When your horse trips

[lisandsaf]

Thanks Erica,, will certainly look into pole work,, she will either pick herself up or trip up,, George sounds like he was just like Saf,, so there is hope,, how long did it take for george to pick his feet up?

Thanks too julia fo r the advice,, so far since rolling her toes she has only tripped once,, so a definate improvement,,
xx

[Erika George]

Hi Lisa & Saf,
It didn't take George long to get the hang of it, but do get somebody to help you get the striding correct for your horse. Initially he was typical George, panicked a bit because he wasn't sure what was required and tripped and stumbled over them all. My instructor took us right back to basics and George quickly got the hang of it and now thoroughly enjoys trotting over the poles. You can see he feels really pleased with himself. We have even done circle figure of 8's over a line of poles in trot which was a great achievement for such a large horse. This really helped George's suppleness and agility. I really noticed the difference when cantering along through a wood we came across some tree roots which had been exposed by the rain. I really thought he would stumble over them but he was clever enough to pick himself up and cantered over them like they were poles.
Interesting on the same subject, having just had back treatment for George, the treatment is pole work to increase his suppleness and to get him picking up his feet. The back lady has even said to raise the poles up slightly to really make him lift his feet. And then schooling to get him to engage his backend again.
I'll let you know how we get on.
Erika & George

[picasso]

I really must get the poles out for Cass!. I am told he barely lifts his back feet, incase it takes too much effort.

Jane H

[em]

Hi All

Just a liittle bit of food for thought regarding pole work and tripping... Spacing poles out with equal spacing or raising them is very helpful in correcting imbalanced muscle or for building suppleness however i really do believe that to help the issue of tripping the poles need to be left where they fall and the horse asked to walk over them however they find them ie with wierd distances and angles .. it is all to do with the horse acknowledging his feet and where they are! Avril has talked about this in the older horse diary and i really do believe a horse has to be taught to connect with his feet


If you think about all the times you walk down a set of stairs you never think about placing each foot on each step you just walk down them without thinking because they are placed to the same distance.... now think about when you walk down old steps you can sometimes lose your footing and so you become very connected to your feet and place them very carefully and with total awareness

this is the same for the horse.. if you consistantly place him over correctly spaced poles he will infact do it fairly quickly without conscious thought... however if you put the poles in a scattered fashion and change that pattern every few days he will connect with his feet and step over things in a conscious way hence it should help the tripping because he has connected with his feet

hope this helps Em x x

[ju]

Em, would you mind if I quoted you (elsewhere)? Bit of a light-bulb moment! Oh, and I would, of course, ****any names!
Ju

[em]

hi Ju

Of course feel free but i do just need to add this is my personal opinion on this and each case is very different as a horse that gets over whelmed easily does not what to be faced with large amounts of scattered poles at odd distances and heights it will need to be build on from a starting point of fewer poles but usually a bit of thought and sense avoids problems... also if the horse trips badly it would be best to lead over rather than riding over to begin with x x x

[Erika George]

Well, a bit difficult to do anything with so little daylight and working full time so pole work had to wait until last weekend.
I put the poles out as suggested, my back lady said 3 of my feet (size 8) between each pole. They seemed terrifically close for a big lad like George but it worked a treat. The spacing was perfect because it was one extended walk stride between each pole and meant that he had to stretch not only his shoulders but his back and hind quarters too. He did tend his just clip the last 2 poles (out of five) with his hind feet but hopefully this will improve. He was much better to ride out and was definately freer through his shoulder.
Erika & George