Coping with no sandschool

[maxapple]

People who work full time and have no school in the winter - how do you cope with this?

Also - in the summer would you rent a school out locally?

I do quite a lot of dressage so pondering over if / how I would cope if I ever managed to have horses at home with no school.

 

[PoniesRock]

I don't have a school at the yard. Admittedly I don't do dressage! But we do do the odd show jumping comp out. So we do most of our schooling out hacking anyway. It's surprising what schooling you can do out hacking. Transitions for sure! Inside bend around the corners. And if you have access to a field then you can properly school there.

 

[Kokopelli]

You can school out on hacks, when its quiet do leg yielding up the road and you can collect the paces and when your on soft ground extend the paces

You can also work on suppleness, rhythm, straightness etc. The only thing you may sturggule with is doing the test itself but you can learn that without riding it, I know it helps though.

 

[Silver]

My horses live out all year. we exercise in field or hack. My son competes in intro dressage at the mo and beginner show jumping. We do occassionally hire out a arena to practice the test or treat ourselves. I am sure it can all be done. The prob I have is keeping them fit as we have no lights ( hope to change this soon)

 

[Chestnut mare]

It's a bit of a nightmare so my winter riding will be restricted to weekends and when I'm on a late shift and can ride out early! I do have a sandschool opposite the yard luckily so can hire that and plan on getting in there for half an hour to lunge mid week! I hate the dark nights .

 

[rowy]

after being with a menage at livery for 5 years and now having them at home with no menage i find it so difficult! when the ground isn't wet i ride in our field however we have sectioned off the field for winter gazing now so that s a no go. when the cows FINALLY leave the neighbouring field, the owner said we can use that so will be doing long and low canter work for suppling and fitness
atm we are hacking on roads about 5 times a week doing shoulder in and leg yielding and varying the stretching to long and low and then a higher head carriage and this is helping with her topline
in summer we did rent out the schools but the ones round here hacking distance are a bit crummy. hopefully we are getting a menage put in early next year though