What are some exercises I can do to train for pole-bending and keyhole races?

Question

My horse is really fast, and good with flying lead changes, but he has trouble turning quickly, is there anything I can do to improve this? Any other exercises I can do? Thanks! :D

Answer 1

what all of theses people have said is all very good, but they forgot one thing....

LOOK UP!!!!!!!!

make sure that you look where you are going before you are going in that direction.

   For example, if you are in an area, you are on the long side. Just before you horse goes to take the turn ontoo the short side, look with not only your eyes, but your whole head and body. This will help  let you horse know where you want him to go.  

   So no taking this into the keyhole, Run up, Stop, Look, Turn, GALLOPE!!!!

Good luck! Hope this helped!

Answer 2

For pole bending, obviously your horse has to bend!

So do A LOT of bending, counterbending (builds muscle and balance), and small figure 8s. Increase the speed gradually and when you lope it, start with simple lead changes, then add flying changes.

For keyhole, it is EXTREMELY important that you have a GREAT stop and an AMAZING turn on the haunches if you want to do well!!! I compete in keyhole a lot, and that an event we work on a lot at home. I do it at a trot and/or lope a lot to get the stop and turn down. Lope in, stop and stand for a couple seconds, then turn slowly and go. The worst thing is having a horse turn too early, you want to make them stop and stand and listen to you and go when you tell them.

Some pointers:

*KEEP YOUR TOES IN. I've knocked with my toes before, not fun.

*DON'T KICK while you are going through the key! If you need to squeeze your horse through, but if you kick, when your legs come away from your horse you could hit a pole.

*DON'T GET FRUSTERATED! My horse has knocked it with his tail before. I didn't slow him down and pretended like it didn't happen and we would have come in first, so I was frusterated. But he did what I asked and we had an almost flawless run. But my horse swished his tail at the perfect time and wrapped it around a pole. :P

It helps to stop quick and turn FAST to your horse's better direction. Turns on the haunches are best and fastest, usually. So teach your horse, started slowly, to turn and not get all worked up.

Good luck!!

Answer 3

you can do exercises to balance him on his outside hind leg. that leg is the power leg, thus the key to a good turn, if he isn't balance on it (like falling around on his inside legs) then he wont be able to physically do the turn. so many riders get focused on the front legs of the horse, but the back legs are the more important ones. google some exercises to get your horse on his hind end and balance on the outside hind/rein. i use to pole bend and barrel race and with my horse i mainly focused on balancing exercises and he just got better with it. also, remember that despite it being a speed event when you practice you need to practice at the walk, trot, and a slow lope, not a gallop. remember that when you practice you want to go wider then you you would when you run the horse because the speed will take away the turn real quick. keep in mind when pole bending that you don't want to turn until the horses shoulder is past the pole, any sooner and the shoulder will drop and the rest of the horses body will go out of balance.

so, basically its all about balance! haha :-]

Answer 4

do serpintine exercises. bend left, putting your right leg on his side, and vise versa. good luck!

Answer 5

i train young horses and to get them to turn quickly i set a barrel out in the middle of the arena. then i trot the horse to the barrel and as they approach the barrel kick them into a lope and make them lope around it. once you've mastered that you can start loping to the barrel and then making your horse run faster as he approaches it and goes around it.

hope this exercise works for you

Jca