Ranch Riding Trot Logs

It’s easy to overlook practicing going over logs at home, especially if you find yourself without any poles to practice on.

- BY BUD LYON, WITH NICHOLE CHIRICO

But the nice part about ranch riding is that perfectly shaped poles aren't a necessity. In fact, most of the time when you go to a horse show, you'll see natural logs in their place. This means you can utilize any kind of downed log that might be around the property. Just make sure that they're small enough that your horse can safely get over them.

While we occasionally are asked to jump a log in ranch riding, you want to make sure these logs are easy enough for your horse to carefully sidepass, walk, trot, and lope over.

When I'm first teaching a horse to go over logs, I might start with just one or two logs until my horse gains the confidence he needs to go through a series of trot-overs. While the horse that I'm riding in these photos is young, he has been going over logs for almost a year, so I'm going to up the degree of difficulty by asking him to go over four logs in a row.

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