My horses have always stayed in work year-round. Due to elder-care issues, I’m considering turning them out for the summer as I may not have time to be showing much - and thought it might be nice for them to have a break.
Anyone do this with their show horses? What are the pros and cons?
When I was showing heavily, I always gave my guys a good 4 weeks off after the last big show of the year. If anything, horses need a mental break, along with a physical break, after show season is done. I know at the end of show season, I was also extremely burned out too, so cannot imagine what the horses felt like.
Any horse I had at home always had winters off because we had no indoor!
My 18 year old jumper gets 1-2 months of light flatwork/trail riding at the end of show season. At her age it’s too hard to bring her back into work after being fully off. Light work helps keep a moderate level of fitness while giving her mind and body a break after showing all summer.
Edited to add- she’s on 24/7 herd pasture turnout year round, regardless of weather. She stays so much happier and in better condition this way
Mine gets every winter off. 2-3 months. Comes back happy and feeling great.
My guy would tear the barn down if he didn’t have a job, and he’s an elder statesman whose physical condition declines quickly with limited work. That said, the moment he starts to feel bored or sour, he has a week of walking around the farm, trail rides, hacks up the road, whatever the footing is good for; and always at least two weeks of that in late winter when he’s just done with being in the indoor.
I cannot imagine NOT giving a horse time off. People have at least 2 weeks off every year. Horses need a vacation, too. It does not have to be 24/7 turnout (although that would be nice), but getting to a quiet barn and hacking on a loose re8n is almost as good. They need time when their bodies and minds can veg out.
Well most horses also don’t work 40+ hours per week!
My horse might get a few days off if I think he needs it, or if I’m travelling, but we don’t have any extensive breaks built into our schedule. But I would describe my horse’s workload as moderate at best, we don’t have a heavy training or show schedule.
Mine get Dec-March off. They just started up again now. They always feel better than ever after their vacation.
After a lifetime of never doing this, I did so with my mare last year and this year. Last year’s vacation turned into way more than I had planned, but after getting married and moving to a new state, it just kind of happened that way. She got about 6 months off, and while it took a while to get her physically fit again, I actually think it was the best thing for both her brain and body. She came back looking and feeling great, and those couple minor nagging things that would bug her in her right hip and back were gone.
This year she got about 8 weeks off, and same thing - she looks and feels great. She’s happy and fresh and sound.
I will say that I think this only works if they have adequate turnout. If you’re in a show barn where they get 1 hour of turnout, they need some other form of exercise. If I were in that situation again, I would lightly longe and go for long walks to make sure she were still moving enough.
She’s now at home with me and is out for at least 12 hours a day, although for part of that vacation we just brought them all in for meals and kicked them back out. It was good for all of us - we had a break from stall cleaning and they had 24 hours outside.
I also think its a good thing to just give them some time off from messing with them. I didn’t groom her regularly. Just fed, gave treats, and let her be. I think sometimes horses just want to be horses. We don’t like them dirty and gross, but they don’t care! And it’s amazing to see how the natural process of being a horse takes care of some things. They’d come in caked in mud, and in a day or two of rolling most of it had fallen off. So certainly make sure they’re healthy and give them a good knocking off a time or two, but when they’re on vacation…just let them be horses. We clip, rub, scrub, bathe, wipe, and obsess over them quite enough during the on season.
Kind of.
I don’t have planned vacations for them, but every year something comes up and they end up with some time off.
Last year I moved back to Ontario from Alberta, horse didn’t ship until 2 weeks later so he got 2 weeks of 24/7 turnout with virtually no human contact.
On Friday I’m sending him up to my parents farm so all 3 horses will be in the same place. There isn’t an indoor so he’ll get 2 weeks to a month off with 12 hours of turnout leading to 24/7 depending on the weather.
A lot of it depends on the horse and the workload. Switching from arena riding to hacking for a few weeks might give them enough of a mental break. A busy minded horse with nothing to do and limited turnout might be worse. Giving an older horse time off could mean months before they’re back in shape again, etc.
I give mine the month of November off and July as well. But that is from showing. I will still go out and ride. I try to ride out (trails/field) as much as possible through the year as the weather allows. And when i got back from 2 weeks in FL, gave mine a week off of doing nothing.
I think she really enjoys the rides out and a change of scenery. Time off is good for their mental heath, IMO.
My horse and I had a really bad show in January 2017 that shook both of our confidence in each other. In March my trainer and I decided to give him a few months off to get his frazzled mind right and to build my confidence up with other horses. We brought him back into work and started slowly to build up his muscles, but after a couple weeks he really settled in and there was a major distance. His “sabbatical” was a great decision for both of us and we are happily back showing and progressing consistently.
I really agree with this. My horse is home and he gets Jan-March off every year. I think its great for him. During this time he just gets to eat lots of hay and chill out. When the weather wasn’t totally freezing he’d get a grooming session and ground work session but other than that he just got loved on and got to be a horse. I actually just started conditioning him yesterday and he looks fantastic. I will say that last year I think I pushed him too fast so this year I’m going to take it much slower. A good 2 months of slowly increasing duration and difficulty and he should be ready for show season
My guy used to get a month off every December. He’s leased out now so does the winter circuit, but I believe they give him ~3 weeks of just hacking after returning from FL.
Older mare so I don’t want her to have extended breaks from riding until she really retires. I try to leave her completely alone every Monday, whether we’ve been at a show or not. That’s her day. She is turned out either all day or all night in pasture with other mares, which is very helpful. After last show in late Nov/early Dec we avoid ring work and I ride out in pasture until after the holidays are over…lots of long walks. I avoid fussing with her grooming-wise - no mane pulling, clipping, etc. No indoor or covered where I board, so weather kind of forces lots of days off anyway. Then back to full work in Jan as weather allows. There were a couple of years where she had more time off and we ended up with strains in the spring, despite trying to leg up gradually. This year, I kept her fit and no issues. But I still feel like we had a good mental health break and she gets to live like a horse at home.
I should add that it’s important to bring them back properly after time off. After my mare’s 2 months off this year, I’m giving her a couple weeks of light longing in huge circles (moving through the whole arena). Then some longing in a bungee and some light rides for a week or two, and then a few weeks of gradually increasing flatwork and light jumping.
I find bringing them back to be very individual depending on the horse but it is important to be careful to not move too quickly.
We take 3 months off over the winter (with a rare hack in the snow) due to our lack of indoor. And it’s always been great for my horse’s condition. She’s outside all day (usually 12 hours) and gets back into shape easily come spring.
my horses get every winter off (roughly Oct to March, so 6 months!), since I live in the NE. they have full 24/7 turnout in a herd situation.
i agree with others, the winter vacation really only works if they see as much turnout as possible. the normal 6-8 hrs at barns is not enough IMHO for a full “dr green treatment”.
i do think that the time off helps especially if they had some chronic soreness from hard work and campaigning from that summer… and it’s definitely important they get a mental break after a long bout of showing… but it is not a magic cure all.
my complaint is that i think with older horses it gets harder and harder to bring them back each year, and horses with some older jewelry or body complaints you have to take it very slowly. slower than most people want to take it.
my gripe is that by the time i get them to peak and in their top condition, it’s the fall again. if i had my way i’d rather them only get 3 months off, but it simply isn’t realistic in my area for them to be kept in full work without an indoor.
mine all go back to work mid-march, usually on a 6-7 week conditioning schedule. cardio is easy and could be done in 5 weeks, but ligaments and tendons take much longer to condition.
they’re in great care and show great condition, but they lose a lot of muscling during the winter vacation.
mentally, i think it’s great for them and mine have all come back very willing – they don’t forget anything, and don’t come out “feeling rusty”, but i do notice especially with horses that might have older physical issues, that they lose a lot of strength in their weaker legs, so while winter vacations are great, it’s not all sunshine and roses and you do have to be very careful bringing them back into work.
just something to be mindful of since it wasn’t mentioned yet.
at this point i have done the “leg up”/hack 1 hr a day for a month, then 5 week conditioning thing so many times, i really don’t enjoy it - and in a perfect world i’d probably give them less time off so they didn’t lose as much fitness. i believe most blooded horses can go about ~6-8 weeks before they see much a change in loss of fitness.
our barn sends all the show horses away for 3-4 weeks for grass at the end of the year. It really helps them recharge. My horse is getting more than 3 months off thanks to some nasty ulcers and my being knocked up. It will take some time to get him back into conditioning, but that’s true for me too. :lol:
The whole experience has been eye opening for me, it’s not super common practice in SoCal to send them away. But I’m thinking my horse in particular would benefit from more mini-breaks during the year, especially after competitions.
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