Riding and leading- keeping horses fit through winter

[emilylou]

I have the opportunity to have another horse, she would be coming from a friend and will be a nice second hunter for the winter. However, I work full time and with the dark nights I know it will be a challenge to keep two fit enough for hunting as I struggled through last winter with two and and swore I wouldnt do it again!
I can easily ride and lead but how much does this transfer to actual fitness in comparison to riding? They would be living out so get a good base of fitness moving about all day on our hills so I'm not sure how much benefit an unmounted hack out would actually be. If anyone has any other suggestions for keeping fitness up with no arena or lights in the depths of winter I am all ears!

 

[Shay]

Ride and lead is very little differnce fitness wise to ridden work. Obviously you won't get the schooling or work in outline. But for cardio work it will be very similar. We routinely keep fitness on ride and lead. You need to school rdden - but we do that simply by swapping the ridden one each time - and individual work in the school. But that is very much schooling rather than fitness.

 

[dogatemysalad]

Along with ridden work and the horse walker, the hunters on our yard are exercised by riding and leading.

 

[Goldenstar]

We ride and lead all the time the horses stay fit it’s best is you can swoop ride or lead both horses it’s a good thing to do with hunters in between hunting gets them some work and rests the back .

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Ride and lead is a excellent way to keep both fit, I also work full time. I use to do a good 2 hour hack on hilly roads and would swap horses half way around. I use to go on the bridle paths which had a few fields and tracks, got to the point we could have a nice canter as well.. that did take a while to get to that stage, they use to try and race at first knowing it was only little me controlling them both!

 

[SEL]

I used to help exercise polo ponies and ride and lead was normal. I was a wimp and only led one at a time though!

 

[Sir barnaby]

I ride and lead most of the time, but I also lead with the saddle on led horse as that helps the back muscles keep active, I secure the stirrups as you do when lunging

 

[Red-1]

I used to get 3 fit for hunting and team chasing like this, but we did canter work on a field as well as road work. I also swapped which one was ridden and which led so they all gt used to the weight on their backs.

 

[emilylou]

Thankyou all. That has made my mind up. She will be coming to live with us! Oops, another horse