bsja only riding weekends?

[08shandw]

Hello guys just wondered if I could have ur advise. I compete bsja on a 17hh warmblood 8yr old. We are competing up to 1.10m newcomers at the moment but will be going higher. I have competed bsja for a long time now on previous horses. Due to certain circumstances I have had to move yard and have moved to a more convenient yard for me. But unfortunatly the menage does now have floodlights. I work Mon to Fri till 5:30 and have my weekends free. In the summer I'm ok as I just ride after work. The problem being is the winter! As I will only be able to ride weekends :-( as its dark when iv finnished work :-( I just wanted peoples opinions on competing bsja in the winter with only being able to ride sat and Sunday? Will he cope fine or will he not be able to maintain his fitness and be able to do it? I don't want him to do something that he isn't going to be fit enough to do! Thank you.

 

[measles]

While they don't have to be extremely fit to BS I would not be comfortable just competing at weekends and not riding at all during the week. I'd expect my horse to be at a higher risk of injury and that your ridden relationship with him could deteriorate as you are not spending time in the saddle.

Could you find a (safe) way of riding in the dark by rigging up lights in some way, or taking him a couple of times a week to an arena with lights? I do appreciate that the latter would be time consuming when you work full time but it might be a practical solution?

 

[MandyMoo]

While they don't have to be extremely fit to BS I would not be comfortable just competing at weekends and not riding at all during the week. I'd expect my horse to be at a higher risk of injury and that your ridden relationship with him could deteriorate as you are not spending time in the saddle.

Could you find a (safe) way of riding in the dark by rigging up lights in some way, or taking him a couple of times a week to an arena with lights? I do appreciate that the latter would be time consuming when you work full time but it might be a practical solution?

agree with this, BS doesn't require say, eventing level of fitness, however I would prefer my horses to be ridden at least 3 or 4 times a week as well as the weekend competition....as risk of injury increases as fitness decreases.

I used to go for rides out after school in the dark when I was younger, so if you can do this that would definitely help? I used to hack along quiet roads with full hi-vis gear and a head torch on my hat and lights on my stirrups!! or you could even turn on your car headlights at one end of the menage and lunge him one or two evenings? (the last idea is a bit far fetched but needs must...)

 

[elsiex]

I personally wouldn't advise hacking out in the dark!

I wouldn't be comfortable with competing BS with only riding at weekends - as I assume this is one competition and one day riding? I compete BS (1m/1.05) but wouldn't personally take my horse to a show if I hadn't ridden him at least three times during that week.

Could you buy a headtorch and use that? Or possibly rig up some sort of light, enough to perhaps lunge?

 

[08shandw]

Thanks guys, would a head torch be enough to ride in the dark in a menage? Not sure how bright they are? The yard is by a dual carriageway so riding on the roads in the dark would be a no go. I do have a car but the menage is up a slight slope and my car lights are not high enough to light the menage :-/ and the gate on the menage isn't big enough for me to drive in. I asked they about floodlights and I wud pay for them but they said they alredi applied for planning and got rejected :-/

 

[08shandw]

I have a spare car battery I wounder if there is something I could run off a car battery that wud last an hour or so as we have a big battery charger at my work so could just keep charging the battery down my work.

 

[tinap]

Could you ask if you could set up a site light or 2 if they have mains electric? We rented a field for years & over the winter just managed with a site light like this http://www.screwfix.com/p/double-tripod-site-light-2-x-400w-240v/71555 running off the field owners electric with a very long extension lead! It lit a patch up just enough to get some riding done & we managed to carry on BS over the whole winter xx

 

[showjumpingfilly]

I tried and it just didn't work, i struggled so much. I didn't make it out to any shows after the clocks changed as i lost the ability to even lunge.

When everything froze over it would typically be defrosted during the week when i couldnt ride but be frozen solid at the weekends so mine had a fair amount of time off up til xmas.

I wouldn't do it again.

 

[08shandw]

yes I was thinking something like this I was just wondering If they can run of a car battery and if they wud last an hour or so least then I havent got to bother with extention leads and aparently they use up a lot of electricity :-/

 

[MadisonBelle]

I've ridden in the dark in our paddock before no problem! Obviously I don't jump or do any pole work but it's quite surprising how theraputic it is to ride without lights! It isn't pitch black and it's amazing how much you can actually see as there is no light pollution........

 

[MagicMelon]

It really depends on the horse IMO, my grey I could do this with when I worked 9-5 so in winter it was pitch black when I got home (and I only had grass paddocks to ride in and no floodlights). I used to take him out to BSJA once/twice a month having only ridden at weekends (and very successfully, would win most outings!). BUT he is a lightweight build, who was kept out 24/7 otherwise so he always seemed to keep himself naturally pretty fit. However, my new horse (warmblood) isnt nearly as naturally fit so with him I find it much harder to successfully do this with him.

 

[stencilface]

Can you buy some solar powered floodlights? These wouldn;t need connecting up, and you coudl keep them in your garden/field to charge and take them up in your car to use? You wouldn't need planning for them as they would be temporary and only in use when you're riding and you could just attached them to the arena fence. Wouldnt be brilliant, but better than nothing. This is why I need a school for winter!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_48bopw32n1_b

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Site lights can be run off a car/leisure battery, I did it one winter. The lights came with standard household plug so I purchased an invertor (500w) to plug lights into then connected invertor to battery with leads with crocodile clips. You have to watch that the load you are using is not greater than the invertor can handle. The lights came with 500w bulbs, 2 lights per tripod making consumption of 1000 watts which the invertor would not cope with. I changed the bulbs to 150w in each lamp so consumption was 300w and well within the 500w capacity of the invertor. You can get bigger invertors but they were expensive.

 

[08shandw]

Brilliant that's for the help guys, going to do some reasearch on inverters and solar powered lights, thanks!

 

[Con234]

Our yard had planning for lights rejected and now we have 'temporary' ones that they didnt need planning for as they aren't there all the time. They just fold down. And no one would know about them unless you looked behind the fence. Our school has 4 but they are so good I only use one for lunging and two for riding although have ridden with just one a number of times as they can be turned enough to light most the school and I find this sufficient.

 

[pipsqueek]

I am in a similar situation, there is no school at all where I keep mine (although one I can use within hacking distance up the road) I can only ride a couple of times a week during winter due to starting/finishing work when it's dark. It is not ideal but I've always hunted and showjumped my two over winter doing this but they are out in a 5 acre field from dawn til dusk, at least they can exercise themselves to an extent - better than being stood in a stable. I also save quite a bit of my annual leave until winter and put in days/half days so they can be ridden in the week quite a bit though. I have competed my younger mare bs 90cm/1m since december last year and intend to continue through this winter

 

[Muddyboots]

I find in the winter there is more light before work. I have to be away from the yard by 8am and find there is enough light for me to ride in the morning until end of November and then start again mid feb. if you could do this, your horse would have two months off unless you can save us some leave for that time!

 

[LEC]

I ride only at weekends in the winter and compete and hunt fine. Never had fitness issues on all shapes and sizes. But mine go out all day from 7 till 6 and they never get a holiday as I do not have time to build up the fitness again for eventing in March. I have the odd lesson during the week but not frequently.

 

[LEC]

I should add that I have no arena!

 

[Nicnac]

Are there any buildings nearby? I was refused planning for lights on my manege so stuck up a few floodlights on poles on my garage roof and stable roof. As they are on existing buildings, they are classed as 'security' lights.

Not pretty but needs must in winter as never ride before 7pm during the week.

A bit more permanent than fiddling around with car batteries etc too.

 

[liannexsx]

Can you not try to ride before work? It's getting light at half 5, and do chores after work.

 

[AbFab]

I had this problem when I moved to my current yard in November - lovely big school but no lights and I work until 4:30 at the earliest. I did try using my car headlights but they only lit a bit of the school and it made the non-lit bits seem darker. I eventually resorted to riding in the dark and it was absolutely fine. It was never pitch black, I could always make out my surroundings and Saf didn't seem to care that it was dark. The only time it would have a different effect to daylight was when there were noises across the field that she could hear but couldn't see what was making them. It didn't scare her, she's just incredibly nosey so spent a while with her nose in the air trying to spy the perpetrator

 

[08shandw]

Yes I spoke to yard owners today but they told me the nabours are really bitchy and don't like horses and keep complaining, where the menage is I'd quite hidden so they can't really see it they said with any sort of lights it would attract attention and the menage is there without planning permission! :-/ they said they have had the menage there for about 10 years and never applied for planning but if they stuck lights up and attracted attention to the menage they could have council down demanding it to be demolished :-/

 

[08shandw]

I think I'm just going to have to ride in the dark haha!

 

[Jo_x]

Lots of ideas here for rigging up lights, but in all honesty I think it depends how well your horse holds fitness. Do they have a lot of turnout? Are they moving a lot in a hilly field or in a small flat paddock where they have to move much less? A pony I used to ride would be absolutely fine to be ridden twice a week and compete at the weekends, other horses I have ridden not so much... I remember reading something in H&H a few years back about a pony that qualified for the Winter JA final (so over three tracks starting at 1.30/1.35) and it said that pony was only ridden at weekends and was turned out the rest of the time

 

[08shandw]

Wow yes his in a big field and it's on a hill, and since I have had in (3 months) he has been turned out 24/7!