Maria Eilberg: how to improve your horse’s trot
Using a pole exercise will help to improve the clarity of the rhythm and the reach of the stride within the trot.
The poles are generally set at 120cm apart from one another, but of course each horse’s stride length differs, so you need to bear that in mind when building the exercise.
Upon your approach to the exercise, ensure you are on a straight line, aiming for the centre of the poles. Repeat the exercise until your horse is confident with it.
When your horse is happy with this stage of the exercise, add a few more poles. Be flexible in your mind throughout this exercise — if the poles seem too close or too far apart from one another for your horse to feel confident with them, change the spacing to help your horse out.
About Maria Eilberg:
Maria was a member of youth European dressage teams from 1998‐2005, winning four medals, two pony European silver team medals and two young rider European bronze team medals. She was British under‐21 champion in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003. In 2006, she was selected as travelling reserve for the World Equestrian Games in Aachen. In 2008, Maria was the travelling reserve for the Olympics with Two Sox. She retained her British grand prix freestyle title and became national champion.
Strong results in 2009 led to her selection for the silver medal-winning British team at the Alltech FEI Windsor European Dressage Championships. The Autumn of 2010 marked Maria’s first World Equestrian Games where she impressed by taking her place on the silver medal-winning team with 68.213% in the grand prix and later improving her performance to post 68.50% in the grand prix special.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
