What do you do when the evenings get dark?

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Following on from my other thread.

When the evenings get dark, and you work 9-5 so don't get to the yard till 7.30, what do you do?

Ok so I school or lunge 4 evenings a week. Doesn't mean my horse will get his brain fried or will go stale. I vary it. Poles, jumping, lunging....

Am I the only person who has no choice but to not hack out during the week over winter?!
 
bring in snuggle cuddle settle for night then home for glass of wine h he he he he - though this winter may bring some lunging under lights :) x
 
I can't jump or do polework as my new yard doesn't have the equipment for it. Also my mare is a bit arthritic so I'm used to not jumping in winter anyway. I do NH so to get variety we do a mix of riding and groundwork. Ridden work is a mix of schooling with a bridle and playing bridleless. Groundwork we do online and liberty as long as liberty is allowed at the new yard (moving in the next couple of weeks so we'll see). Also I got a book on trick training to see if there are any new ideas to keep my clever mare's brain busy. At the weekends we will definitely hack!
I think I am going to save up and get some cheap poles though as even being able to do polework will be more interesting and there is so much you can do with them - poles, raised trotting poles, make jumps using anything you can find round the yard as blocks, sidepass over poles, make a labyrinth with them...
 
We have to hack out more when its dark as we have no lighting at the yard but are in the middle of a town so got tons of streetlights!!!
 
My old boy will be mostly on holiday, just quiet hacking at the weekend. My 5 year old will be hacked out in the mornings a couple of times a week until it becomes impossible to do so - I can go into work a bit later and come home later if need be, I will also trailer him out to a school once a week or so. Plus weekend work, obviously. Don't have lights or a school on my yard and don't want to trash my field so no schooling or jumping at home...
 
No your not alone ;)

I ride in the school in the evenings in winter & make use of the weekends to hack out wherever possible.
 
Whilst it's still light in the mornings, I go for a quick hack before work (need to be back and horse handed to OH by 7.25am latest). After that, manege bound save for weekends. That said, there's a lot you can do - lunge, long rein, flat work, pole work, jumping etc - that it needn't be too dull! I'm rather lucky in that if Mac's getting bored I ask OH to hack him out through the day!
 
ride before work, we have 2 great morning rides a 40min block or a 35min lanes and canter on the common.

all the van drivers/ local commuters know us now!
 
I have all the lights I need to be seen from space, plus the reflectives, so I ride out at usual time. I hack off road during the week in the dark and only use roads at weekends (they're unlit country lanes, so more dangerous than residential streets). I actually hack out more in winter, I think!
 
In the winter I can't ride before or after work as I don't have a school at home and my school field in the summer gets too wet in the winter. So my horse is turned out all day, and only worked at weekends. He's not very good at hacking on his own so paying someone to hack him our during the week for me doesnt work either. Luckily this winter I've arranged a "weekend only DIY livery" at my trainers place, so I'll be able to school and work him properly at the weekends :-)
 
We don't have a school so I sometimes have to get up at an ungodly hour to ride before work (maybe twice a week) and ride Saturday and Sunday. If I ride before work I get there when it's dark, high viz up the eyeballs and normally leave the yard when the sun is rising :D

Apparently our neighbours are building a school but I doubt that it will have lights :( Still, can't have it all :)
 
I put my horse on full livery, as after adding all the charges for bedding, hay, turnout and rug changes it's not much more than DIY, I still go up every day, but I get to spend time with her instead of doing chores, I do a bit of trick training, keeps their little thinking muscles active and can be done in the stable
 
hibernate until spring:D i wish lol, if i'm lucky i'll get 2 or 3 rides in when i've finished work in the afternoon during the week and then if all goes according to plan my new sharer will ride at the weekends when i'm busy with daughter and pony:)
 
I can't ride at all in the evenings after work once it's dark because the horses are kept in a field 10mins along the road so it's too dangerous to bring them in :(
 
Our horses are at home, we can't have an all weather school, never mind an indoor and the ones that we can hire are about 20 minutes hack away. Sis and I both work full-time, so we hack at weekends. On weekday evenings we bring in about 7, feed and water, check and top up forage before we go to bed.
 
I shall be making use of the floodlights at the yard and school a couple times a week I get to yard for 4.30 so that's OK.

Hack out at weekends too

I am actually looking forward to the cold crisp days, just not the cold wet ones as much
 
Hack out at weekends, too dark to ride after work but horses are out all day. We manage a trip out to a hired indoor a couple of times a month of an evening. Hoping to find a sharer to do a few days during the week. However due to snow last winter horse had 6 weeks off anyway! So spent the rest of winter pretty much unfit. Ah well!!!
 
I normally ride after tea, ensuring they've had a full day of turnout, to keep them relatively sane! I'm lucky as I keep mine at home and have a menage and lights so can ride anytime. This winter though I'v made the decision not to ride, so once baby's in bed and my partner's home, I'll be popping out to them in my pj's at about ten skipping out and topping up nets and having a good snuggle with them with a cuppa tea!!
 
mmmmmmm well in 6 weeks i hope , after i have sorted my girl out( if all goes welll) i hope to be snuggled up on sofa with my gorgeous scrummy yummy man when we move in together so bring winter on for me he he he he he :) hes sooooooo gorgeous :)
 
Sit on the sofa and come on here. Can't ride in the dark (no school) so I am a slave to horses until the weekends, when I get my own back ;)
 
Everythings done as normall all year round although in winter it usually takes an extra hour or 3 as i sit around trying to motivate myself!!
Luckily have 2 fully light indoor schools although best one flooded when snow melted last year so hopefully doesnt happen this year, boyo cant get weeks off at a time, has to be kept fit! :D
 
Everything as normal. It just takes longer due to all the lights and having to split a feed into a snack and then the main thing after the ride. He'd kill me if I tried riding him without him thinking he's been fed!
 
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