This useful cavaletti or polework exercise teaches horse and rider to stick to accurate lines and make thoughtful decisions about stride length.
It’s such a simple set-up: just place two cavaletti diagonally to each other, which creates different distances depending on where and how you approach the line.
Setup: place two cavaletti approximately 14m apart diagonal to each other. If you imagine a clock face, the hands would be at 10 minutes to two. Set them up so that your horse would fit in three compact strides if taking a straight line from the middle of one cavaletti to the middle of the second (yellow line).
(Image credit: Future)
How to ride the exercise
Establish a bouncy, balanced canter.
Approach the first cavaletti in the middle on the diagonal, and ride a straight line from the middle of the first to the second cavaletti, also taken on the diagonal (yellow line). You should aim to fit three strides. This is your reference line.
If the distance is not comfortable, adjust it so that your horse can fit in three regular, compact canter strides.
Once you’ve nailed the three strides on both reins, try approaching on the side where the cavaletti are closest to each other (pink line). Still ride straight from one cavaletti to the next, focusing on your accuracy as you aim for the side of the fence. You should aim to fit in two balanced strides, without chasing the rhythm.
The next challenge is to take the outside route (green line), adding a curve to your approach and line through the cavaletti. You should aim for the middle of the poles, but bend round so that you give the horse space to fit in four strides without drifting in or out.
For the four-stride line, shape the bend early. Do not try to manufacture the extra stride with a sudden turn in between the cavaletti.
Make sure you do each line on both reins.
The challenge is to canter through all three exercises on the desired stride pattern. This calls for pinpoint accuracy on your line as you aim for specific points on the poles.
Small changes in the entry point will make a difference to your line, so riders need to plan ahead. The approach, with a quality, balanced canter, is fundamental.
Tips
1. Start slowly and level up
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Rather than starting with cavaletti, this is still a very useful exercise if you use poles on the ground. To make the exercise more difficult you can build fences and raise them as high as is appropriate for your level.
2. Don’t drift
The diagonal poles can encourage your horse to drift to give himself more room. Look up to the exit of the line, keep your shoulders square and support the horse with both legs.
3. Count your strides
Saying one, two, three out loud, helps riders recognise the rhythm.
4. Mix up the routes
Once you’re confident on each of the lines, mix them up so that you practise adjusting.
Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
