It's something we should all do any time we want to go to a horse show, but it's usually the last thing we do to prepare for the show. AQHA judge and professional Will Knabenshue explains the importance of reading your association's rule book so you know exactly what you can and can't do at a hor...

Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue go over the basics of trail and how to properly set up your trail walkover poles so you can teach your horse how to go over obstacles at home.

Once you know how to set up your trail walkover poles, now it's time to teach your horse how to walk over them properly. Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue show you where your horse's feet should land so he can successfully get over an obstacle and not hit it.

You might notice that some horses put their heads down to look for the trail pole before walking over it. Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue talk about style and how a horse's approach to going over a trail pole might differ. It can also differ for riders. Some like to lean forward to help encourage t...

Once you can successfully get over a trail obstacle at a walk, learn how you can increase the difficulty.

Have you heard of the term chipping a pole, but don't understand what it means? Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue break down what chipping a pole means in a trail class, and why a horse might chip a pole.

If you look at your rulebook, you'll learn that there are certain lengths you need to set your poles for trotovers in a trail class. Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue go over how to set up your trail poles at home so you can practice with your horse successfully.

After your horse is familiar going over trotover poles on the ground, up the degree of difficulty by raising your poles so he has to pay more attention to where he's placing his feet when you go over a pole.

There are two ways you can set your trotover trail poles. You can set them up to be one-stride trotover poles or two-stride trotover poles. In this video we show you how to set up your poles so you can fit two strides in between the poles.

Ensure you're setting your lopeover trail poles up accurately to help your horse better learn how to lope over the poles.

Once your horse can lopeover the trail obstacles on the ground, you can up the degree of difficulty by raising the trail poles.

This four-leaf clover pattern is a great obstacle to try out when you're limited on how many poles you can set up. Will and Elizabeth Knabenshue show you how to try it out at home.

If your horse is constantly hitting trail poles with his feet, chances are it's the way you're riding over the poles. Learn how to keep your forward motion as you go over an obstacle so you don't lose momentum.

Once you can go over trail poles on a straight line, up the degree of difficulty by asking your horse to go over one pole, complete an arc, and then go over another.

Another popular obstacle in trail classes are the pinwheel lopeovers. This obstacle can only be mastered if you're putting your horse in the right spot and looking where you're going. Will and Elizabeth show you how to master it.

The pinwheel obstacle is one of the trickiest obstacles in a trail course because you need to be able to find your spots, and fit a certain amount of strides between each pole. On top of that you're usually steering your horse in a tight circle. See how Will and Elizabeth master this obstacle at ...

Once you can get through a basic pinwheel obstacle, you can increase the difficulty by elevating the poles or adding additional poles.

The way you turn in a trail box differs from the way you would turn in a reining or horsemanship class. In order to not hit all the poles your horse needs to move his shoulders and hind end at the same time. Will and Elizabeth go over the basics of turning in a box.

The back through might be one of the slowest trail obstacles, but it's also one of the hardest. Being able to steer your horse's body around while backing takes time and skill. Will and Elizabeth show you how they teach their non pros to master a back through.

Will and Elizabeth go over a horsemanship drill you can do at home in any size arena. You just need to have four cones to work around.

You might notice in a horsemanship class some riders prefer to ride on a tighter rein while others are on a longer rein. Will and Elizabeth talk about the different rein lengths you see in horsemanship and how to find out which fit is best for you.

Do you know what the proper horsemanship riding position looks like? Elizabeth goes over what you should and shouldn't do when you're in a horsemanship class.

You can still be productive with your trail practice even if you're limited on the amount of poles you have at home. Will and Elizabeth show you how they school their horses using a single pole.