Riding in grass in winter

[claire_india]

Hi, I've just built stables at home for my horse and it's been great during the summer having her at home and no more treks to & from the yard The weather just about held up enough for me to be able to keep her fit between hacking on the roads and riding/lunging in the paddock (have approx 1 acre). However now that winter's on it's way I'm worried about trying to keep her going on just the grass as I don't have an all weather arena. Unfortunately I don't have a horsebox at the moment either as I can borrow one for shows but don't want to be asking for it every other day to bring her down to her old yard to use their all-weather! Also defeats the purpose of having her at home!

A big problem is she doesnt go well on any sort of unlevel surface so I'm worried that she'll lose condition/fitness and I won't be able to compete during ther winter months...anyone any suggestions?? Would love to hear how others cope with riding in winter!

 

[sbrownshowhorses]

You will be fine if your sensible I keep a team of show horses going plus breaking schooling and selling over the winter with no school !! Xx

 

[tinap]

We didn't have a school for 9yrs & managed to keep high level Showjumping ponies going on the grass - this one we have now actually prefers harder ground conditions xx

 

[Wheels]

Ok so you've found yourself in a not totally ideal situation which I have been in myself for quite a few years. In the winter I mostly hack to keep the fitness up, have a lesson at trainers yard once a week and compete once a week.

How often are you wanting to compete and how do you get there with no transport?

 

[claire_india]

Ok so positive replies so far so thats good cos I was starting to worry!

Sbrown-tks for ur msg but what do I mean by if I'm sensible? Sorry its prob obvious but I'm just not sure!

Wheels - I have a loan of horsebox for shows, I normally compete every 2nd weekend

 

[Enfys]

As others said, hack for fitness.

I was going to say create a shavings/sand ring for lunging perhaps, but you said you only had an acre and may not want to use a bit of it up that way.

I don't have a school, what I do have is very, very sandy soil and no stones. We tilled half a paddock, raked it and now I have a reasonable sand pen for schooling, we have ours quite deep because of what we do. My solution only works if you have space to spare and the right sort of soil. In winter it is OK for riding, even under 18" of snow because we know the surface is level.

 

[sbrownshowhorses]

Just be sensible and done ride for longer than needed and don't keep riding over and over the same area ... Hack out on days if it's really really wet etc x

 

[claire_india]

Thanks everyone really appreciate the feedback there's great hacking around here so that should keep us going and I'll school her in the paddock if/when it's not too wet...here's hoping we have a good winter!