More questions - fitness and clipping (sorry very long questions)

MontyandZoom

MontyandZoom

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Sorry for yet another round of questions!

Zoom is fairly fit now. She lives out. I ride four times a week, usually consisting of schooling sessions of about 45 minutes, 2-3 hour hacks(including lots of cantering) and XC schooling or sponsored rides whenever they're on. She can happily go round a ten mile sponsored ride doing all 40 jumps and still be full of beans at the end. However, I have no manege so I find it very difficult to ride during the week in the Winter.

Those who hunt every weekend - how many times do you ride your horse inbetween? My only option would be to ride/lunge before work but this would mean 1/2 hour schooling at most and would be dependent on ground conditions. I am looking for someone to ride her during the week but I can't afford a professional and she is too sharp for the people who have volunteered.

Second Question - we went out twice last season and she wasn't as fit as I'd like but coped ok. The only problem was, she lives out 24/7 so only had a chaser clip. She wintered out with no rug for a few years before I had her so she grows a super-yeti coat!

She was so sweaty when we hunted that I think even a blanket clip might be too much hair! She is very hardy and only wears a MW rug when she has a chaser clip even on the coldest days (even then she sometimes gets too hot). Does anyone have a horse fully clipped living out?

thanks
 
my old welshy lived out full clipped for many winters. i did it last winter with this one too. always left legs and half head on though. when we had all that snow he was still out, albeit wearing 2 HW's. i wouldn't have been able to hunt him with anything less than a full clip. he is a sweat monster and drag-hunting is hard work. when he was hunting weekly i didn't ride much during the week. he'd have 2 days off post hunt, one hack, one schooling session, another day off, another school/hack on Sat and then hunt on Sundays.
 
We haven't started to bring ours back into work just yet, but we will start soon and this will onclude schooling over jumps and rosd work along with some fun rides as well as going out cubbing.

on the clippping side we have an ID X TB, one year we gave here the time off, no riding with a good rug on and she turned in to a fat fury yack, the next year no rug - turned in to a fat fury yack!!! the next year into work, full hunter clip twice and a heavy weight rug, a reasonable coat and didn't sweat up too much.
 
I ride maybe once a week during the winter for about 30 mins, then hunt on a saturday and hack out gently on the sunday morning for about an hour.
Once they are fit they don't take much keeping there, especially if they are out and about most (or all) of the day! I sometimes take a couple of hours off work midweek (i.e. start about half 10, or finish about half 3) to go up and ride out, but usually only if I know I won't get to ride otherwise. I also make use of midweek unaff show jumping at our local centre, go schooling and do one round and come home again.

My lad is out from 7am to 8pm all winter, fully clipped and wears a 390gm rug with a neck on. No problem. Also, if it is really cold or really wet then I'll put a fleece rug on underneath!
 
My pony lucy is nearly 20 and we hunt atleast once a week some times we go twice. I hardly ride her in between and not at all if we go twice. As for the clip Lucy lives out 24/7. She always has a blanket clip but i make the lines quite high so she has less hair but her back and most importantly her loins are still covered. She copes very well even at her age although i do put extra rugs on her now.
 
I think we prefer to start the season with the horses as unfit as possible so we can get used to being scared at a somewhat slower pace! By New Year they're all really fit and in our neck of the woods that means fast. My 17hh IDx sweats very easily so I don't have a choice really except a close shave and investment in Mark Todd's finest rugs.

Incidentally the film "Easy Virtue" which has 2 minutes of hunting scenes in it involved our hunt spending a day doing cavalry charges across some tricky ridge and furrow parkland. Our horses all thought this was splendid fun but the Devils Horsemen stunt riders (there weren't any actual stunts) found their unclipped horses struggling against our very fit hunters (it was February) and there were some sense of humour failures among the professionals.
 
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