Cavaletti on steroids!

It’s been a slog of a week, trying to get things in order at work – no time left for writing or riding! But, I have some days off coming up to make up for it. In the meantime, here is something just for fun.

You may have already seen them – videos of a group of riders doing amazing patterns over jump poles and cavaletti. They all seem to come with a label of “stangenarbeit”, for which I cannot find a translation – but it seems to be a “thing”. Anyway, every time they crop up, I’m so mesmerized that I thought I would share one here.

This guy clearly has this down to a science! Although there is benefit to the horse in doing this, I see even more benefit to the rider – helping to teach rhythm, precision, and (if managed right) subtle controls (some of these riders clearly have that part down better than others. Enjoy …

Ready to give it a try? Of course, it takes a while to build up to this level of poles, for horse and rider. But what a great way to break the monotony of arena work!

And now, in honor of our little goat Hero, who left for the Rainbow Bridge last Sunday, I actually found a goat version …