What's the point in riding through winter?

kyanya

kyanya

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I've been looking for a share horse through summer, but what with changing jobs and moving house, it was all a bit half-hearted really. However, now I'm settled down with work and home, the next thing to do on my list is to find a share horse.

However, the time of year is making me question why I'm trying to find a share horse really. I don't want to compete, I just want to have fun with horses again, but the only free time I have is after work (around 6pm onwards, so in the dark from very soon onwards) and maybe weekends, although I'm finding lots of owners want to keep these to themselves, which is fair enough.

So this limits me to just schooling really. I enjoy flatwork schooling, but I also enjoy hacking. I'm not sure how I'll feel come Feb/March time, when all I've done all winter is ride round in a school.

So, for those who can only ride after work in winter, what motivates you to do it?
 
I do it becuase I love my horse, he is 31 and I try and ride him every day to keep him fit, I don't know how long we have left together so I'm doing as much as I can for as long as I can.

You sound quite negative about it anyway so maybe you've sub consiously made your decision.

Even if you do it in the summer, what about when the next winter comes ? we have one every year ha ha
 
I actually seem to get the most pleasure from riding in the winter. However, my horse is exercised for me during the week in the winter months, and I only ride on the weekends.
 
I find that although winter is a hard time, I like to try & ride in winter for the benefit of my pony. I know it doesn't keep her fit, being ridden once a week if I can manage it but it means that she's not gone months without the experience. This means when the days get lighter, it's easier to do more, as she's forgotten less & behaves better.
Also, I find riding relaxing & use it as stress relief. Winter can be quite stressful for us in the horsey world, so making time to get in the saddle when rain, dark & cold are getting you down might make all the difference.
Perhaps if you try it & find you're not enjoying it very much, waiting for the nicer weather might suit you better.
 
I ride before work in winter and I do rather love a hack on a crisp winter morning, followed by some strong coffee. Otherwise I just feel like a zombie at work, who never gets to see any daylight in the darker months.
 
I too work all week and by the time I get home dont get time to ride, only get out after work in mid summer! But I still love being around my horse, even on freezing cold nights when I have to wash the mud from his legs and get lathered in it myself from changing his rug, I still love it and wouldnt change a thing. Sure I will be moaning about how cold it is and that I can only ride once or twice a week at the weekend if I'm lucky but he is my sanity. Besides our summers are way too short (and not even that good anyway) so I gotta put up with it as my boy is with me for life!
 
Been thinking about this one myself. Freezing cold hands, aching back, spooky girl in the wind, throw in a bit of biting rain and wet tack, chilblains and wet cheeks with broken veins, a nose you can't blow cos you casn't take your hands off the reins - even for a second, wet musty boots and wet socks with feet that won't warm up, filthy dusty coffee cups and a kettle you have to hold down for it to stay on, oh and pooh picking wet through heavy mounds and a slippery trip up the muckheap plank with a flay tyre on your wheelbarrow, hay blowing everywhere and going to waste - nice.
 
When I rode competitively - quite a long time ago - there were very few indoor schools and even fewer competitions over the winter. As I didn't hunt, the horses were thrown out into the field for the winter and only brought in to get fit in early spring. I think it was a good thing for me and the horses!
 
I'mm not going to be helpful here, but i have the same issue as you, normally just get out on the weekends and schooling the week, but that is cause my horse needs schooling and hacking, this winter however, i've decided not to hunt and my 3yr old is being turned away over the winter.....next winter however i'll use it as my time to knuckle down and get the schooling going well, use the spring and summer to have some fun with her, jumping, hacking, showing and some dressage.
 
I have to say I don't really suffer from a lack of motivation when it comes to riding, it's just not something I think about, I ride everyday unless I'm unable to because of work, but I suppose riding in winter after work on cold dark nights is a means to an end, it keeps them fit enough to do fun stuff at the weekends and I would get narky if I didn't ride Mon to Fri.

Plus my mare can be quite spooky so making her ride with a rubbish flood light in the dark helps to make her a bit braver the rest of the time!
 
I'm a sharer too, I must admit that last winter was hard at times I'm not a massive fan of schooling and have to be in the right frame of mind. I used to ride before work and its fantastic on the those cold bright mornings especially on the snow when no one else is around. I find it a total release from my very stressful job.
At the weekends if the owner wasn't doing anything too strenous we would often both ride, one first thing and the other in the afternoon. The horse was fit and enjoyed work so there wasn't an issue with it.
I also think there is something reasonably relaxing about mucking out and the other mundane tasks, my job is mentally tiring but not physical so its good to switch off and move, so to speak.
The benefit of being a sharer is that you don't have to do it every day - now I think that would be hard.
 
I do think if you are sharing you'll find the winter a chore, it's different if you are doing it for your own horse but I doubt I'd find the energy or inclination if it was for someone elses.

I hate winter, but know I'm very lucky to have access to an indoor school so try to remember that when I'm plodding around it being a miserable mare!! We try on the yard to get a few of us poor working people together at least once a week and have a play in the school, just pop some jumps or do some fun dressage tests..mainly just to remember why we spend all our time and money on our horses..cos it's fun! I also ensure at the weekends I hack out, as much for my horses sanity as my own. Hopefully this year if I find one, I'll have a horsebox so the weekends will be even better with trips out to different hacks and the beach!

The last 2 years I've given my horse a month off work in January or Feb and even though I miss riding it does seem to do us both some good. It means I get home earlier and he knows I'm coming to visit purely to say hello, give food and lots of bonding grooming.
 
When I used to work 9-5 mon-fri I used to go up before work to turnout, muck out e.t.c. then came back to yard about 6pm to ride. I used the outdoor floodlit school, but sometimes it was horrible, everyone had gone home, it was cold, wet, windy and dark, but I used to do it to keep my horse fit and trained as we did winter SJ and dressage.

Last winter I shared a horse whilst in between horses and luckily for me I work shifts, so could go up during daylight to ride, school and hack.

I still work shifts and have my own horsey again, but lucky can ride during the day or now have an indoor school to school in, so reduce the weather elements!

Not sure how I'd feel about sharing and working 9-5, it would be hard work I reckon if you dont have an indoor school or light nights after work to hack. Id say have the winter off and look again in March when the clocks go forward.
 
I do love a nice early morning ride before work, I do prefer the light but if I have to school in the dark its not the end of the world, the only thing I really dislike is heavy rain, really cold and sunny days are lovely for riding.
 
I will struggle in the evenings to fit in riding but she will be ridden at the weekends... and i will make sure i ride another two times during the week. she goes out everyday - even in winter. so im not too worried she wont get enough exercise! :)



eta


how do you all manage to ride before work??

i have to be in uni at 9 am twie a week - i have to walk my dog before that too.....??
 
last winter i would get to the yard about 6ish, muck out etc by 6.30 bring in and ride or lunge pretty much every day. However i got the rubbish end of the deal as i had a sharer who got sat and sun so she got to hack out and jump and all i did was school or lunge. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

try keeping motivated in that situation!!! However i did it as i like schooling, to keep my boy fit and because otherwise i wouldnt be able to ride all winter :(
 
I think, like any hobby/sport you do it becasue it is what you love/ are panssionate about it, whether that be schooling/competing or just enjoying spending time with the horse and if your heart really isn't in it, it will be hard. I work 9-5 and will only be riding at night during the week, my motiviation is to school hard during winter to nail the dressage phase when the eventing season comes back round. As said before it probarly is more difficult if the horser isn't yours, so maybe your heart just isn't in it sharing wise, but if it is most sharer adverts I've seen recently say one day a weekend.
 
If you are a horse owner, you don't have a choice - your responsibility is to keep your horse healthy and fit so that means riding even when no sane person would! My boy is 21 and I have to exercise in the week in some way otherwise he would get stiff if only ridden Sat/Sun and then nothing else. (This is the first summer I have let him off doing something every day!). He is out during the day so that helps too. Sometimes you cannot help enforced short breaks such as last winter around Christmas when our yard was too icy to get out of. It is difficult when you work - you sit at your desk getting more and more twitchy as the nights get earlier and earlier - I have been known to hack out and return in the dark (it doesn't seem too bad until you get back onto the yard in electric light and look back at what you have just ridden through!)
You just have to think back to your best ride ever, and keep that in mind while you struggle through the driving rain etc etc!
 
My uni timetable is quite tough this year, plus I work 5 days a week, so I've decided to let my horse have this Winter off in the field. I'll still be going up every day to get my horsey time.
 
Not so much motivation TBH....but the fact is I own them and they refuse to muck themselves out:(

Most of winter is crap but yes- riding out on lovely misty mornings is lovely.

Plus when spring comes, it starts getting lighter and then the clocks go forward you kind of have a memory lapse and forget how crap winter is until next year.
 
SJ_Superstars said:
One word... HUNTING! :D And nothing beats hacking out on a frosty morning!
Click to expand...

Hit the nail on the head there. :D:D:D:D:D:D
Also with all thats happened in the last year and after loosing my one true love Lucy. I've lurnt every moment is precious and every second counts. You never know whats around the next corner. One minuet she was fit and hunting twice a week and the next she was fighting a horrable illness. I often think about the wasted time when I wasn't motervated to ride Lucy :(:(:( It didn't happen often as i'm not a fair weather rider thank god but there where times when i just couldn't be arsed. :(:(
 
But its not all about the riding is it? Im a sharer, began sharing end of Aug, so had a while with some light and sun, but go even if it is sleeting down, as for me it is not only about the riding..... its about getting em in all muddy, and being able to spend time giving them a lovely groom, and properly getting to know them..... have shared mine for 3 years now, and we have a much better bond because I dont just turn up, throw tack on, ride and leave.

I think if you have the "cant be bothered with the dark nights/mud" mentality then perhaps sharing isnt for you!
 
I've usually walked dogs and fed horses etc by 7am week day mornings, changed and in the office by 8. However I will admit to cursing from time to time when my newly straightened hair gets soaked in the rain and goes frizzy, and my make up smudges and starts to run down my face, or when the horse dribbles its breakfast down my smart black cardigan...
Likewise I always moan about having to lunge in the dark, with a torch after work, having to poo pick with a head torch, the mud, the expense etc... BUT...

Nothing beats those cold, dry, frosty weekend mornings when the sun is just starting to come out, and everything glistens. When the ground is hard enough for your horse to manage a trot without pulling off every single shoe. After you've just clipped her, and are finally able to show off that brand new exercise sheet you bought her on the cheap last summer, and she's full of beans and bouncing around like a freshly clipped loon.
It's those mornings that i know i wouldnt want to be anywhere else, and that, for me, is the point of riding through winter. :)
 
Nothing worse than hacking out on a hot sticky summer's day being bothered by flys and midgies and sweaty minging horses.
I ride to keep horses fit for hunting, I like cold frosty early mornings and early evenings, I like clipped horses, rugs and cold nights, I like wrapping up and so for that reason- give me a winters day any day!
 
i hate the wet cold winters but i do love doing things with my horses, i sit in the stables with them and warm up after doing my chores. i enjoy riding on the frosty mornings as well and last winter i was riding when the snow started, everyone else left the arena but i stayed in there, i looked like a snowman riding my horse, it was great! :)

if you really are serious about sharing a horse then maybe now is the time to do it, if you can't handle the dark nights/cold/wet days then it would be unfair to only have the nicer days and you will know very quick.

i wouldn't like someone loaning my horse in the summer then saying they won't be able to do the winter because of whatever reason unless it was genuine.
 
I love the winter and cant wait for it to arrive - i'm already wanting to bring my horsie in now the weathers turning. I hate getting up in the cold and dark but once i'm at the yard I love mucking out by 6.30am and grabbing the chance to ride in the daylight before work. When it gets to the point its not light in the morning I switch to riding at night which I also used to love because I would have the school to myself.

This year I am going back to uni so will probably do everything at night otherwise I will be too tired to study! I am slightly apprehensive of the change to my usual routine but still cant wait for those crisp sunny mornings and the howling winds and wet weather when you bring them in and tuck them up in bed! Oh and nothing beats just giving your horse a good groom whilst they munch away!
 
Mine get ridden through winter to keep them fit and mentally stimulated. They are used to being ridden in all weathers and I'm not bothered by freezing weather, its just part of having horses. The sheer pleasure of being with them outweighs anything else. The only thing that stops us is ice, and how frustrating is that !
When a friend of mine wanted to get a horse, a wise woman suggested he look after one of her rehabs over the winter. If he was still commited by the spring, then horseownership would be for him.
If winter puts you off, and riding is more important than combining it with looking after and spending time with them, then maybe riding at an RS would be better as you can do it only when you feel like it.
 
I can sort of see your point as you do not get any weekend time in the daylight whilst most people would do and could use that to hack out so would not be stuck with schooling.

i only ride at the weekends in the winter due to the darkness - it is dark when i leave the house to go to work and dark when i leave work but i don't like riding in extreme heat in the summer either i prefer a mild day.

it does not really matter that i can only ride at weekends in the winter as i still enjoy a pony cuddle in the evenings. it was hard work in snow and dark but when i got to the yard i was always pleased i made the effort.

maybe if you want to hack out you should look for a share that has a weekend day included or if you can't find that then you might be better off going to a riding school as that would offer you more flexibility.
 
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