Hows everyone exercising in this weather?

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NinjaPony

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I am supposed to be having a lesson on saturday but pretty sure that will end up being cancelled as our school is frozen.... Hows everyone getting the neds exercised? Ground is rock solid and rutted due to all the mud but we do have access to a field. Also as its so blurry cold and my boy is fully clipped I am considering 2 exercise sheets or a fleece sheet and put his thermatex over his saddle then sitting on it, or is this a mad idea? My biggest worry is my arthritic welsh a, he needs to keep moving and normally gets turned out every day with a walk inhand 4x a week, but turnout is a bit limited atm and I worry about taking him for a walk anywhere slippery as he is full of beans and last time it resulted in plunging, bucking, jogging and spinning and I do not want a damaged pony!
*prays the cold will go away soon*
How are you lot all coping with the cold?
 
We are turning out but that is it, cant ride as road icy and arena frozen. We always turn out with haylage no matter what the weather as feel they enjoy a few hours out well rugged..Even if heavy snow tomorrow they will have an hour out
 
Mine is having a holiday, I rode last friday and knew that would be the last time until everything defrosts. My yard is down a lane which has turned into thick ice as it gets drainage from the surrounding fields. I could ride in my fields but the ground is so solid and she will probably mess around anyway as I don't usually ride in the field. So she is having a nice amount of turnout each day, and with tomorrow's heavy snow forecast, I've just made two smaller playpens for her and my two natives as I don't really want them hooning around in the snow over the rutted ground in their fields.
Spring isn't really that far away!!
 
My horse is on Day 3 of no exercise - she is still getting turned out though.
Our arena is boarderline unusable (not rock solid but definitely jarring) - with my own horse I would probably risk it, but with the current competition horse I'm loaning I'm not prepared to risk. Have accepted she'll likely just have a week off.
 
business as normal here.

horses out 6.30-11.30am. No hay as grass so long they ignore it and prefer to shovel the snow around to eat the grass.

come in and have a trug of alfa a and some haylage.

arena got snow on it but not frozen so working as usual.
 
Lucky enough to have 3 arenas including a huge indoor and a covered arena. Have to chose the right time to ride as it is hired a fair bit.
 
No riding for me at the moment. Snow on ground - where it's thawed it's now icy, more snow due tomorrow and over the weekend. We have no arena :(

We do have turnout with hay everyday though so it could be worse :)
 
Not!!

We have an arena but is too frozen too safely work in, the lanes are too icy, and our common land is snow covered.

Turning out individually for a couple of hours so no silliness, then back in.

According to various forecast's this weather is set in for a couple of weeks, so imagine we will all have very lively horses when the thaw comes....
 
Not exercising just turning out either all day or for a few hours. Arena was frozen solid before the snow and now has a couple of inches of snow. Last exercised him sunday when although it was a bit hard managed to lunge him just walk and trot (or canter when he spooked and took off) in the bit of arena that had thawed slightly.

Could probably put him on the walker if I gritted it but as he's getting turned out I'm not bothered, he's hardly been worked the past few months anyway. So will wait till everything thaws then bring him back into work properly.
 
We're still riding all of ours - we are lucky that we are on a bus route so the roads are gritted and we can still hack out, we have also been boxing up to use indoor school as ours is frozen and last night we got really keen and took a few showjumping at West Wilts as we'd not been able to get to a school! The snow has not hit us yet though, just very cold and icy!
 
Can't do anything,school frozen,yard is surrounded by lanes that are too icy to ride on,can ride in fields at yard but tracks & drive to icy to risk it. Just resign myself to horse having mini holiday,turn out as normal with plenty of hay out. Don't think he's that bothered to be honest as long as he gets turn out he's happy.
 
Im not- Ive only got one in work at the minute and he's only a light hack so if its not 100% safe I don't risk him. It might be different if he was difficult or needed to maintain a certain level of fitness but we just pootle so its fine. They are turned out daily usually all day.
 
They all go out during the day as usual and we can hire an indoor for those who need to be ridden. the part clipped youngsters are rugged and can stay out 24/7 so they can have a rest and come back in spring so not too much of a problem and it saves on the mucking out!
 
I am just not riding at the moment. Turning out daily. I would ride if I could find the leather knee boots and the roads were dry.

I think I am going to have to buy some new knee boots as I would not dare to ride out without protection if there was a risk of a slippy patch.
 
Thankfully the only one in work at the moment is at a yard with an indoor! :D
The others are all hobbling around the field like old cripples because the ground is rutted and solid and they have no shoes on :rolleyes:
 
Turning out for two to three hours ,schools frozen but level and perfectly safe for walking so its human horse walker time for me lots of clothes on me rugs in horses and i do forty five minutes of walking round and round the school riding and leading not fun.
 
No riding here
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I've been putting mine on the walker and turning her out while I muck out, at night I have been lunging in the indoor arena. Mind you, when I let her out this morning she went berserk round the field
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Haven't read all the replies but, not very well.

My yoga class got cancelled. Cycling is off as it's too icy. I can't go swimming because I hate the cold on my wet hair. Netball's off - ground too hard. Guess I'll just have to get my Davina DVD out.

Terrible isn't it?
 
Not ridden since last friday morning. I just except now all you can do over the winter is keep them ticking over-unable to maintain any fitness regime. We dont have a school and every where is frozen and icy not worth the risk. Luckily they are still turned out 8am-4pm.
 
Only had 2 days of really cold weather here so far. Yesterday I managed a 45 min hack in the afternoon, as roads weren't too bad..

then schooled 1 in mainly walk with a teeny bit of trot in the frozen outdoor (luckily it was rolled just before it froze so its hard but very level), then schooled the other in the huge roundpen as the outside wasn't frozen so had a decent session albiet all in circles!

Not looking forward to the snow...I'm a freelance groom and have like 7 horses I''m supposed to be riding this weekend, all in fields or outdoor schools so probably all be cancelled.
 
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