How to Train Your Horse to Pole Bend

Pole bending is a rodeo sport. It includes six poles in a straight line placed 21 feet apart. You must ride your horse along the side of the poles, turn around the far pole, weave through the poles, turn around the other end pole, weave back through, turn the first pole again, then ride back to the starting line at the opposite end of where you started. Train your horse to pole bend by following these steps.

Things You'll Need

Flat, disked ground or rodeo arena
Six PVC poles and bases
Snaffle bit

Instructions

- 1
  Slowly walk your horse through the pole pattern four or five times. Make sure the turns are correct and you walk the same pattern you would in a run. Walking the pattern a few times each day for four days will be enough time for the horse to know what you want him to do.
- 2
  Trot through the pole pattern a couple of times a day for at least five or six days. Make sure to trot the pattern in the exact way you want to run it. Make sure there are no mistakes being made by you or the horse in the turns or while weaving.
- 3
  Work the area where the poles are with a tractor and disk. A rodeo arena is best since the ground is prepared and there is a fence, but any flat, disked ground will work. Disked ground makes the dirt soft and acts as cushion on the horse's legs. Making hard turns on the end poles on top of hard ground can permanently injure a horse's legs. Walking and trotting through the pattern is OK on hard ground but don't move up to a lope or run.
- 4
  Lope the pole pattern slowly a few times. If your horse makes no mistakes, you can begin to get a little faster each time. If any mistakes are made, slow down on the next few runs until the pattern is perfect again, then start adding speed.
- 5
  Once he knows the run, keep your horse tuned on the pattern by walking, trotting and loping through it only a few times a month. Running through the pattern every day will make him to dislike it, causing him to act up and make mistakes.