Would you box out twice in a weekend?

iknowmyvalue

iknowmyvalue

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 August 2016
Messages
1,490
Location
Devon
Visit site
As the title says really. Weekends are really the only days I can do anything hacking/competing wise. I’d be thinking boxing out for a hack (1-2hrs) on Saturday (or Friday afternoon) and then competing (nothing huge, just 1-2 rounds of unaff stuff up to 80cm) on the Sunday.

I want to take advantage of the lovely hacking where I’ve moved to, but I’d have to box up to get there (20-45mins depending where I go), but also now competitions are starting up again I want to try and get him out as much as possible... dilemmas!
 
No problem. With events close enough to home I always avoided ballots by doing the dressage the day before and traveling two days in a row.
.
 
Thanks. Those were my thoughts, he’s pretty much as fit as he’s ever been and travels well. He’s well used to doing hacks of that length or longer, and would usually get a day off on the Monday. I was just worrying I would be asking too much of him!
 
Yep, we box out for various reasons Fri/Sat/Sun most weekends (not always the same combination of horses/ponies mind you) so much so, the OH hitches the trailer up on a Fri and doesn't even ask if it needs unhitching until Sun eve! A hack one day and a comp the next is absolutely fine if you ask me. Have fun!
 
Absolutely. Often compete one day up to an hour or so away and box out to hack the next although it's only a 10 minute drive to my usual hacking.
 
Thank you all for putting my mind at rest.

I’m so looking forward to getting out and enjoying the hacking! Where we lived before there wasn’t much around, but there’s loads round here, and only 15mins to the beach :D moved Henry up here last summer but didn’t get much time to enjoy the hacking with lockdowns, trying to get him fit again, and trying to find places we can park the trailer and ride!
 
The horses I used to work with boxed out daily. The boxes were comfortable and we made sure they had food, water and opportunity to pee. It simply became daily routine.

My current horse is boxing out daily at present, just to help him feel that the box is part of a daily routine, so he doesn't stress.

As long as the box doesn't overheat, they have room to stand naturally and stretch (so not packed in too tightly), have food, water, opportunity to pee, exercise (so not standing still for hours at a time, penned in) and are introduced to it carefully, they just accept it as part of the routine.

I am jealous, I would LOVE to be near the beach!
 
Yep. Do this consistently with Rooni. Roads are a rural rat run round me so I box up to hack and I prefer to travel up to 2 hours to ensure friendly and organised venues for competing.
 
I think that if what they do when they get there is "fun" they soon get to enjoy outings. I know my friend's horse "self-loads" when she knows there is a party on.
 
We went out three times last weekend! Friday evening 10min up the road to a school hire, Sat evening two of them went back to the same place for some canter work, Mon evening two of them went to school hire 15min away. Of those, the gelding did all three outings. All enjoyed the outings, none of the journeys were long or the work excessive. I wouldn’t go out more than once in a weekend to anything stressful, hard work or particularly far away though.
 
Master Wrigglesby has been box training. Fair enough, some trips have been all of a mile, but he (by tomorrow) will have been on the box several times a day for 10 days, and on trips 7 times, all within 10 days.
 
No issues here. ODEs in Aus are run over 2 days, so the horses will travel both Saturday and Sunday to and from the event (unless you are camping overnight). If the horse is fit it wouldn't be a problem at all, and the more they travel the more used to it the become :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top