Cavaletti exercises for a weak, giant, green jumper?

[Tha_Ridge]

So one of my latest rides is a giant 8-year-old Hanoverian mare who has seemingly been rushed through a lot of what’s she done. She’s the type who is very kind, willing, not spooky, but just needs to take a giant deep breath. She rides more like a 4 or 5-year-old.

We’re working through that in our jumping, but I’d love ideas for low cavaletti/poles/flatwork exercise to work through on my own with her to help her build strength and awareness. (When I say giant, I mean it—girl looks like a Roman warhorse and has the step to match. You can trot into a line and canter out in the regular striding.) She is so very sweet and wants to please so badly, so I’d love ideas to build her confidence.

[EmilyM]

I like to canter towards a pole and do a trot transition 4-6 strides out and trot the pole. It builds strength and slows their and my brains down. Once that is smooth throw in A few passes where you keep the canter. Simple but great exercise.

[cheektwocheek]

I love this clover excercise for building suppleness, bend and forward all in one.

[tohorse]

Trot poles - but don’t always put the exact same distance - one day do a shorter trot another day a longer trot distance to get her to think, raise them if she’s getting bored/less careful. And then a line of bounce jumps to canter through (3+ build up gradually). Also transitions and basic lateral work like leg yield at w/t if she’s ready can be quite helpful. All of those should get her to pay attention.
The best time vs. effort activity for building up strength/muscles is slow hillwork. You should see a difference even if you go for a walk on hilly trails once a week. Also think a bit about nutrition - I think supplementing with tri-amino really helped my mare to put on muscle much quicker than I expected.

[anon81364900]

@tohorse

The best time vs. effort activity for building up strength/muscles is slow hillwork.

Echoing this. One of my pastures has a nice wide hill, and walking up/down that hill for a little bit in every ride did wonders for my new mare’s topline and conditioning (she was out of shape, hadn’t been ridden in years.) We started as just big serpentines back and forth across the hill (so it wasn’t an all-out sustained climb) – each turn was a nice opp’y to work on bending aids, and on the crossing passes (perpendicular to the slope), keeping her straight between my legs/hands. As she gained fitness, I’d walk straight up the hill halfway then serpentine the rest. And I started using the crossing passes to do a few strides of leg yields, so she really had to use her back since she was essentially moving up or downhill sideways.

[Potato]

Raised walk cavaletti - spaced about 3 ft apart. I like to do these on a circle, where I trot most of the circle, walk over the cavaletti, then trot again - this helps keep the forward march through the raised cavaletti, while also working on transitions!
A 5 stride line of poles, canter in 4, 5, and 6 strides. Can also canter the first pole, trot out, or canter in, trot, canter out. Great for adjustability and balance in the canter - this exercise WILL show weaknesses in your canter work.
Can set up 1, 2, 3, or 4 poles on a 20m circle - if doing 4 poles, set one at 12, 3, 6, and 9 if imagining the circle like a clock face. This is great for turning in balance, no motorcycling!
Lots of possibilities!

[Pally]

I like EmilyM’s exercise a lot. You can also do two poles (a good distance apart, no need to measure but like 5-7 strides) and do the transition between them.

The posted cloverleaf is also a good exercise, but can be harder than it looks (especially if you are riding said giant greenie in a small arena). I would personally do some serpentines with poles on the centreline and when good at that, try this.

My personal favorite is setting up a 3 to a 3, either as just poles or little cavaletti size jumps (which is where the magic really happens). Getting the same sort of distance and shape over all 3 jumps, and the same sort of canter between one and two as two and three, is harder than it sounds. Great for developing the rhythm and balance. [The trainer who put me through this exercise a lot did it with all his horses too. Some advanced then to the 4-3, or 3-4, which is also great, but definitely advanced]

[EmilyM]

Yes the 3 to 3 is magical!

[Pally]

@EmilyM

Yes the 3 to 3 is magical!

Pure magic! If I were looking into the secret behind the magician’s tricks, I’d say it’s because it’s long enough the rider has to do the right things (establish good canter, use leg through the line) BUT short enough they can’t just manufacture a distance off their eye (or pick or goose if we aren’t good enough to smoothly adjust ). Which leaves a lot up to the horse to figure out. Thus, perfect for the OP’s big gal!

[Tha_Ridge]

@Pally

Pure magic! If I were looking into the secret behind the magician’s tricks, I’d say it’s because it’s long enough the rider has to do the right things (establish good canter, use leg through the line) BUT short enough they can’t just manufacture a distance off their eye (or pick or goose if we aren’t good enough to smoothly adjust ). Which leaves a lot up to the horse to figure out. Thus, perfect for the OP’s big gal!

Yup, agreed that this will be great for her! The good thing about her is that she’s actually sort of quiet—even though she worries, her instinct is to break to a trot rather than rush and barrel through it so this will awesome for both maintaining the power in the canter for her and for me learning what sort of gargantuan step I’m dealing with.

[EmilyM]

I just get so zen about the 3 matches the three that it’s like all the other issues fall away and I have like a meditative relaxed focus on cadence and placement.