your cues or aids
• release tension and relax your horse

The setup

You will need:

• Usual bridle, without reins (or twisted and secured inside the throat-lash), or a training halter or lunging cavesson
• Lunge line or long rope
• Schooling whip

No setup required: you can do this in an arena, outside the stable, in a field or on the yard if you have sufficient space.

How to rein-back from the ground

If your horse is wearing a bridle, attach the lunge line or long rope to the opposite bit ring to whichever side you are standing, and thread the line through the inside bit ring. For a headcollar, have the rope attached behind the chin. For a lunging cavesson, have the line attached to the central ring at the front.

• Position yourself facing the horse’s tail while standing slightly to one side of the horse’s head, with the horse standing fairly square.
• Applying gentle downward pressure to the rope, to ask the horse to step back, while using your voice to say “back”.
• You can also point the whip towards the horse’s front hooves or chest to encourage the horse to step backwards.
• As soon as the horse takes one step backwards, release the pressure and praise the horse.
• Wait for a moment to allow the horse to process what they’ve learnt, then repeat the cue or ask.
• Halt and stand still for a few moments.
• Lift the rope and step backwards yourself to encourage the horse forwards one or two steps, then stop to stand again.
• If the horse doesn’t understand the cue to walk forwards, point the whip behind the girth, following up with a light touch if needed.

You can repeat this exercise several times until the horse understands what you are asking and will move forward and back confidently without resistance. To start with he may only manage one or two strides, but you can build up to six or more.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Diagonal pairs

You want to see the horse stepping cleanly backwards moving his legs in diagonal pairs, rather than shuffling or dragging their feet.

2. Good foundations

Reaching rein-back from the ground early in a horse’s training can help prevent the horse from learning to lean on you when you are handling them from the ground. Once it is established on the ground, the horse should understand the movement much more easily when ridden.

3. No rushing

The aim is for the horse to step back deliberately and confidently, in a relaxed frame with his poll at a similar height to his withers. You want to avoid the horse becoming tight in the neck or back and raising the head during this movement. If this happens stop, give the horse a moment to relax, and then ask again.

4. Pre-ride softness

This is a great warm-up exercise to do before riding, especially if your horse is sharp, as it encourages him to slow down and work with you without too much pressure. You can also do it tacked up, just secure the stirrups so they don’t bang on your horse’s sides.

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Riding accurate corners is one of the simplest ways to improve a dressage test. Just as importantly, riders must be able to show a clear difference between the corners of the arena and a 20m circle at either end.

Too often, horses drift through the corners as though riding part of a circle, losing both balance and accuracy, but this polework exercise will create a visual guide to help you clearly distinguish between riding a corner and riding a circle.

Aims

• Improve rider understanding of the accuracy points of a 20m circle
• Encourage your horse to bend correctly through the body
• Maximise the benefit of riding purposeful corners in a test

The setup

You need: two poles

Setup: Place one pole in each corner either side of C, positioned slightly off the track and pointing diagonally towards the centre of the arena.

How to ride the exercise

1. Begin in walk. Ride around the end of first pole, then continue straight along the short side towards A or C. Focus on maintaining a straight line after the turn without allowing the horse to drift.

2. From A or C, begin a 20m circle. Your horse should leave the track to cross the first pole, touch the long side at the correct point, cross the centre line in the middle of the circle, touch the opposite long side evenly, then cross the second pole before returning to A or C.

3. After completing the circle, continue straight along the short side and ride around the end of the pole through the corner. The key is to clearly show the difference between the circle and the corner. For the corner, think about pushing the horse into the turn from your inside leg while controlling the line and balance from the outside aids. Once the exercise feels established in walk, repeat it in trot and then progress to canter.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Lack of bend on the circle

Many horses fall through the shoulder or overbend in the neck without truly bending through the body. Prepare the circle before leaving the track by asking for a slight flexion at the poll to the inside. Then focus on riding a genuinely curved line, turning every stride rather than making one large steering movement. Keep the inside leg at the girth to encourage bend and maintain the horse’s balance.

2. Rushing

Some horses anticipate the poles and quicken towards them. Maintain a consistent tempo by paying attention to your seat and rhythm in each pace. Use well-timed half-halts to rebalance the horse and encourage them to sit more on the hindquarters rather than running forwards.

3. Breaking from canter

In canter, horses often lose balance in the corners and drop back to trot. Think of riding a shorter, more collected canter through the corner, keeping the strides active and bouncy. On the circle, allow the canter to travel slightly more forwards before rebalancing again for the next corner. Pole placement should always suit the horse’s training level. A prelim horse will not be expected to ride as deep or as collected a corner as a horse working at elementary or above.

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You can practise this simple flatwork exercise in just five minutes, or use it every now and then in a regular schooling session to encourage engagement. All you need is to establish shoulder-in in trot, and you’re away.

Aims

• to improve your horse’s engagement in canter
• to use shoulder-in to encourage your horse to engage his hindleg in the upward transition from trot

The setup

No setup required: you can do this in the arena or even out hacking, but the arena fence is handy to help you judge the alignment of your shoulder-in.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, trot down the long side of the arena in shoulder-in, showing the appropriate amount of bend.
• Your horse’s footfalls should be on three tracks: the outside hind, the diagonal pair (inside hind and outside fore) and the inside fore, with your horse bending uniformly around the inside leg from poll to tail.
• Ask for a canter transition as you move on to a circle. As your horse should be nicely engaged from the shoulder-in, this should encourage an engaged uphill canter with the hindquarters working well.
• Maintain the quality of canter as you continue around the circle.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. The correct bend

In the shoulder-in, as a rider you should be able to see your horse’s inside eye if you glance down. If you use too much inside bend, the outside shoulder will fall out, which will compromise your canter transition.

If the hindquarters drift out, your outside leg needs to support your horse more strongly behind the girth.

2. No crossing the hand

A common problem is to cross the inside hand over the neck as you try to flex the horse to the inside. This encourages the shoulder to fall out, so keep each hand on its own side of the neck with the outside rein to support the shoulders.

3. Starting collection

This exercise will be even more beneficial if the horse is able to collect a little in the trot, as this lightens the forehand for an uphill, balanced transition.

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Improve your horse’s bend in walk with this simple polework exercise

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This polework exercise using five poles is designed to improve your horse’s suppleness and manoeuvrability in trot. The poles are used as focus points to structure your training exercise, rather than for stepping over.

Aims

• to improve rider accuracy
• to confirm correct use of inside and outside leg
• to improve the horse’s coordination and suppleness

The setup

You need: five poles

Setup: place five poles on a straight line with five metres between each. Then pull the second and fourth poles to one side but keeping them in the same plane.

Ensure there is sufficient space to the side of each pole so that you can walk around the ends – don’t place them against the fence line.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active trot.
• The aim is not to trot over the poles, but around them, ensuring a uniform bend through your horse’s body on both reins.
• Start with the first pole in the line of three poles and ride a pear-drop shaped loop around that, ensuring the horse is bending through his whole body. Then change the bend in an offset figure of eight to perform another pear-drop shaped loop around the first of the line of two poles.
• Repeat with the next two poles in the sequence.
• When it comes to the final pole, make a wider loop and come up the middle of the two lines in a mini slalom. Instead of big wide loops with lots of bend, it’s now about creating a little bit of bend in the ribcage. The horse needs to be listening to the rider and have quick reactions.

The challenge is to do it efficiently with the horse maintaining the ideal tempo and creating the correct shapes, neither falling in or out through the shoulder and quarters.

Tips

1. Start slow

If this exercise is too demanding in trot, try it first in walk (or try this exercise) until the horse understands your aids and what you are asking of him.

2. Perfection by polework

Polework is a great way for riders to monitor whether they are achieving something when riding on their own, because they require accuracy. If you aren’t accurate, you will miss or hit the poles. When you’re just riding around the arena without physical markers, it’s harder to judge your accuracy.

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Improve your horse’s bend in walk with this simple polework exercise

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Teaching your horse cues from the ground can show them what you are looking for, as well as improving suppleness, core strength and coordination. This groundwork exercise is useful for helping the horse understand how to engage the hindleg, and for developing suppleness.

Aims

• step the inside hindleg under and through
• lift the core and engage the back
• release tension and relax your horse

The setup

You need:

• Usual bridle, without reins (or twisted and secured inside the throat-lash) or training halter or lunging cavesson
• Lunge line or long rope (like this one)
• Schooling whip

No setup required: you can do this in an arena, in a field or even just outside the stable if you have sufficient space.

How to do the exercise

If you are using a bridle. attach the lunge line or rope to the opposite bit ring to whichever side you are working from, and thread the line through the inside bit ring. For a halter the rope will be underneath the horse’s jaw. On a lunge cavesson, have the rope or line attached to the central ring on the front of the nose.

• Turn your horse around you, in walk, almost as if lungeing on a 2m circle. Bring the line towards you and point the whip slightly behind the girth.
• You are asking your horse to bend through the body, pivoting around you with his front legs on pretty much the same spot, and stepping underneath the belly with his inside hind leg.
• Gently maintain your ask until the horse takes the correct forward and under step with the hindleg that is closest to you while softing through their body.
• Allow the horse to rest for a moment before asking again.
• You can repeat this three or four times on each rein, gradually building up the number of steps.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Your horse avoids the step under

It’s easier for your horse just to walk around in a circle rather than stepping under and through, but that step underneath the belly is key as that is when they lift their core and soften through the back.

2. Good foundations

Just like ridden lateral work, this exercise helps them soften and become more supple. But sometimes when you’re riding them they don’t understand what they’re asking, so this can be a useful first step.

3. Pre-ride softness

This is a great warm-up exercise to do before riding, especially if your horse is sharp, as it encourages him to soften. You can also do it tacked up, just secure the stirrups so they don’t bang on your horse’s flanks.

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Perfect your trot-canter transitions in this straightforward flatwork exercise, which you can do in the field or an arena.

Aims

• to improve your accuracy in making canter-trot-canter transitions exactly on the marker
• learn how far in advance you need to prepare your horse for accurate transitions
• build communication and harmony in the horse-rider relationship

The setup

There is no setup required. All you need is space to ride a 20m circle.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, ride a few 20m circles in trot to establish bend and check your horse is listening.
• Pick up canter and ride a continuous 20m circle, noting four markers where you will make your transitions, at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
• When you’re ready, canter round three-quarters of the circle from 12 o’clock to 9 o’clock, where you will ride a downwards transition to trot.
• Trot round half the circle from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock, where you will make a transition to canter.
• Canter three-quarters of the circle from 3 o’clock to 12 o’clock, and so on.
• Eight transitions will bring you back to where you started – however if you are late on your transitions it may take time to perfect the sequence.
• Give your horse a break at walk before repeating on the other rein.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Work on an incline

If you have access to a sloping field, and have mastered this exercise on the flat, performing these transitions on a hill is a great way to improve your horse’s balance, outline and core.

2. Accuracy

It’s all too easy to get late on a transition, and then miss the next one. To execute each transition bang on the correct point of the circle, you have to refine how far in advance to ask for the aids on a particular horse on particular terrain (the hillier, the more testing).

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Going for a hack needn’t be a lob-about on a long rein – it’s a great time to work on your own position and fitness. Try this exercise in trot to boost your own strength – and see how much you improve each time you do it. If you prefer, you can also try this exercise in an arena or field.

Aims

• to improve your balance in the saddle
• to put your lower leg in the correct position with the weight in the heels
• to make your seat more secure
• to stretch and build up the necessary muscles

The setup

No setup required: you can do this in an arena or out hacking. Using a neck strap will help you balance without pulling the reins.

How to ride this exercise

• Put your stirrups at cross-country or galloping length.
• Go into an active trot, and slip two fingers under the neck strap in case you need to balance. Adopt a racing position (pictured above, left), tucked up with your bum out and your hands low. Push your weight through your heels, allowing the ankles and knees to absorb the horse’s movement. Do not rise to the trot. You should feel the burn!
• Sit up slightly as you move into a light seat as though you were preparing to jump a fence (pictured above, centre), with your bum lightly brushing the saddle but not full rising trot.
• If you can balance well in these two positions, try the extreme version which is to stand upright in the saddle (pictured above, right), with your legs straight (still no rising), absorbing the movement through your ankles, knees and core. Do not rely on your hands. Keep the weight in the heels, using the neck strap if you need to balance.

The more you practise these three positions, the more you will hone your balance, strengthen your muscles and develop a correct lower leg position.

Start with short intervals to avoid fatigue, gradually building up your stamina over several weeks.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Leaning too far forward

This puts weight on your horse’s neck and forces your lower leg back. Instead, push your weight through the heels and slide your bum back to redress the centre of balance.

2. Gripping with knees

This causes the lower leg to slip backward and destabilises you. Keep the weight through the heels, using your calves to keep you in place.

3. Swinging legs

Try shortening the stirrups, so that you can hover more efficiently above the saddle allowing your horse to move underneath you without you interfering.

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This simple polework exercise is designed to help you create the correct bend in walk or trot, using just five poles.

Aims

• to improve rider accuracy
• to confirm correct use of inside and outside leg
• to improve the horse’s coordination and suppleness

The setup

You need: five poles

Setup: place five poles on a straight line with four metres between each. Ensure there is sufficient space to the side of each pole so that you can walk around each end – avoid placing them along the fence line. Down the centre line is the easiest spot!

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active but unhurried walk.
• Walk your horse between and around the poles – not over – turning left or right at the end of each one to create a wide serpentine (see diagram above). Your horse should follow the line with a uniform bend through their body through each turn without falling in or out off the line.
• When you reach the end of the line of poles, make a three-quarter of a circle turn and ride straight over the centre of the poles before changing direction and repeating the turns the other way.
• Repeat in trot.

The challenge is to do it efficiently with the horse going at the correct tempo and creating the correct shapes, neither falling in or out through the shoulder and quarters.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Keeping discipline

Stiffer or younger horses who lack control are likely to fall out through the shoulder, or get confused with so many turns, so it’s a good acceptance exercise and requires them to mature in their thinking. Be really clear with your inside and outside leg aids.

2. Walk quality

Experienced horses may automatically slow down in this exercise to make this challenge easier, so you must ensure they maintain an active four-beat walk, walking forward through all the bending, but without rushing or jogging. Here are some tips on how to improve your horse’s walk.

3. One-sidedness

Nearly all horses have a stiffer side so this exercise gives the rider a good way to work on improving this, by supporting the horse with their legs. The frequent changes of bend should gradually improve the horse’s suppleness on the more challenging side, interspersed with the easier direction so they don’t become sore or resistant.

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In dressage, first impressions count. From the moment you turn onto the centre line, the judge begins assessing the quality of your horse and the harmony of the partnership. A straight, balanced and confident entry immediately suggests organisation, attentiveness and correct basics, setting the tone for the entire test.

I created this polework exercise to help you practise riding the perfect centre line.

Aims

• improve balance in the turn onto the centre line
• improve accuracy and straightness of centre line
• improve your horse’s engagement and suppleness

The set up

You need: two poles and two cones

Setup: Lay the pair of poles as a tramline either side of D, and place the cones on the inside track of the short side at the ¼ and ¾ lines.

How to ride the exercise

1. Starting from the corner marker, think of the turn as half of a 10-metre circle. This encourages a smoother curve and helps maintain suppleness. Use the cone as the halfway point of your turn, creating a symmetrical curve either side of it.

2. Use the pair of poles as a visual guide for riding forward from the curve and straight onto the centre line.

3. Look up towards the C marker and ride forwards towards it.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Loss of balance in the turn