Horses at home - How do you motivate yourself to ride?

As per mijods..I do the same with my friend & neighbour & rarely wimp out cos she doesn't really like hacking alone. Also I try to compete or go out for a lesson couple of times per mth thru winter which gives me a bit of a focus / motivation to keep going.
 
I've been doing more in-hand and groundwork this winter than riding. I think part of the problem (I've got 2 at home) is that after doing all the chores I'm too knackered to think about tacking up and riding for half an hour, but grabbing a bridle or a headcollar and doing 5 or 10 minutes with each of them is do-able. I've started clicker training with them this winter, they both love it and it's turned the Welsh D from a bargey mugger into a semi-polite pony - I'm hoping by the summer he might be as well-behaved as the other one!
 
I keep mine at home. My id and my daughters 13.2 pony. I have just bought them back from livery as i live on a busy road so did not want to have my baby horse next to the main road until we had formed a relationship etc. Now he is at home, i am loving the fact i can give him as much hay, bedding etc as i like without being moaned at etc however the motivation is hard and you definately work a bit harder. I am up at 7.00 everyday now, feed, muck out, come up for my breakfast, back down to ride etc, feed them their lunch, back down at 4.30 to bring back in groom, feed etc. Back down at 9pm for their supper! Knackered lol. I am lucky i do have a school but motivstion is hard to keep going...but dont have much land so my horses live in a carole type area during the day in winter, they have access to outside area and a small barn but its not the same as playing in a field. Roll on april time when my babies can have afternoons grazing like real horses...they dont seem to mind being restricted tho as they get ad lib hay lol!
 
This was my first year keeping my horses at home so with all the rain and mud it hasn't been easy. However they do live out and I normally don't ride during winter as I had pneumonia most years for last 10 yrs (bizarrely this year I didn't)
I hardly rode at all last year as the fields were too wet and I need someone to hack out with due to my health issues but I do have lots of friends at a nearby livery yard so have people to hack with and two or three yards I pop to for tea and a chat with friends so I'm not too lonely.
I've given in and am having an arena put in atm as I got so fed up with riding in slippery mud in the fields so I'm hoping that the new school will be all the motivation I need to get started again but they will get a couple of months of each winter irrespective of having an arena.
 
I do have an arena, but in the winter I only use that at the weekend - since I have 3 dogs, my motivation to ride every day is that the dogs come out with the horse on working mornings - would have had to walk the dogs anyway, and my old boy regards it as HIS job to walk the dogs. But I agree that everything does take longer when you're cold, and I don't ride in the mornings when its icy on the roads. Soon be Spring, then I can hack in the morning with the dogs and school in the evening
 
I rent land 5 mins away and I am not really motivated to ride in winter on my own either, mainly because its always dark! I do have time in the day as I am at uni at the moment but I tend to spend it poo picking and just hanging out, my horse was pretty much turned away this winter as had no saddle etc. I would be more likely to ride if someone asked me to come out, because I grab the opportunity to take horse out in company to get her better on the roads, but to be honest it doesn't bother me that much. She and her companion are happy, I don't need to worry.

I don't have to bother with a stable, I think that makes it a lot easier!
 
I have my boy at home along with a 2 yr old cob and my mums retired mare. I only ride a couple of times a week at the mo as I've got a three month old baby. I don't have a school to I ride in the field or out on the roads. I only ride for about half hr a time and don't really enjoy it as much as when I used to be on a yard but I moved him back home when I got pregnant to save money, il be moving back to my friends yard soon hopefully.
 
I much prefer having them at home, school or no school.

They are out 24/7 which saves most of the work. Being rugged means not too much grooming before tacking up. I have had to just accept there's no riding through the week but there are still weekends, and tbh I don't mind when it's bad weather. We are quite lucky though as we have miles of off road riding if we want it.

I don't get cold outside, and we are high up in Northumberland on the edge of a crag where the wind howls! I just have a decent Helly Hansen jacket, fingerless gloves at all times, neoprene Muck Boots and one of those daft woolly hats with ear flaps and a bobble. I never seem to get cold riding either.
 
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