Start on Poles

Thank you everyone who's responded so far, trust me I'm writing this all down! I will definitely attempt to video or at least keep you guys updated on how she and I do.
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My trainer does this with a lot of horses because of over anticipating. But we weave every other pole. I can explain it a little more if you need or find a video.

My horse over anticipates A LOT and no matter how far away I keep her from the poles when I walk, trot and slow lope she still cuts me off and doesn't give me a lot of room to the pole. However it is mainly the last 3 poles on the weave back down that she cheats me.

My past horse Beau was horrible about anticipating, and he wasn't much of a pole horse to start! Haha.

So with him, when I practiced at home, I would on purpose, do the pole pattern randomly. Meaning, sometimes I would skip weaving one pole, or two. Or turn an end pole the opposite way. Or not turn at all. Or weave again. Basically anything to not do the pattern right! This confused him .... which made him wait for my correct cue when we got to the competition run at a show. Otherwise he would anticipate and weave too soon, and run the poles over with his shoulder.

If I could get a clean pole run with Beau, I was estatic. I wouldn't even care how slow it was, lol.


Red is showing great promise on the poles. He's got great responsive sides and has picked up the flying lead changes all on his own (the few times we've tried galloping the pattern). And holy hell, I have to hold on for his first end pole, he's go powerful in the turn that it pushes me out of position if I don't wedge myself with my elbow from the saddle horn. Can't wait to see how he finishes out!

Talking a little more about bend,

Sometimes if the horse I'm riding won't bend around the pole, I'll make them turn it in the middle of the weave a couple times then continue on. A LOT of leg here, less hand. It will help them get their leads fixed too this way. You gotta have a good handle in this event to get the poles to stay up.

I have a vocal cue on Selena too that means "go past". Her rate command is "easy", turn command is "here", and her "run past" command is just me kissing to her to keep her going. Otherwise, she will try and rate and turn instead of going past. We do a lot of gymkhana events right now so that's critical for us. I plan to lease her out as a gymkhana horse, because she will never be a top barrel racer but she can smoke a high point every time.

Take it slow wlak for a week trot for a month and then lope
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