Bugly
Well-Known Member
Ok so I have a 17.1hh 6 y.o sports horse mare. She was broken late as a 5 y.o last August (2008), ridden for 6 weeks and then roughed off until March 2009. I started long reining her and lungeing and we were back on board since early July 2009. Since then i've been working my socks off getting her out every day (mainly hacking), and we have done a few light schooling sessions and also taught her to ride and lead.
She's coming on like a dream but with the dark nights approaching my riding time is going to severaly diminish. We've got our first trip with hounds next week and then I was thinking of giving her a holiday, 4 months, from November- end of February? So far in her life she's never been rugged and has wintered out so it seems silly to start pampering her so elaving her out 24/7 unclipped seems sensible?
As she's such a big horse (she's quite chunky) I feel she's benefited from being broken in late as she's had alot of growing to do.
Do you think she's still got growing to do at 6, and do you think she'll benefit from a holiday?
I hope to start doing some ridden hunter classes with her next summer.
She's coming on like a dream but with the dark nights approaching my riding time is going to severaly diminish. We've got our first trip with hounds next week and then I was thinking of giving her a holiday, 4 months, from November- end of February? So far in her life she's never been rugged and has wintered out so it seems silly to start pampering her so elaving her out 24/7 unclipped seems sensible?
As she's such a big horse (she's quite chunky) I feel she's benefited from being broken in late as she's had alot of growing to do.
Do you think she's still got growing to do at 6, and do you think she'll benefit from a holiday?
I hope to start doing some ridden hunter classes with her next summer.
