What do you find harder summer or winter

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Daisy2

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In the depths of winter we all say roll on spring, I now find myself actually looking forward to winter!! This year I am fining it hard work keeping my good doers weight off. I am paranoid about spring grass, always fiddling with the electric strip grazing fence ( sheep keep pulling out the poles) then moving the strip is it too much too little is that ragwort!, hauling soaked hay (in at night) getting soaked myself and a bad back, battling with ragwort paranoya, on and off with the fly mask, suncream, and making sure we ride at least 5 days a week. I suppose I just feel tired I am usually always upbeat but I think I over analyse stufff sometimes and make life harder....Of course I love them and enjoy mostly, particulary our down time and morning rides...... Anyone out there feel the same way sometimes?? By the way mine are out 24/7 in winter so no stable chores!
 
Like you I think each season has it's ups and downs! I have a laminitic so use a track system round the field, but I still have to feed hay in summer, poo pick twice a day and give a feed for supplements as well as coping with the usual summer problems like fly worry and so on. I watch my neighbours tb envioiusly as he's fine munching on the grass unrestricted all day and no need to feed extras.

Winter is the same, only with added mud, wet and cold! I only keep in if really wet weather though as there is direct access to the stable from the field.

On the plus side I love seeing contented horses out in summer and can stand horsewatching for hours. In winter I like to see them fed and warm in their rugs if needed and can open up the field without them getting too fat/laminitic.
 
mine are out all the time too so no stable chores.
this winter was hard though, but i usually like winter.
i have no inclination to ride at the moment its so hot. the horses have damp sweaty bits just stood in the field so id guess theyve no inclination to be worked either :)
and the flys! i hate flies :(
i dont have worries with poor doers in winter or fatties in summer, my horses are easy, i feel sorry for those who struggle with these things, it must be hard work
 
Winter without a doubt. All outdoor chores to be fitted into less daylight hours, carting water when the trough is frozen... The mud... Let's not forget the rain either...

And I have 2 native pony good doers, one of which has sweet itch and is currently unrideable due to damaged tendons, so she cant exercise the fat off at the moment.
 
Winter because of less daylight, more chores, less turn out, dealing with fizzy horses, and a ton of other things!!

But summer is also hard because of the grass, flies, and over whelming heat!

We're never satisfied, are we? :D xx
 
Neither.

The day I wake up thinking that horses are hard work is the day I put everything up for sale, including the house.:D No joke.

But then, the horses are outside my door, they are out 24/7, we don't get UK style rain, my ground is frozen solid for 4 months of the year so no quagmires, for another 6 months it is dry. I have a tractor, a quad, a snow plough, trailers, rollers and a harrow etc, etc, etc, so simply do not DO carting hay, pushing barrows or shovelling snow.

The only part that I find actual physically hard work is unloading hay into the barns and that is only a few hours a year so no problem.:)
 
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that is a really good question :)

well this winter was so so hard but it was lovely turning my horse out in the snow and seeing him run around he looked stunning :)

summer is great although because of winter you feel duty bound to ride as much as you can just incase lol
my horse has sweetitch so its a bit of a chore trying lots of different things to stop the itch

yep i guess i like summer better as there are no real rugs to deal with where winter its like a juggle session on whats the temp and is he warm cold etc

:D :D
 
Another one whose horse is out 24/7 all year round

Winter is definitely harder for me although as Bella is a yak in the winter I don't have rugs to worry about.

Taking water to the field, smashing the ice in the troughs. I don't mind the snow its the ice I don't like. I feel the cold so thats probably the deciding factor for me. Not had a day when I thought 'Oh hell got to go an do the horse'. When the roads were impassable due to snow I just walked over the fields as the yard is only a couple of miles away :D

I love to just stand and watch them grazing in the summer and admire the lovely shiny coats knowing the herd are all happy and healthy :D
 
hmmm. with 2 extremely good doers I know where you are coming from! I now keep them on a track system which saves on endless fiddling with electric fencing but appreciate not everyone can do that. they are out all year but on limited acreage so have to poo pick plus keep the bed nice and dry/clean in the barn. Last winter was hard-I have no electricity but hauling water was the hardest thing. I tend to not beat myself up these days if I don't ride them both 5/6 times a week, or if the muck heap isnt perfect etc etc
 
For me I would say winter is worse. But pros and cons to both.
Summer: I have a lammi pony and sweetitch and head shaking ex racer who has summer hols as dangerous to ride in summer.
All mine come in by day afterall would you like to stand in a hot field being bothered by fields all day???
Pros- summer is cheaper
winter lack off turnout in wet weather means constant mucking out lots off hay and feed.
But my head shaker can hunt all season.
 
Last winter was DEFINATLEY the worst for me! wasn't able to get to the yard for over a week due to the snow (Boys had to go on "full" livery) But I do enjoy the winter if that makes sence, I love making the boys bigger beds with nice high banks, tucking them up in their rugs with big haynets. I also love the fact that I don't have to worry about B getting porky and he REALLY fizzes up in the winter wich makes indoor BS fab :D:D:D


Will be sooooooo nice this year with the menage that won't freeze and the INDOOR walker :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
Funnily enough I just had this conversation with OH last night. I think summer is harder work but only because I ride most nights. Thats through choice though. I very rarely get into the house before 10pm.
 
Overall I would say i find the Winter harder.
Mine live out 24/7 in the summer and are stabled over night in the winter.

The only thing hard about the summer is keeping the bellies off them! and my mare is a hormonal loony, but she is like that most of the year anyway.
 
Hmmm...
Summer - like most posters, I have a laminitic pony so as summer breaks, out come the grazing muzzles, along with the paranoia of "is she lame? she looks lame, is she?" (I hasten to add, she is out for only an hour a day currently but we still panic!) Also the flies are just evil! We are yet to find a repellent that works...(But we haven't suffered at the bites of horse flies.....yet! :p) But its lovely to be able to ride in warm sunshine (mostly 6 days a week) and knowing we have many more hours of daylight for those long hacks!

Winter - last winter was awful...we had a bad enough time getting down onto our yard (it's over a canal bridge which was all frozen) and we couldn't even stand our ponies outside their own stables (the ground was like glass)!
Plus frozen hosepipes, a plethora of rugs, dirty ponies (baths are unthinkable!) very, very limited turn out (and with our girls legs the way they are we didn't like turning her out into a busy, uneven frozen field). Not being able to exercise properly just about drove us crazy. But there is the feeling of coming away from the yard knowing your horse is tucked up inside their rugs in a warm thick bed of straw for the night :)

I definitely think winters harder...especially if it carries on like it was last year!
 
Pro's and cons to both as we all know, but I think winter has the edge with being harder, and that I put down to the lack of daylight hours above all, the cold and wintry weather is not the problem but the darkness for me personally.
I have a laminitic too, but I worry most of the year round anyway :D
 
Summer.

Phil is a good do-er so the summer grass isn't good. last year he had a loaner, and he had a loaner this winter too but she left just before the grass came through and it has been awful trying to get the weight off of him. Worst of it is that I'm not even at home yet because of uni! I much prefer winter, not having to worry about his weight.
 
I like and hate both winter and summer (stupid I know).

I find it really hard to motivate myself and Ron in the summer. He doesn't do hot weather and I don't enjoy pushing him when he's not enjoying it. I also find it quite difficult to motivate myself to school him for eventing, so we end up over fit, but unschooled! no wonder our dressage is rubbish! But it is nice to have them out most of the time, and over july/august when my sister is home from uni she keeps them in during the day out of the flys, in the coolth and away from the green stuff. He is a good doer, but he works hard in the winter so I don't begrudge him a bit of flab for a few weeks!

In the winter, hunting is my motivation, Ron loves it, it's what he lives for. But by mid january I'm sick of the early mornings (even tho its only 3 days a week for me) and the endless tack/horse/jacket/jods/boots cleaning for hunting.
 
This Summer seems very easy for me, it's the first one without Millie who was a is a good doer so I don't have her weight to worry about. At the moment the horses are out 24/7, rugless and not getting fed. There is plenty of grass to feed them all and shelter for them to get out of the rain/sun. There is very little I have to do for them.

Winter will be very hard as they will be stabled, I will have to try and save the field as much as possible so they may be in more then they are out. Having two jobs means that I struggle to find the time to muck out twice a day and do all the other chores (which seem to take twice as long in winter!) never mind actually exercising them!

Financially winter is also much harder, at the moment the only costs I have is the farrier bill, come winter there will be the endless amounts of feed, hay and straw. Everything is much harder in winter!
 
I think both seasons are harder in their own way. In Spring, I find it hard to keep the weight off my pony. In Winter he is in at night and in bad weather he is in 24/7 and he gets very stiff.
 
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