Polebending is one of those obscure western speed events that stands in the shadow of the popular Barrel Racing. Consisting of a pattern of six upright poles, six feet tall and spaced in a straight line 21 feet apart, “Poles” is one of the most challenging western speed events in the world. The pattern requires that the horse-and-rider perform two straight runs and two sets of weaving. 21 feet sounds like plenty of room, but when you’re sitting on the back of a fire-breathing Polebending horse at full gallop, that distance shortens up pretty quick.
The challenge of Polebending is solely in the weaving. Running down and turning the end poles are nothing strenuous for the experienced barrel racer, who spends most of their time running tight circles around three steel drums for fun. Proper technique of how to train a horse and ride through the weaving section of Poles is debated constantly, and each rider has their own unique style of achieving the blindingly fast flying lead-changes required for this sport.
Two of Ontario’s best Polebenders took the time to share some of their knowledge and winning secrets. Not only is the author related to one and good friends with the other, but they have grown up together in the western horse industry since their 13 & Under days. These two ladies are living proof that age has little to do with riding skill.
Meet The Experts
Betsy MacFarlane of Deseronto, ON, is the 22 year old owner, trainer and sole rider of the famous Cody’s Curiosity (aka: Sugar Bear). She has raised this nine year old AQHA gelding from birth to become a 3-time Congress Polebending Champion, AQHA Top Ten Youth Polebender, Eastern Canadian Polebending Champion, and has a list of wins and awards so long that it won’t fit. She is a Polebender by day, and a life-saving, sushi-loving Paramedic by night.
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Leslie Richards is an 18 year old of Demorestville, ON, has an identical history of raising her ten year old POA gelding, Zip Of Brandy (aka: Zip). Jockeying Zip, they have multiple Congress Top Tens, placed seventh overall in the 2009 Congress Polebending Sweepstakes, have several NBHA 1D Championships, and have a first-class resume of western speed event wins that is hard to match. Leslie will be heading off to college soon and when she is not riding one of her three horses, is actively involved in other sports such as Figure Skating and Basketball.
They work well as a team! (Relay)
Betsy and Leslie have a lot in common: a history as winning competitors in Showmanship, Western Pleasure, Horsemanship and Hunter Under Saddle; growing up with knowledgeable equestrian mothers; each have a fabulous older sister that excels in the slower disciplines; and each have been their own trainers on their own ponies and horses from an extremely young age.
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Zip & Sugar Bear are also friends.
Their shared passion for Polebending has led to a friendly competitive spirit. The desire to be faster has taken them down similar paths of training and thinking, and has allowed them to experiment with different styles and find the methods that add to the speed.
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The Slow Side of the Pole
Whether at home or at a competition, warming up before getting down to the speed is a huge part of preparing a horse to run.
Horses, just like humans, are prone to injury if they are not conditioned and adequately warmed-up and cooled down before strenuous exercise. A Polebending Pattern takes an average of 21-24 seconds and is chock-full of intense athleticism: starting, galloping, stopping, and the weaving itself.
Our two experts use the same basic warm-up routine, like clockwork, with small variations from horse to horse. In a time period of about 15-20 minutes, they will walk a couple of laps of the arena and do some light dynamic stretching; spend a few minutes trotting laps or large circles in each direction, followed by more walking; progressing to an easy lope, they will do five to ten circles in each direction, and wrap up with more walking.
Leslie will complete her warm-up by practicing the movements and cues from her legs and hands that she’ll be using during a run: plenty of leg-yielding, and in some cases, reinforcement of “Whoa.”
“Horses like Zip do a little extra stopping,” she laughed, “but he runs best if he’s a little pumped up. Others need to be taking it really easy and kept relaxed so their brain keeps working!”
Betsy follows the same idea of fine-tuning the movements expected in the competition pen, but uses a creative and visual technique to warm up her horse as well as her own mind. At a walk, trot, and slow-lope, she will move her horse through “Pretend Poles,” following an imaginary pattern in her mind’s eye.
“Sometimes I’ll walk through Pretend Poles with my eyes closed, so that I can feel his response better and know if he’s moving immediately,” she said. “He’s got to be doing what I want him to do in the competition before he goes in the arena.”
She also advises riders to get on their horse at least 30 minutes before a run, get all of their warm-up work out of the way, and give themselves walking time. “Lots of walking after trotting and loping. You don’t want him winded going in the pen. He needs a chance to recover.”
The Gritty, Sandy Details
Polebending is nothing if not an art, and as with all art, there is a technical side. Talented riders can make a run look effortless and easy, but any experienced Polebender will tell you that there’s a lot happening behind each weave and turn.
Betsy explains that it’s a combination of light hands on the reins and perfectly-timed cues with shifts in weight through her seat that have to be felt, not seen, to create a smooth and effortless run. During a run, her hands have the most contact and action to keep Sugar Bear in balance, but by lifting her hip closest to the upcoming pole (inside hip), she uses her shift in weight to ask him to change his leads. Though her legs are being used for her own balance, Betsy says they aren’t the main part of the weaving equation: “It’s between my seat and my hands. My legs are just on him. I’m not consciously using them.”
Leslie, on the other hand, believes that her legs do most of the work during a run.
“In many situations, my seat and legs work together. As I use my leg to move my horse over, my seat automatically shifts. All my horses are extremely broke off leg-pressure and I think that gets a quicker response during a run opposed to using your hands.”
When it comes to daily training, Leslie says she is “Pretty random.” She also trains on several other speed events during the week, so she may not have poles set up every day. When they are set, she will work the pattern slow, with a fast run once or twice.
“If the horses are running well, I won’t work on them, but if problems start arising, I will go back and do slow work to make sure they aren’t losing the basics.” She adds, “I think it’s important to do fast work at home because it’s good training for the muscles, muscle memory. We expect them to run three, four, or five times in a day, so their muscles need to have the strength and stamina to perform at the highest level each time.”
Betsy echoes that statement with an anecdote of her training experiences in the 2009 season. Her school and work obligations caused her to tone down the amount of fast work that Sugar Bear was getting during the week, and she noticed that her times were slowing down by six to nine tenths of a second. That’s a big deal when the competitors are running within three or four tenths of each other.
“I was only practicing at speed once a week, and that resulted in a significant slow-down at a few shows.” Betsy, who always wants to step up her A-Game for her own personal satisfaction, took action. “A few weeks before Black Gold [Supershow], I started working at speed three or four times a week, with three to five runs at speed per day. But what’s unique about how I train and the pattern itself is that I escalate my speed on a continuous loop, so Shugs had lots of time to recover from each speed run.”
The Polebending pattern can be looped because it begins and ends the same, with symmetrical points. Unlike Barrel Racing, which is not a symmetrical pattern, to continue working Poles all you have to do is turn the next end pole after the final run-down and begin weaving again.
“I’ll walk the pattern on a loop two or three times, then trot twice, then slow-lope twice, followed by one fast run. Sugar Bear’s never had an injury. He gets mad if you hold him back when he’s trying to run into the competition pen, so it’s definitely not making him sour. He ran some of his best runs after I started practicing the loop.”
Polebending Pitfalls!
When our pair of Polebending Sages were asked “What is the most common mistake that you see riders making during a run?” they both replied:
“Their reins are too long!”
Rein length, amount of slack, and rider hand position are often topics of debate in the western speed event industry. No two riders would ever have the same answer. Rather, Rick Burten’s First Law of Equidom is often invoked: “It Depends.”
The reins are important for a couple of reasons: they allow communication between the rider and the horse, and they act in coordination with the rider’s legs, seat, and voice to evoke certain trained responses from the horse. The longer the rein, the slower and lighter the cue reaches the horse; the shorter the rein, the faster and more effective the cue.
“A quick response is vital to the success of the run!” Leslie emphasizes. “If you run Poles with your reins too long, your hands are back at your belly and elbows out all over the place… you have no control and you lose the effectiveness of your hands.”
“If your reins are too long, your upper body is probably too upright,” Betsy adds. “You’re telling your horse to slow down by sitting back. They lose forward motion and that’s when they stiffen up and smack a pole down.”
The second biggest mistake a Polebender can make during a run, Betsy and Leslie both agree, is to pull the horse’s face away from the pole using the rein farthest from the upcoming pole (outside rein). This causes the horse to counter-bend the pole. The horse will almost always drop their shoulder and “dive” on the pole. In the majority of cases, there will be a lot of poles hitting the dirt and a lot of bruised elbows and knees.
The ladies recommend using the rein closest to the upcoming pole (inside rein) to ask the horse to bend around the pole. By lifting the inside rein and putting the horse onto the proper bend, the horse will stay balanced and give themselves more room to get past the pole.
Betsy uses a very technical method to make sure her horses are hitting the right spot every time during weaving. She often calls it the secret to her success as a Polebending coach and trainer.
3 feet away doesn't look so far when you're riding a Hotrod!
“You have to put your horse’s rear end over the spot in the exact middle between each pole,” she explains, “and then over the spot two or three feet beside the next pole, no farther out unless you’re on a really big horse who needs the room. If you travel ahead or behind that middle point, it puts your horse in a bad spot to get past the next pole. It throws off the striding and rhythm.”
After you hit the middle point, keep your horse's head, neck and shoulders pointed at the next point beside the pole and RIDE!
Leslie states that her biggest pet peeve is when a rider doesn’t practice the pattern like they would if it is a competition run. Over-exaggeration is a common training method among all western speed events, but in Poles it will usually cost you the win.
“Exaggerating the end pole turns and the side-to-side motion during weaving only makes your horse lose the connection between the pattern and the movement,” the diminutive blonde says with a touch of exasperation. “Many people do this, and wonder why they hit poles!”
Why Polebending?
“It’s fun and it’s FAST!” Leslie says with a big grin. “It’s such a challenge for a rider.”
“If you like Barrels, you’re probably gonna like Poles,” Betsy states. “We’re all adrenaline-junkies, and Polebending is unique challenge, so different from Barrels. You’re not fast for three turns, you’re fast for three turns plus ten weaves.”
Both ladies agree, there is nothing more satisfying than completing a successful Polebending run on a horse you’ve trained from scratch. The sense of accomplishment, the increased partnership between horse and rider, and the higher level of training and riding skill required, make the sport well worth doing.
The money isn’t too bad, either. At bigger shows at the Provincial and National Level, such as the NBHA, National Polebending Association (NPBA), Ontario Barrel Racing Association (OBRA), and All-American Quarter Horse Congress, a winning run can earn hundreds, up to thousands of dollars. The total purse of the Congress Sweepstakes is usually around $30,000-$40,000 USD, divided between two Go’s, a Final, and an Average.
Leslie and Zip raked in a glistening sum of almost $1600 USD at the 2009 Congress for only four Polebending runs, including the Congress Polebending Sweepstakes.
Lto R: Mike Stephenson, Barb MacFarlane, Sugar Bear, Betsy, and Shelley Stephenson.
Betsy and Sugar Bear raked in a whopping $1608 USD at the 2008 Congress for her Polebending runs, including the Sweepstakes. She also received two bronze statues, two Championship jackets, six medals, and a couple of $100 gift certificates. Sugar Bear has lifetime Polebending earnings of $3650.00 CAN for 2007-2008. (2009 winnings were not recorded, but his current Polebending LTE is probably closer to $5000 CAN).
However, while the money is good motivation, the honor, glory, and success of training are the real driving forces.
“It takes a lot of skill and talent from both horse and rider,” Leslie states. “My goal as a horse person is to continually become more knowledgeable, skilled, and successful with every horse I work with.”
“If you can run poles this good,” Betsy says, “then you know you’re synched with your horse. That’s as good as it gets. There’s no other feeling like flying through a smooth pattern.”
A Polebender’s Inspiration
Every great Polebending Sage had their inspiration come from somewhere. When they were asked “What inspires you as a Polebender?” the ladies gave some pretty deep and surprising answers!
Leslie’s pedestalled rider is renowned trainer and barrel racer, Sherry Cervi. Cervi’s good riding skills, horsemanship skills and professionalism make her one of the best in the industry.
“She is very gracious when she speaks to the public, and handles herself under pressure amazingly!” Leslie gushes. “I do my best to mimic her!”
Betsy’s icon of choice is legendary NFR 11x Barrel Racing Champion, Charmayne James. James hails from Texas and is as well known as Martha Josey, Brittney Pozzi-Pharr, or Michael Jordan. She is a pioneer in the industry, a fabulous trainer with a very high code of ethics and moral standing, and open-minded enough to clone her multi-champion gelding, Scamper.
Betsy and Leslie don’t just limit themselves to being inspired by these famous superstars, though.
L to R: Ashley Pearse, Leslie Richards and Maddy Wright
“I’ve never had a coach, however, many of my fellow barrel racers in Ontario are supportive, helpful, always find the positive in things, and always encourage you to go and do your best,” Leslie says.
“Shelley Stephenson was my hero growing up,” Betsy says, referring to lifelong friend of the family and owner of Sugar Bear’s sire, Triple Your Treasure. “She always had amazing horses, always an awesome rider, and I wanted to be just like her when I was a kid.”
“Every person who has ever beat me is an inspiration to me,” says Leslie. “Not because they are a better rider, but just because they beat me. I am a very competitive person, so every time someone beats me, it just inspires me to be better next time! But in saying that, I also love to help other people and support them. I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people and then seeing them become successful!”
After a few minutes of careful thinking, the girls summed up their entire motivations:
Leslie says: “Knowing that I trained Zip all by myself, every time I come out of the ring or have a great finish, I know that it was all my hard work every day that led to that result. It is the most rewarding feeling!”
Betsy states: “My horse inspires me to be better. I always want to do the right thing by him, I always want to be on top of my game for him. I always want to be the best for him, so that he can progress.”
Amen, sister!
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“You don’t win because of luck at this level. You make your own luck.”
~Charmayne James
Another variation are Focused Horses. This one is usually only seen on horses during handling or riding. One ear is back, focused on the rider’s cues, and one is forward, focused on what’s in front. The flared nostrils serve a functional purpose, as the horse usually has this expression during exercise and flaring the nostrils allows for better breathing.
Interested Horses are also called “Pretty Faces” for obvious reasons. The ears will be pricked forward, the eyes brightly open and focused. The nostrils may be slightly flared to get a better scent of the situation. This one means you aren’t being ignored!
Nervous Horses can turn into dangerous situations in mere seconds. This is the one face owners/riders dread to see. The ears will be tightly forward, the eyes wide and may show white around the upper lid. The lips will be tense, and the nostrils obviously flared. The horse may snort (a rattle sound) or blow (exhale very quickly). It is usually accompanied by lots of fancy, high-speed movement and human frustration.
Obnoxious Horses are often misunderstood by novice or inexperienced owners. An Obnoxious Horse is almost always dominant, and being unprepared to enforce polite manners can lead to some very dangerous, out-of-control, and even aggressive situations for anyone handling that horse. The only noticeable difference seen on the face of an Obnoxious Horse is in the upper lip. The upper lip will always be poked down with nostrils clearly defined. Add an arched, high-held neck to that and you’ve got Dominant Horse.
The Irritated Horse is one of the most important, but most commonly ignored. An Irritated Horse has a 50/50 chance of either becoming a Nasty Horse or simply tolerating whatever is bugging them. The ears are angled backward, but not tight against the neck. The lips are tight and nostrils wrinkled with no flaring. The horse will usually elevate their head and neck and swish their tail.
The Nasty Horse is the one who says “Back off, or I’m gonna mess you up!” The ears are pinned flat against the neck (nearly invisible!), the nostrils are very wrinkled and may be seen with bared or gnashing teeth. When the head/neck are raised above back-level, you’re getting warned. If that head and neck drop any lower while wearing this expression, get out of there before you meet an 1100-pound Rick James!
The Playful Horse is just being cute, silly, and having fun—until he tries to play with you! Take it from an author who knows: never, under any circumstances, try to “play” with a 1250lb animal who doesn’t realize your 150lbs can’t keep up! It’s all cute, goofy fun until you have a communication misunderstanding and somebody gets their collarbone broken. Playful horses will usually have sideways or forward-angled ears, half-closed eyes and wiggly lips with top lip extended. This is an invitational expression. Always turn down the invitation!
The Flehmen Horse is a unique, but strictly horsey expression. The raising of the upper lip in this fashion is called “flehmen” and is commonly demonstrated by stallions (male horses who are intact). Some believe this expression is functional and allows the horse to get a better scent of interesting things (such as mares in heat). Horses also seem to do this when they are saying “Eww” to an unpleasant or weird smell or taste. Mr. Ed, the Famous Talking Horse, was trained to do this by sticking peanut butter under his top lip.
The Raised Imaginary Eyebrow Horse is rare and the most highly intelligent horse in a stable. They are also the most arrogant, dominant and obnoxious horses. This expression has one ear forward, one ear backward, the head and neck turned. The inside eye shows whites, while the outside eye does not. The inside nostril is very wrinkled and the upper lip may be twitching, pointed, or pointed to one side. An exasperated sigh may be heard shortly after.
Unimpressed Horses are my personal favourites. The ears are as close to horizontal as possible, perfectly angled sideways. The eyes are half-closed, and one or both nostrils are slightly wrinkled. A loud sigh is heard. I got this picture from Wisher while flamboyantly attempting to get “Surprised Horse.”
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