What's the point in riding through winter?

I love being with the girls - and this winter will be an experience with little foaly Penny, however, I do consider myself a fair weather rider and I don't think there is a point just to go hacking around the block for 30 mins in the pissing rain and howling wind.
Meg has her shoes off over the winter to save a few pounds and I can save up for the summer activities which we both enjoy VERY much.
 
If the wet and cold bothered me I would stay indoors all winter no matter what the activity!

I love riding. Winter happens. I just wrap up warm (Michelan Man style if necessary), and go for it. I'd be more miserable gazing out of the window waiting for spring than being out in the elements!
 
I ride through the winter because I love riding/hacking on my lad, he loves working and hates not going out. I much prefer the colder weather, the flies and the humidity really pee me off. I love wrapping up and it gives me more of an urge to crack on and get some good fast work in to keep warm. OH is a fair weather rider so he wouldnt agree. He would rather slouch around in the hot weather.
 
I enjoy riding out whatever the weather and have the motervation in keeping her fit for hunting and the fun rides that i do i think if you want to be involed in horses it an all year round thing not just a summer thing
 
I ride every day and my girl loves it. She is not a lover of being out in the field in the wind and rain and would prefer to stay in so I have to ride her if she's been in. She is 18, is as fit as a fiddle and loves going to or having lessons. Riding after work can be difficult, I am very luck that I can start work at 7 and finish at 4 so we can normally manage a quick hack around the small block, a few days a week I work from hom so I can work it around that. I love riding when its cold and frosty, not so keen on the rain but thats just part and parcel of it. Its nice chatting down the yard, drinking hot chocolate and munching biscuits. If you are feeling like that then I am not sure that you should think about sharing quite yet x
 
I enjoy riding my horse and resent the winter for not being able to ride during the week because of the darkness...straight out on roads here. My horse takes up a lot of time and money throughout the year and is a huge commitment...in my opinion...so I will ride all winter at the weekends to maximise that and sorry to say...get the most out of him!
He also needs his weight controlling having had laminitis so keeping him ticking over is better than dojng nothing and risking weight issues. I have saved some holidays from work this year and am actually using them to take off every Friday morning from now to Christmas to ride him that extra day a week to keep his weight down throughout winter.
 
Riding on a frosty morning makes you feel alive.
We work four twelve hour shifts, days and nights, with four days off so it's not 9 to 5 and works well. It does mean however, on dayshift we are up at 4 30am to make sure the horses are sorted before work, we have to leave by 6am, back by 8pm to feed, change rugs and skip out, then feed dogs and us then bed.
Night shifts are easier, home by 8am, top hay up, change rugs, turn out, up around lunchtime, muckout, poo pick, back to bed for an hour or two, up at
4 30pm bring in, feed, change rugs, top up hay, say nite nite and off to work.
Horses don't look after themselves
 
RunToEarth said:
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!
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:D

Exactly the reason I rode in the UK:) If I hadn't loved hunting so much I probably wouldn't have bothered having a horse back then. I can't think of anything else that would have got me out of the house during wet Welsh winters.

Now, I can't hunt (no mounted packs) and seriously can't be bothered with slogging around after deer on foot in 3' of snow and -25C (Sod that for a game of soldiers! Not my sort of hunting)

If I ride at all in winter it is because I feel like it, the sun will be shining, the sky will be blue and it's pretty, OK, so it may be -20C, but that's irrelevant, I pull a horse in from a paddock, get on and go.

Winter with deep snow is also a very good time for breaking horses, the only time I'll get on youngstock myself, 3' of snow makes for
a) a soft landing, and
b) really hard work for a colt that wants to mess about.

OP, if you feel like that about winter I'd wait for Spring to roll around:) perhaps by the time you've done three seasons you'll feel more enthusiastic about winter.
 
It's been very interesting reading all your points of view.

I think the fact that I'd be paying decent money just to school all winter is what's bothering me most. And I agree that horses are far from all about the riding, in fact I think that some of the times you go to the stables with nothing more on the agenda than to spend some time there are often the best times, because you're not rushing around trying to cram it all in, but I don't think that's worth paying £100/month for. Of course I know thats a tiny fraction of the amount I'd pay to keep a horse on my own, but then I'll have winter weekends to look forward to, motivating me through those dark, cold evenings of exercising to keep the horse fit and in work.

I think I may change my tactics a little now - instead of looking for a share horse, I think I'll look to have lessons every now and again instead through winter, then when the clocks change look for a share again. I'm fairly sure that if I'd been sharing for a while and winter then came round, I wouldn't question whether I still want to share because my share horse won't keep ticking over on his own.
 
Rotchana said:
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.
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sorry but that made me lol - so bloody true!! :D:D
 
I dont look forward to the Winter but once its here you just get on with it. I can only ride at weekends but like a few other people on here I have saved some holiday so I can ride during the weel occasionaily. Actually this winter will be interesting because its Joel and mines first one together so will be a learning process as well to how he reacts to being in at night etc. He also head shakes so I am praying this will stop over winter and I can enjoy hacking out whatever the weather is doing :(
 
kyanya said:
It's been very interesting reading all your points of view.

I think the fact that I'd be paying decent money just to school all winter is what's bothering me most. And I agree that horses are far from all about the riding, in fact I think that some of the times you go to the stables with nothing more on the agenda than to spend some time there are often the best times, because you're not rushing around trying to cram it all in, but I don't think that's worth paying £100/month for. Of course I know thats a tiny fraction of the amount I'd pay to keep a horse on my own, but then I'll have winter weekends to look forward to, motivating me through those dark, cold evenings of exercising to keep the horse fit and in work.

I think I may change my tactics a little now - instead of looking for a share horse, I think I'll look to have lessons every now and again instead through winter, then when the clocks change look for a share again. I'm fairly sure that if I'd been sharing for a while and winter then came round, I wouldn't question whether I still want to share because my share horse won't keep ticking over on his own.
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That sounds like a good idea, I love riding and I love horses but I'm not sure I could be bothered to spend all that money schooling all winter in the cold and dark on someone else's horse.

You're better off getting some nice hacks and lessons in, and then look to share again next year so you've got all summer to bond with a new horse. Theres nothing worse than messing round in the rain and cold with a naughty horse, I've found. You can't beat a nice frosty morning going for a hack, and I do enjoy the feeling I get when you've done all your jobs and ridden before work, but its bloody hard work.

This winter I'll probably just ride at weekends, and ride before or after work once or twice a week-thats enough for me and it doesn't do them any harm, unless they need to be hunting fit.
 
I look forward to winter! :o:D My horse hates flies and gets grumpy and is so much more a fun ride in the winter. I LOVE cold frost misty sunny mornings.
Especially this year as have loads of off road riding so much less limited as to what can do. Also have a floodlit school with a decent surface so will the most of that just playing around with long lines and a pessoa I think.
I love clipped snuggly rugged up horses and mucking out!!! Keeps you fitter too!
 
The winter months might be the darkest, coldest, gloomiest of the year, but I really enjoy riding in the winter; after all it is when all the hard work should be done to improve your performance for the forthcoming summer season (of which ever discipline your chose). There's a multitude of BD and BSJA (..sorry BS [silly new name]) competitions around and a fair few unaffiliated ones too and obviously there's hunting to keep us all busy and the horses fit. The winter is also used to get all the event horses fit so after their holiday at the end of the season, there really is no rest for the wicked.

I do agree though that maybe it isn't much fun to slog around in the mud and poo-pick in the rain, get up at 5.30am so you can get to work for 7am and finish by 3pm so you can ride 2 after work - in the rain. But you can look at the bonus that you have an evening to yourselves in the winter as the horses are finished and put to bed by 5pm/6pm instead of 7pm/8pm/9pm in the summer when we all faff around cos we have the daylight!

I think at the end of the day we don't take in to account that, apart from the temperature, lack of flies and an influx of rugs, a horse doesn't understand the difference between winter and summer and how riders back off riding them in the winter - he doesn't loose that appetite for work just because it is a bit cold and wet.

It mightn't always be fun, but you reap the rewards the following summer if you put in the hard work over the winter. And when you get a crisp, frosty morning with clear blue skies what more can you ask for....... Hmm, well actually, a fit sound horse you can actually ride in these conditions would be the next 'ask' on my list! :p
 
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