How many people give their horses a proper holiday every year?

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Christmas Crumpet

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Just thinking about this at the moment as my horse will be having his summer holiday from April - June out in the field 24 7.

Its been a weird kind of winter for us as normally we would be hunting all winter but we've done a lot more lessons/dressage/jumping than hunting and so the logical thing would be to keep him going over the summer and do lots more. But I think we both need time off getting up at silly o clock to ride etc and I need a break and I think its only fair that he does have a break from work and shoes.

Anyway I did wonder whether I would do this if he were at livery somewhere as opposed to being at home or whether I'd keep him going as I was paying for the facilities.

Do you all give your horses a holiday or do you keep them going all year round. It might seem strange that I ride in the horrible part of the year and holiday in the nice bit but I think if horses are to be on holiday, it needs to be out 24 7 and its too wet where we live to do that in winter.
 
Well my horse is only really a pet and so her work isn't that hard, she will be starting to get for competition soon though!
I tend to give her a few weeks off every summer..as you say its nice for them to have a little holiday and I prefer summer time as she can live out during her holiday!
the eventers always get from around October to December off...but they do work a lot harder than my girl at the moment ;)
 
We don't turn away in the traditional hunter sense of a month or more after the end of the season. Our boys rest 1 or 2 weeks depending on how intense the end of the season was (last year weather ended almost all of our meets!) and then get back into competing. They will rest again for 7 - 10 days mid summer if they do pony club camp, or 3 - 5 days if they do a national championship. If they are starting to look like they need it they may rest again for 5 - 7 days- ish just before we start to cub in earnest. I don't think you can go 6 days a week year round without a break - that isn't fair. But we have never needed the massive summer break that was once traditional.

They don't need a week in benidorm either!
 
Nope. :o

I gave Millie a winter holiday once when we stopped eventing, and vowed never to do so again. She turned feral, got up to all kinds of mischief in the field etc. She's better when she's kept occupied, even very gently.

Kira is always teetering on the edge of going feral anyway. She has easy weeks, usually when she's been really busy I will back off and just do some easy work and bits of hacking but I think she'd slip backwards quite quickly if I actually turned her away. She is fit and well and seems to be thriving on a regular workload. Dressage doesn't have the same seasonal downtime as hunting or eventing anyway so I would prefer not to have time out, though I do have planned periods where we don't compete, to concentrate on training instead.
 
No I don't do holidays and neither do they. I have enough horses that they aren't over stretched and none are shod so their entire life is a holiday from shoes. Not in livery either. Certainly wouldn't be giving them time off in my favourite months of the year. All that day light!
 
I don't. Tbh my horses have never worked hard enough to need a holiday, and when I am busy at work the horse gets an even easier time of it! I keep a horse because I want to ride, so...
Also the grazing at the livery yard we are at doesn't really lend itself to horsey holidays, there just isn't enough land to be able to turn horses away for a chunk of time, that's not really what the yard is set up for.
 
FfionWinnie said:
No I don't do holidays and neither do they. I have enough horses that they aren't over stretched and none are shod so their entire life is a holiday from shoes. Not in livery either. Certainly wouldn't be giving them time off in my favourite months of the year. All that day light!
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No holidays here.
My horses are 14 and 18.

Both have always either lived out / been out at night / been out all day in decent sized fields.

I will ramp up training for certain competitions, and then ease up afterwards, and vary hacking / schooling / polework / low level endurance rides.

My little horse has done quite a few lessons and schooling and outings in prep for Regionals on Friday. After this, I plan to have a few weeks focusing on hacking and blatting about the countryside, and then pick lessons back up. But he doesn't need time off, just more fun time out of school.

I think for my horses, they create enough of their own breaks e.g. abscess / injury / saddle fitting issue, and that fully mature horses do best kept moving, and working.

I’d not drill a horse, and wouldn’t keep a pre competition intensity up, but I’d not give more than the odd week off unless unavoidable.

I don’t think horses over 10 benefit much from holidays, as long as they are given lots of varied work, and a good chance to have lots of turnout.

Also I’d worry about mines weight if I turned out 24-7 in spring / summer and didn’t work. By working them fairly hard, I can worry less about how much grass they have.

I can understand why some owners with busy lives might want a break though!
 
I usually give a holiday after a season, and prefer early ones around October, blt it depends on the work and the horse. Neither of mine have had a holiday this year. Bop because he wasnt doing a lot before he came to me so had really had a prolonged holiday already (tholgh he's now on box rest) and my mare hadn't really been asked to do anything strenuous and was only working 4-5 days a week. She ended up with a fortnight off in the new year and it didnt suit her at all so she's going to keep going until she feels like she needs a break. Hopefully that holiday will go well! Fingers crossed we'll be doing youbg horse dressage and eventing classes so the workload will increase without being too intense too quickly. Maybe some BE90s and if that goes well a 100 (though the new MERs may mean my trainer will have to take her!).

The driving horses all get a holiday between seasons, so September time, blt they have been trained to get picbed up and put down so they get the occasional week or two off mid season. Tdey all hold their fitness well so not much of an issue.
 
Mine tend to get a couple of weeks over the worst of the winter weather. I really don't fancy riding when its really wet and cold. Cold is ok, but not wet and cold. the one that does SJ , usually gets a few weeks off over summer, that's usually down to the rider. Hes had a break over winter this year, and I swear he was jumping for joy when his shoes went back on.
 
We don't as a rule, they just go down to gentle hacking when the eventing/hunting season is finished, just to keep everything ticking over. I think it is good for them to have a break from jumping, fast work and schooling, but they are not let down completely.
 
Yes going forward they will be. My gelding had an easy summer last year transitioning to BF which was good for him but lousy for me not riding much. He has also had it VERY easy this winter as I've put no pressure on myself to ride. My new girl arrived December (I think?) so both have been light hacking at weekends but more often than not they havent been due to weather!

So plan going forward now they are at home is to bring them into work properly (rather than the occasional w/e hack) and spend summer bombing about doing as much as possible and then when the clocks change and it gets too dark to ride after work mid week the shoes will come off and they will be turned away for the winter ... albeit a nice easy hack should the weather be nice as I'm more than confident they will cope doing it BF.

I'm lucky I have them at home and they are out 24/7 anyway with access to stables should they wish which they rarely do! Thats my plan for them now but I'm not sure I would be the same if they were on livery in which case they probably wouldn't get much time off!
 
I always try to give mine at least 4 weeks at some point during the year, usually at the end of the Autumn. He always seems grateful for it, and it's almost like a reset as he does tend to get a bit wired generally.
 
No I don't as it's not conductive to their muscles at all.

He's not shod and his work is structured to allow him fun and recovery.
 
Yes my horses get a break every year shoes off brought in daily out the flys usually six perhaps up to eight weeks not ridden .
It's usually after hunting but sometimes I keep them going after hunting and they have a break later in the year .
 
Mine dont these days, but thats because they never work as hard as I used to with them 20-30 years ago.
Back then I would turn away all the busy summer campaigners after HOYS in October till xmas - whilst the new entry were being backed, schooled etc. Anything that stayed in to hunt was given April off, before returning back to work for Royal Windsor & onwards.
Even then they only got time off as I was too busy to dedicate time to all of them if not.

NF had 3 weeks off in Jan as the weather/ground was dire, but otherwise we tick along :)
 
No, I don't do holidays & neither do the horses. They are not all worked every day so they have a couple of days off every week & when they are worked they are only worked for 40 mins to an hour. Every day they have at least 23 hours to do what they want to do so I don't think it's wrong to expect them to do what we want for the 40 mins - hour each day.
 
Yes. Every Winter, and he's always been on DIY livery. This is mainly down to there being no hacking and he gets arena sour quite easily so was easier to give him time off. But that said, he is out pretty much 24/7 so is not static so to speak. He'll get taken for walks around the block just to stop him from going feral and to change the scenery a bit. He always comes back better after it. We had a bit of an issue this year with him being territorial, but that seems to have abated. He is let down about November, and will be started back again next week.
Next winter, I am hoping he will have settled into the new yard and we will be able to hack at the weekends over the winter so that he will be kept ticking over enough to do the odd low-level dressage competitions.

ETA: I always joke that he goes on summer holiday, but in reality he's been going to my instructor on Schooling livery for 6 weeks so pretty much gets beasted, but he thrives on it - it's a different environment, people (that tell him he's wonderful and cute and that feed him carrots!), regime etc. so he probably does think its a holiday!
 
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They get a few weeks in either January or February of no riding and that's because I am so sick of the winter by then I have no inclination to ride very much, if I go away for a week a few times in the year they will have that time off as well so they are not that hard done by.
 
Our hunter has the traditional hunters holiday, we did try and keep him in light work as he is now 23, but after he spent about 6 weeks pulling his shoes off we decided the holiday was the way forward!-he hasn't pulled shoes of since and had never done before! He has had his holiday since we got him at 6 and he did not approve of it stopping! My eventer has a month off completely during June as I am normally travelling over that time and he has done about 6/7 events before that anyway. We then pick up again to start eventing mid July/August and go right through to October. Then he will have a low key november and december before starting competing again in January.
we are very lucky that we keep them out 24/7 all year round which I am sure also helps and only bring in if the weather is horrendous and the old boy refuses to leave the yard-yep he is completely in control 😂
 
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Yes, mine have two months off each winter. It's due to a combination of rubbish weather and my hectic work rather than they 'need' it. They are roughed off and out in 35 acres, they stay reasonably fit and seem to be happy with this arrangement.

It means I have a couple of months of not getting up at 5am everyday . . .
 
Nope, he might get a few days off over Xmas and New Year if I'm away but otherwise he is worked 5/6 days a week hacking and schooling. When I went to NZ for a month in the winter he went to my trainer. TBH I think older horses that are not worked really hard benefit from being kept in regular work, a bit like us really, keeps them supple and fit. I had a break from the gym when Mr B broke my toe and I'm still trying to get up the enthusiasm to get going again!
 
My lot seem to be permanently on holiday! I rode Gray and dozen or so times last year, my darty 4 times - including at a show bless him! The Welsh cob a dozen times if that and Jeff just twice. I don't have time to ride with them all and 2 jobs. If my day job would let me either have a proper lunch break every day or finish early instead then I would be able to ride. It's amazing just how much difference an extra hour makes!
 
If I thought my horses 'needed' a holiday in the way humans need a holiday from their paid work, I wouldn't keep horses to ride.

They get single rest days when they have worked harder than usual, are rested if they are ill or lame, but other than that they are ridden when I feel I want to ride.
 
Yes mine get a break at the start of November until around Christmas time. I think it's good for them mentally and physically to be let down from work for a while, and I really dont enjoy putting myself under pressure to ride when the weather is miserable and daylight extremely limited.
 
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