Fjord Resources

Advantages of Cavalletti

The use of cavalletti in the training program has benefits for all riding horses, whether they are destined for a career in dressage, jumping, eventing, or pleasure riding.

Work over cavalletti can enhance the regularity and rhythm of paces, loosen up and strengthen the muscles, contribute to development of the heart and circulatory systems, increase balance, sure-footedness, and suspension, and develop and test the ability to learn.

Best of all — particularly in light of all the other advantages — work over cavalletti is a lot of fun for both horse and rider!

The horse can be worked over cavalletti without a rider (on the lunge), and with the rider, both on straight lines and on circles and half-circles. Exercises can be set in walk, trot and canter. As proficiency increases, more difficult exercises can include lengthening of the strides, leaving out one or more poles, work on collected gaits, and small gymnastic jumping lines.

One disadvantage of cavalletti work is that it is best done with a ground-person to set up each successive exercise. If, like me, you usually work on your own, this can be a problem. However, I can generally get someone to help me out on the weekends, and since work over cavalletti should not be overdone, this seems to work out about right.

There are other pitfalls, mainly related to the danger of injury from improper spacing or improper equipment or from overdoing the exercises. To avoid these, I recommend reading the book Cavalletti- The Schooling of Horse and Riders over Ground Poles by Ingrid and Reiner Klimke. The Klimkes’ book contains an in-depth discussions of the theoretical and practical considerations.

Height and Spacing of Cavalletti

Cavalletti are constructed from poles from 8′ to 11′ long, with supports that allow them to be set at three different heights: 6″-8″ at the lowest setting, 12″-14″ at the medium setting, and 20″ at the top setting.

The spacing of the cavalletti will vary depending on the length of the horse’s stride, and may change as his strength and familiarity with the exercises develops. The range for the walk varies from 2’8″ to 3’3″. The range for the trot varies from 4’2″ to 5′. To figure out the spacing for an individual horse, I start with two poles in a row, set at a guesstimate distance within the above mentioned ranges, and have my ground person closely observe how the horse travels through the line. We make adjustments as necessary before adding more poles at the spacing we decide is right.

The spacing of cavalletti for canter work is usually about 11′ apart, but could vary from 9′ to 12′ taking into consideration the size and movement of the individual horse. For the canter, the cavalletti should be set on the top height of 20″, so the horse takes it seriously and does a proper jump. At the lower heights the horse can get flat and fast, which is the opposite of what we want.

It is preferable to do these exercises with actual cavalletti, the advantage of which versus ground poles is that they won’t roll away if knocked by the horse (which could cause an injury if the horse then stepped on the misplaced pole) and the height of the cavalletti above the ground increases the effort required, and therefore the benefit received.

Our farm has only three cavalletti at the present time, so we intersperse the cavalletti with ground poles. This works best with the heavy type of ground poles which won’t roll as easily as light ones if they get knocked.

Training over Cavalletti

The first four photos show the four year old Fjord horse mare Bluebird Lane Peregrine, and the remaining photos are of the six year old Fjord horse mare Bluebird Lane Sparrow, both ridden by Lori.

Notice how the younger horse, who is just learning the exercises, lifts her feet way up, making sure to give the cavalletti plenty of room. The horse who is familiar with this work lifts her feet just as high as needed for each exercise.

You can see from the photos how this type of work will benefit the horse in terms of developing muscular strength, but don’t overdo it – in either length or frequency – and risk strains.