My mare just got cleared to start doing cavaletti work at the trot and canter in order to build her strength back up. She’s recovering from a suspensory surgery and an SI injury. It has been a long road! She needs to work on building her back and hind end up so I thought I would ask you guys what your favorite exercises were so I can add to my list!
When I rehabbed mine for an SI injury, we actually started walking over poles (and then raised poles) while handwalking.
Under saddle, we started off walking over single poles, then a short lines of poles (say three), then added single trot poles, then a line of three trot poles, then began to raise the poles, again going back to single poles raised. I never increased the “difficulty” and quantity at the same time (ie. I wouldn’t go from a single pole on the ground to a raised line of three poles).
Some of the exercises I worked on were raising alternate ends of the line of poles, spacing poles for shortened/regular/lengthened trot, canter bounce poles (eventually working up to a line of 4-5 poles), and two single poles in a line but with a decent space between (say 6-7 canter strides) - then trot in, canter out, canter in, trot out, trot in, walk between, trot out, etc.
Solarflare, she has been doing walk and trot poles on the ground for some time now. I have not been able to raise any of the poles because as soon as they are raised she jumps them 
but the vets have given me the ok to put her over raised poles because she’s out of the woods and fit enough that if she does not do the exercise as intended it won’t harm her… she has her own way of doing things sometimes. I really like your suggestions! Thank you!
Ingrid Klimke’s cavaletti book has many excellent exercises and even outlines programs to incorporate them into your schooling sessions. She is very clear about how they should be introduced gradually and for not too much time in the beginning. I think she even suggests how much time (on average) to spend on cavaletti each week and for each session.
My favorite? The classic: Four or five in a straight line, at the trot.
We do a lot of cavaletti during the winter and just did one that I thought was fun. We set it up in the center of the indoor so that there were two trot poles going across (B-E) and at the tail end of those poles we placed another pole (raised) perpendicular (it made 3 sides of a rectangle). We then put another raised pole 9 feet away from that one so that it was a bounce going up the centerline.
So we could trot across the trot poles from B-E, trot through the two raised poles from A-C or canter them as a bounce. Minimal amounts of poles and we were able to make some mini courses out of it (cantering the bounces and then doing a trot transition to go over the trot poles).
Check out horse physio on Facebook. Lots and lots of good videos there.
Don’t forget (once she’s back in better shape) the circle of death, and its reverse counterpart the cloverleaf!
If you’re not familiar with the cloverleaf - set up poles at 12, 3, 6 and 9 on the clock (like the circle of death) but much closer together. Ride over one pole - say the pole at 3 o’clock, with the other poles to your left. After crossing the pole, ride a circle to the right, then over the next pole (this would be the pole at 12 o’clock), then a circle to the right, then over the pole at 9, circle right, then the pole at 6. I hope that makes sense!
