Done before but life after riding?

My horse is now fully retired. I still have day to day care as he's on DIY livery but I only go to the farm once a day in the morning before work. My friend covers evenings for me. I didn't miss riding when my horse first retired but when I started hacking out a friends horse I realised I was missing it. A hack once a week is enough to keep me happy.

When we lost our dog a couple of years ago OH and I bought a campervan so we spend a lot of time away. We also have a river boat but that's by husband's domain so I don't go there often. We paddleboard/kayak and I'm getting into wild swimming. The garden is alot tidier than it used to be and I grow some fruit and veg. I look after a cockerpoo via borrowmydoggy.com for two days a week whilst working from home. I really enjoy doing anything outdoors. I read alot and do pilates and have been contemplating joining a gym. I'm 59 this year and I prioritise trying to keep active and healthy. Cooking, spa days and shopping are not for me.
 
JFTDWS said:
I took up medieval reenactment / combat (HEMA-adjacent)....Combat is brilliant and I love it, but it's not for the faint-hearted. Rapier fencing isn't so bad, but the bruises I get in unarmoured places when I fight in full armour are epic. It's cool, but I probably wouldn't recommend that one here.
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I love this so much. It's always dangerous, asking a question on this forum....next thing you know you're in the middle of a field in head to toe armour with two hundred people running at you and you're not sure how you got there.
 
Widgeon said:
I love this so much. It's always dangerous, asking a question on this forum....next thing you know you're in the middle of a field in head to toe armour with two hundred people running at you and you're not sure how you got there.
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There's always someone who takes things to the next level of weird, right?

(The fitness thread is hilarious - all the people sharing 5k times, marathon training, gym plans and lifting weights, and then there's me going "I hit some people with swords, it was fun and I got sweaty so it counts, right?!")
 
If you use the money saved from not caring for horses/riding regularly costs - you could go off on some great riding holidays instead!…if you don’t want to totally give up riding forever.
 
As well as the ponies I play tennis & have a campervan. Im looking forward to downsizing my herd from 3 to 1 hopefully so I can drop the pace of life somewhat especially after this winter!!!
 
After we rehomed our horse last year I was pretty determined I was going to buy another horse within a few months and was actively looking. Then other aspects of home life change and that became less feasible, timewise rather than moneywise, so I decided to put any horse purchase plans off until Spring. I have never actually stopped riding, I have a lesson at the stables where I used to keep my horse once or twice a week and help out there a couple of times a month and at present I am happy with this and have put any future horse purchase plans on hold. I am enjoying having increased money and time to do other things alongside riding and I have booked a riding holiday for later this year. I have considered a share but in reality working full time and not wanting to commit to set days every weekend may make this difficult. Essentially I would like to find someone who has something I could take on a gentle hack one or twice a week, with some flexibility on days in exchange for a financial contribution and jobs if needed. I quite enjoy poo picking! However I do appreciate that most people offering a share want someone who can commit to set days. I am not missing the stress and anxiety of dealing with a horse going through rehab. I am looking forward to the riding holiday in a few months time.
 
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I’d be on a holiday every month without the horses 🤣

I did give up as a teen for some years and discovered live music & festivals. I really enjoy things like skydiving and I’d love to have the time to be more into things like hiking etc.
 
Our last remaining horse went into retirement livery when we moved and downsized from 15 acres and a large farmhouse to 1 acre and a beautiful thatched cottage.
I had more or less stopped riding anyway for personal reasons ( not healthy related)
We now have more time and money to spend on getting the garden and paddocks sorted out and longer walks with the dogs we can take off in the caravan with the dogs whenever we want for however long we want without having to get a house/ horse sitter in
I've not missed it at all.
 
I'm mid 30s but have chronic ailments so never sure how long my riding days will last.
I've already prepared for the future though with my first mini shetty.
I aspire to be the crazy elderly pony lady and will eventually have at least half a dozen that will drive me to the pub on a Sunday and generally cause joy and chaos
 
druid said:
Gundogs....a lot of gundogs.
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Good suggestion - I don't currently work ours but keep her trained anyway as it's so rewarding.

Plus the local dog walkers think I'm some sort of training guru - they don't know she's not steady to the flush 😆

Just a couple of cockers would keep him busy for the next few years!
 
I've had a lot of breaks from horses throughout my life, due to location and/or money. It was never really my preference, but even when I wasn't doing horse things, I still never had enough time to do everything I wanted to:

Running, rock climbing, hiking/backpacking (I think this is hill walking/wild camping over there?), xc skiing, skating, snowshoeing, visiting my parents and being assigned a lot of things involving trees/firewood/fences. Formerly cycling and swimming, as well, though those are mostly given up due to roads getting dangerously busy and local pools being unbearably crowded.

And at home, there's cooking/baking (and having people over for dinner), reading, gardening (both flower gardens and vegetables), mending (mostly clothes but also fixing things around the house that have broken, whether that's a teacup, a chair, or plumbing), indoor plants (houseplants, indoor herbs, sprouts, starting veg for outside), entertaining & training the cat (she is an indoor cat descended from 40 years of feral farmcats, and accordingly *needs* to be kept busy, lest she find ways to entertain herself), organizing our tiny crowded house so it's less chaotic, shovelling snow, community volunteering/activism, photography.

My partner does cooking/baking, but the weeks-long youtube rabbithole/ingredient quests/multiple iterations to perfect the recipe kind. Brews beer. Gardens. Goes into far deeper technical repair rabbitholes than I do. Leave him alone with too much spare time and he may start building a shed or a bathroom or something. He also does something called "socializing" which is apparently fairly popular.

We definitely do NOT manage anywhere close to all of this - we currently have three broken appliances, the only sport we've done this month is skating, the houseplants are all thirsty and bedraggled, and we've had takeout three times this week. But when we DO have the odd scrap of spare time, there's always a long list of things we'd like to do.
 
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