ha no. Its not. Basically its just for when the horse starts to get complacent and is just jumping high enough to barely clear it. After poling, they think the fence is higher, so will be more careful and put in a little bit more of an effort. its not something anyone should use as done too soon can damage a horses confidence, and if you aren't careful can cause the horse (and rider) to fall.

Its illegal in the warm up ring at a show. 

What I personally do instead when Faith is being lazy is warm up over the x/2 foot fence, and then raise it to 6" higher then I'm showing over. If she's not paying attention, thats enough to give her a good hard rub or knock, and the next time she will be more careful. Thats not quite as unfair as the fence suddenly jumping at them, but it still catches them a bit off guard so she's paying attention. She tends to be a bare minimum jumper, since she's competed at 3'6"+ with previous owners, my dinky little 2'6" - 3' stuff does not impress her and she barely puts in an effort, so we tend to get rails (usually just as much my fault as hers).

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that they haven't tried to contact us yet."

Last Edited By: nicolemorgans Nov 30 10 12:05 PM. Edited 1 times.