Does anyone not ride during the winter months?

Inthesticks

Inthesticks

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 January 2011
Messages
315
Visit site
As a woman I think I am predisposed to feeling guilt for most things, but I go through this guilt trip from October/November through March/April for not riding much if at all.

Getting a good day on a weekend, with not sodden or Icy ground, not raining or blowing a force gale round here and where the trusted stead does not look like the bog monster is hard, so I tend to say ****** it and give the beast the winter off.

He is the same pony if ridden every day or once a year so that's not an issue and he prefers to perfect his haylage eating than ride anyway so I am trying to be rid of the guilt this year.

Anyone else not ride their horse at all during the winter?
 
I have given up for this month at least. Unless aiming for a competition i don't really ride, by time cleaned and finding a day with good conditions for riding in winter round me is rare too.
He is out this winter so keeping semi fit and he is using most of his time eating to keep weight on which is most important.
 
I ride mine once a week on a Saturday, and my mum rides him on occasional Sundays. I won't ride in ice, high winds, rain, snow etc. which means I don't ride much! He is the same to ride whatever he's done in the last week, so I'm not pushing myself until March when it's light enough to trot round the block after work.

I would if I was paying for facilities. I'm not - we have a field full of mud and that's it!
 
For me I try to ride as much as possible but I only manage to ride little. Te winter months are horrible-especially when you have only 2-3 acres of ground that is mostly churned up!
My pony hasn't been out much lately and she hates it!
 
Last few winters I haven't ridden from end of November to February. This is mainly due to the weather and also injuries. Horses cope fine with it though as they are out all the time. Thinking I may actually get to ride over Xmas this year for the first time in years as weather is looking mild!
 
I only tend to ride at weekends - and even then there is so much regular stuff to do that I often run out of time. I hacked out today, but if I'm lucky it's only ever Saturdays and Sundays in winter. I really don't think my horse cares either way, although I sometimes thinks he appreciates being out of the mud when we are on the tracks and roads!

I do feel guilty about it, but can't be helped. I even feel guilty walking the dogs as I think I should be riding, and then vice versa!
 
I try and ride as much as I can until late November but when the roads are too icy and the arena freezes on and off I give her a month or two on holiday then as I'd rather keep her work consistent as I don't agree with on and off work, blows my tbs mind. She can't deal with working everyday, then having a week off, then me jumping on again. I hate it too, it's like 1 step forward 2 steps back.
 
Must be honest in my old age I have become a fair weather rider and rarely ride in the winter if at all. Like OP my cob doesn't seem to be any different whether I ride him every day or if he has 3 months off. If it is a beautiful winter's day then I may take him out as long as he is dry and easy to de-mud otherwise I just wait until the spring and some warmer, dryer weather.
 
It is impossible this time of year when you work full time just dont have the daylight or time, if u do have the time/daylight its either tipping it down or too icy :(. I think any riding is a bonus through thee winter and I dont put too much pressure on myself and if I can only ride 1-2 times a week so be it. Roll on spring :)
 
Last edited:
Im at home so free to ride any day but we are on a hill on the edge of the Cairngorms and even when the snow periodically melts, the ice on the steep tracks (we arent on a road) stays like glass for ages. So I ride very little in the winter.

I do find it harder to keep lami prone girlie skinny without being able to exercise her but just have to be tougher, as Id rather she was on a diet than broke her leg on the ice.

Thankfully she is fairly good at being picked up again in Spring.

But yes I do feel guilty a lot about it, but try not to as its just impossible a lot of our winter - minus 20 and blizzards quite common and the snow can drift up to 6 feet or so!
 
I had intended to ride throughout Winter, but the past couple of weeks it has just been way too icy on the roads, and even the fields very frozen and slippy, so not ridden much at all! I've made the most of the 'warm' weekend though, and ridden both saturday and sunday so feel a bit less guilty now :o
 
fair weather rider and i do not feel one bit guilty:D the horses don't care, they get to stand at the round bale all day stuffing their faces , my horses, my money, my choices;)
To date i haven't ridden since August!! family illness meant i was all over the place until last month, my riding mojo had completely gone awol, just got it back and then i twisted my ankle:o I'm starting to miss it but the ground conditions are so crap and I'm still struggling to get my boots on and off so i think i will just wait until spring:)
 
Yup me! I work on the yard where I jeep her and after being soaked or frozen riding livery horses all day the last thing I want to do is ride my own after work in the dark! I have an agreement with myself that I "rough her off" now and only ride if I want to not because I have to. Means I don't put pressure on myself on my day off to ride :)
 
I'd hoped to keep riding up to xmas hols then give him a couple of months off, but weather and work has resulted in me taking his shoes off this week. They will go back on when things calm down - but he really does well from a break every year. Always comes back better
 
xMoodyMarex said:
I had intended to ride throughout Winter, but the past couple of weeks it has just been way too icy on the roads, and even the fields very frozen and slippy, so not ridden much at all! I've made the most of the 'warm' weekend though, and ridden both saturday and sunday so feel a bit less guilty now :o
Click to expand...
Mine live out and, with the disgusting wet weather we've had since late September, have been coated in wet mud for weeks. By the time I have waded through the mud to poo pick, sorted water out, hay, food etc there are not enough daylight hours left to contemplate scraping off enough filth to enable me to put tack on!
Plus work commitments, Christmas (bah humbug! :D ) mucking out the family home and trying to get my daughter's washing up to date before she goes back to Uni................
quite frankly I can't be arsed :D so we are having a mini-break until New Year. Then we need to start getting fit as PBA and Cobby are going to do endurance next year. And TB will get the biggest shock of her young life. She is actually going to do some serious work now she is nearly six :D
They are all quite happy wallowing in the swamp that was their field and consuming vast quantities of expensive forage and watching me pick up the resulting poo. They do not care about work, they are happy just chilling (ha ha - literally!) together.
Don't feel guilty guys! Enjoy the break. Spring will come again........... ever the optimist, me :D
 
I only ride weekends, and then it's weather permitting. I haven't even clipped yet this year, but may have to as he was lathered today due to the temperature rising above 3 degrees!
 
I feel so much better reading others posts. I hate this time of year and always feel guilty for not riding even when the weather is foul. I try to ride 2 or 3 times a week but really feel I should just write the winter off and get going again in the spring. I am sure my boy would be more than happy but I just feel guilty not doing anything. Every year I say I will just have a break but I struggle on every time.
 
I've just been saying up the yard that I seem to have less time this year than ever. By the time I've fitted everything in I can't be bothered to ride. And yes I feel so guilty, until I've read this and now I'm :)
 
Yes, thanks peeps for keeping me company! I suffer double the guilt trip as I have two on livery - yikes.

But with one thing and another, I have kind of written off the rest of the year and am just pottering about 1-3 times a week. Thank god for thw weekends and a not completely waterlogged/frozen school. Fortunately I have a small army of sharers, lungers and schoolers to help me out.

I am also appreciating just how amazing it must be to have an indoor school!
 
I will ride as often as I can. Went two weeks there with no riding due to the frozen conditions - couldn't hack as too slippy and while school was not frozen, its carpet fibre based, I still felt it was too slippy and didn't want to risk it. I managed to ride on Saturday and today and will ride again tomorrow - as those are my free days at the moment - Im averaging about 3 times a week if its not too icy
 
Nah I ride at work so no need to ride at home. My excuse is that mine are all show ponies/horses and there are no shows in winter thus no need to ride/groom/unrug the beasts. Just lob them hay food and water and they are happy!
 
Wanted to keep riding through winter and got him chaser clipped with the hope of keeping him in light work but it's either flooded or frozen it seems at the mo and we have no indoor school so only managing 2 or 3 times a week at very most. Just hoping that come spring he will remember all we learnt last summer.....and that I will;)
 
Id love to be getting out even once a week, I can only ride at weekends due to work and dark nights. It's been like an ice rink up here for Weeks, either that or very wet. The school is either flooded or frozen. I'm hoping to get out this weekend though.
 
If I have a working school, i.e. not frozen or flooded, then I'll ride all year round :cool::D

Did decide last year to take next Jan and Feb off, rather than booking school/greeting back from work on time/bookng lessons only to find the school was unusable.

Now we're at a yard with no school (was the trade off for being where neds could be out 24/7), so it's back to just hacking at weekends when the roads are okay. I think I am going to miss the school :(

I'm slightly different though - having lost riding time through my own injuries and having a sometimes wonky horse, I do tend to make the most of it when horse is sound/I'm not broken/conditions are do-able :cool:
 
Must admit am considering having shoes off and turning my mare away for the rest of the winter.
The yard I used to be at opened out straight onto a bridleway. My new yard I have to go on roads. The village road stays icy so I can't even get to the bridleway or the main road.
I didn't ride at all last winter because I was ill so never realised what it would be like.
Then add the weather into the mix and I really feel like giving up until March. Luckily my mare is the same whether ridden or not.
 
I don't ride during the week. Although we do have a small indoor school, you can't book it between 5 and 7pm which is when I would want to ride, and I can be bothered fighting for space with a pack of kids bombing around on ponies. So I only ride at weekends when I can hack out, weather permitting. If I didn't have to work :( I would probably ride a lot more. I do find that getting out even for half an hour down the farm road is a great mood booster. My horse is a bit sharper in the winter than in summer, but in her case that's a good thing (usually!).
 
I try my best ride as much as I can in winter, but it's very hard as when I finish work it's dark :( BUT this year I am turning King away as of yesterday until the end of Jan and will try again then, if weather lets me.

I'm same as OP I also feel guilty if I don't ride so I do Zumba and Wii fit in my house every night instead :) Takes the edge of the guilt and makes me feels less lazy if I do some form of something :D
 
I haven't been riding either. I am going through a confidence crisis at the moment. The school isn't great so its only hacking for me. By the time I have been to work and done all my jobs, I can never be bothered :o I get just as much enjoyment out of spending time with her then I do riding. I have 11 days off over Christmas so hoping to get back on then.
 
i ride until we cant - which up here is often for a month or two due to ice/snow - so at the mo i'm loving the mild weather and keeping her in semi-fitness :D
hope jan/feb are like this - will make preparing for spring ODE's far easier!
she does however have shoes off now in case the snow/ice hits - not worth the risk of her skidding about and putting something out - so riding is limited to softer tracks etc - so fitness had reduced but hope to keep her ticking over - i'd say she's combined training fit at the mo - not xc fit unless i took it slow and was a flat course
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top