I saw a photo of a horse trotting over cavaletti made of what appeared to be telephone poles - very large poles, maybe 8-10 in diameter. It seemed like it could be dangerous if the horse tripped, but maybe it is actually safer to have them be so stable. Of course, moving them around to change the exercise would be prohibitive!
They are sooo heavy… once you place them down, they are there for good 
I don’t think they would roll easily, certainly not from a rap with a leg.
However, most small logs and jumps on XC are repurposed telephone poles. You are supposed to anchor all jumps, not sure how all events do it but here they are secured by rail-road ties or “tied” together with metal wiring and set into the ground with stakes on each side.
It should not be a problem, I’d love to have the ones we have put in our ring, but haven’t because moving them would be a major hassle and I prefer to move my poles around. They are perfectly fine to walk/trot/canter over and a few in a row makes for a fun little grid/bounce combination.
Actually you are supposed to use cavaletti that don’t move for safety according to Ingrid Klimke. She says that they should not roll if a horse steps on them… because they can get hurt. Now… I’ve had that happen… so am not keen on normal jump poles on the ground.
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They were using them like trot cavaletti or really big trot poles - a series of 5-6 you just trot straight through with no intention of jumping.
Yes, I agree that round poles are not good because they can roll, but I have never seen Ingrid Klimke (or anyone else) use such large poles for trot cavaletti. Just last week I was working through cavaletti and we weren’t in sync and knocked a couple over. We use wood poles that are flat on two sides on plastic risers to get the elevation.
If the phone poles are treated with Creosote, the horses should wear leg protection. Creosote stains white legs, if they bump their legs on the wood, and any splinters the horse (or you) get from creosoted poles will fester.
If you set the poles in a fan shape they will accommodate different stride lengths and gaits and moving them won’t be needed.
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One barn that I was at had an entire BN xc course made out of almost entirely telephone poles. The owner’s husband worked for the telephone company, so when they replaced poles he would grab them. Never had any issues, and some of them were just the pole on the ground with no real intent of the horse putting a ton of effort into the jump. The barn I just left had old railroad ties for trot poles. As another poster said, once they were placed, you needed a couple strong people or the tractor to move them again.
We were always taught to use something heavy enough that the horse will respect enough to go over and not just knock thru them. I’ve seen more trip with light weight polls when they knew they could knock them down and they rolled. Just keep at the walk until the horse is experienced.
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“Poles on the ground” are “poles on the ground”. They are NOT cavaletti.
Cavaletti, by definition, are raised off the ground (usually by an “X” on the end, or by resting on small blocks).
If you want to evaluate telephone poles for use as cavaletti, you should be comparing them with actual cavaletti, not with poles on the ground. .
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35 years later I still have 7 of them. I didn’t call them cavaletties but trotting poles. They are terrible to move and I am contemplating now to use them for firewood. Never had a problem with a horse stepping on them.
BTW i hated the sharp edges on cavaletties.
One of the many good things about real cavaletti is that they are adjustable in the height and distance. So I don’t think telephone poles would function like that at all.
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