How often do you ride?

[Kacey88]

As title! I'm bringing my girl back into work after 2 months off. She has been turned out and brought on the odd hack, but very little else. She's young and needs schooling, I have started with gentle road work to get her fit again. But, how often should I ride her? I'm doing 30 mins a time to begin with.

Any suggestions?

 

[C&C]

I dont know if i can actually answer your question but i ride when i can.....i work 12 hour shifts, days and nites. On nites i can manage to ride, either schooling just the one or hacking with both (ride and lead). On days i cannot ride at all so they have these days off. I get ALOT of time off with my job and both are exercised on my days off

My old boy has been off for 2 months with a check ligament injury. I am just starting to walk him out (ridden, as have more control!) around the block, which takes around 10 mins. I will increase the length of time as the weeks go by. Planning to have him scanned again at the beginning of Feb when he is due his vaccs to see whats going on and to see if i can increase his work.

My new boy gets hacked, schooled and lunged. Schooling is usually for 30 mins, lunging for 20 mins and hacking for atleast 45 mins (usually more than an hour tho ;-)

They usually get ridden 3 times a week minimum and 5 days max.
Dont know if that helps

 

[kinnygirl1]

Hi Kacey, funnily enough I was going to post something along these lines tonight as my boy has been having a winter of very light work(after finding out he was potentially a little younger than I thought), mostly short hacks and a little bit of time in the school and I think altogether been ridden 2 or 3 times a week at most. Hoping it is enough to keep him ticking over and then step the work up a little come spring so that we can do a little more when the nights are lighter. Sorry that's not really advice- will watch this thread with interest.

 

[Kacey88]

Hi Kacey, funnily enough I was going to post something along these lines tonight as my boy has been having a winter of very light work(after finding out he was potentially a little younger than I thought), mostly short hacks and a little bit of time in the school and I think altogether been ridden 2 or 3 times a week at most. Hoping it is enough to keep him ticking over and then step the work up a little come spring so that we can do a little more when the nights are lighter. Sorry that's not really advice- will watch this thread with interest.

That is so weird, my mare is also younger than first thought! After having her for four months she also gave birth to stillborn twins, didn't know she was even pregnant. A vetting will always include a pregnancy test from now on. Anyway, that was in October. So really since November she's done very little, I've been trying to keep her happy though with gentle hacks.

Thanks guys, I guess everyone's routine depends on their horse/work. 5/6 days a week is probably too much for her at the moment though? I'm thinking 4 days... Cannot wait for the days to get longer!

 

[rhino]

You are far better doing shorter duration sessions more often! If she is coping well with 30 mins then I would be aiming to do that as often as possible - though I do like to give them a day off most weeks

Gradually build up the time she is walking out before you bring in trot, I like them to be able to do an hour or so mostly walk with a few trots on a good surface before I take them into the school or lunge

 

[NativePonyLover]

At this time of year, the lack of daylight hours works against me!

My five year old is in what I would describe light work. We hack both days at weekends - up to an hour and a half in walk, trot with some canter. We have a lesson a week - mainly walk, trot with some canter. I long line once a week and depending on work/life commitments I may get another riding or ground work session.

Apart from my lessons, I tend to only school for 20-35 minutes.

In the spring/summer I want to aim to hack 3-4 times a week as well as another schooling session session to increase fitness.

 

[Kacey88]

At this time of year, the lack of daylight hours works against me!

My five year old is in what I would describe light work. We hack both days at weekends - up to an hour and a half in walk, trot with some canter. We have a lesson a week - mainly walk, trot with some canter. I long line once a week and depending on work/life commitments I may get another riding or ground work session.

Apart from my lessons, I tend to only school for 20-35 minutes.

In the spring/summer I want to aim to hack 3-4 times a week as well as another schooling session session to increase fitness.

That's quite a lot, you must be very busy! Do you find long lining very beneficial? I've never done it before can you believe, I've been thinking about introducing it soon. Any tips?

 

[NativePonyLover]

The key word being aim to... it certainly does not always work out like that!

This week, he has been lunged and that is it so far, bar a ten minutes groundwork session one morning!

I really rate long lining - my top would be to get someone experienced to show you how to!! It also helps keep me fit as well as adds variety to my ponies workload and being a youngster, I don't want to just lunge for the risk of physical damage later on in his life.

i find it helps to be organised so for example I make up all my haynets on a Sunday and make a few days worth of feed up in one go on a weekend. Boring - but I'm grateful in the week!!

But don't beat yourself up about it - somedays after a 6am start and Im back at the yard twelve hours later I simply cannot be bothered. .. And that is fine!! I just save it for a day I can be bothered.

It will soon be spring and later evenings and we will all be itching to ride after work

 

[Stacey6897]

When I'm feeling really brave and it's daylight and I'm not at work, if these things happen all at the same time I might attempt to ride, if the horse seems agreeable, if not, I'll take her for a walk/long rein instead

 

[SophieLouBee]

At this time of year, I ride my youngsters 2/3 times a week. When we get into spring it will go up to 4 I'm not overly fussed on what we are doing, just to keep them ticking over, we pootle down the lane or have 30 mins schooling, sometimes I just take them out in hand.

 

[nikCscott]

Luckily I'm a stay at home mum so can ride in the week most days (usually 4 days), but no childcare at weekends means no riding.

During school holidays if DH is not home then no riding for those either - luckily Z is pretty sensible and doesn't seem bothered by the constantly changing work load.

 

[Shantara]

Once a week, if I'm lucky.