I am giving my show horse 6 weeks “off”. I say “off” because it won’t be kicked out to pasture doing nothing. He is coming home from the trainers while she is at a couple of big shows, he will be turned out all day. He will get ridden a few times a week, mainly long trotting, hand galloping. Just letting his muscles and body stretch. That way he won’t be completely out of shape when he goes back into hard work (am moving up levels with him this year) but he will be in lighter work, less stressful, and put some weight back on that appendix body of his.
My older TB mare would totally hate having the winter off. About 5 years ago, she had a combo of lameness issues going on stemming from (I think) falling in the snow. I was going to give her up to a year off before rechecking. At the end of 6 months, even though she was handled daily(groomed, hand walked, grazed) and lived out 24/7, she was a demon. She started biting and kicking at the barn workers and myself. I opted to start just getting on and walking her around lightly. Complete change in her personality. She is currently 21 and if she isn’t ridden at least a few times per week, she is evil. I think each individual horse is different, so maybe try it.
My own riding horses (especially my young ones) routinely get from mid-January to the beginning of March off. They live out 24/7 already, so when it starts to get brutally cold (upstate ny winters!) I just let them do their own thing. They might come up to the indoor to goof off, stretch thier legs, roll, once or twice a week, but beyond that, they don’t do much. (Obviously, if they’re due during that time, they get their feet done, etc. basic care isn’t ignored, they just don’t have to work.). And, I have to say, there are times where they sometimes aren’t handled for a couple of weeks at a time, if it’s truly too cold to do anything (nothing like below zero temps for weeks at a time!). And they have never been the worse for it, including my stallions.
my lesson horses, on the other hand, keep working all year long, unless the weather dictates otherwise. But they don’t work as hard as my riding horses, and during the nice months, don’t work as frequently as my riding horses, either.
As another poster mentioned, research has shown that horses on 24/7 pasture maintain a fitness level equivalent to that of a stalled horse in light exercise - which, let’s be honest, is all that most of us really do with our horses, especially in the winter months. However, that only applies to horses that are on real pasture; a small turnout paddock on flat ground won’t have the same effect. And we’ve always known how beneficial “Dr. Green” is for their minds and those hard-to-pinpoint injuries. I say give it a try!
I agree with her, I think once a horse is trained with a well established base a few months off a year works wonders. I have an older horse who started to stop at fences at age 18. I started giving him 2 months off every winter. I ride 10 months a year, a little less jumping, but overall he is doing great and still jumping with no stops at age 21.
I have an older horse I have given time off for. Recently, I picked up a green horse who was doing great but now I am pregnant. I have a girl who is able to ride him 2x/week and I lunge the other days. It wasn’t enough to keep him in shape so I am considering giving him the rest of my pregnancy off.
Old thread revisited?
Mine gets winter off, from around Thanksgiving till the new year. The fall season is always very busy for us and I think it helps both of us to take some time off. She always comes out of it feeling great. She does live outside 24/7 and takes a morning gallop around her field when the cows get fed next door, so she keeps herself going a little bit. I think its important for them to have breaks and just go be a horse for a few weeks.
Good catch.
@Gnomeland - so what did you decide?
I am wondering what people are doing with their horses that they need to give the horse time off. If the horse starts to decline mentally or physically you need to address it then and there, not keep pushing the horse until it needs months off.
Well, I see it this way. My competition season goes from late March thru early December and when we’re in full swing, my guys are averaging 25-50 miles per week. They generally get 6-8 weeks from December through early February mostly off- I might get on a go for a 4 or 5 mile walking hack once a week for their minds but that’s it, otherwise they are turned out in big field with their buddies and let alone. I do it for a few reasons- I feel that they get some time to repair any small injuries that may not be ascertainable yet, I get tired of riding in the dark every night, December is xmas tree season for my business and that is completely and utter insanity, DH and I go on vacation in January, and the horses always come back from a rest happy and sassy and ready to go. Plus since a horse will hold cardio-vascular fitness for about 6 weeks, I’m not really loosing anything training-wise.
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All of my horses under the age of about 15 get at least 3 months off in a row every year. I am a huge advocate of it. They get turned out in a huge pasture with other horses who are on a little break from work and not handled at all other than to say hello at feeding time, farrier visits, blanketing, and basic health checks. I think they really thrive this way. Many weird soundness issues have been magically solved during vacation time. I think it is great for their mental state. Horses over 15 who are more difficult to keep fit get light work (ponied at walk/trot a few times a week) instead of full turnout as a vacation. I think the main thing is for the horses not to be ridden during this time so they can have a mental break. They really thrive this way.
Just make sure to build a lot of fitness time into the tail end of the vacation. The horses need to be brought back to work slowly, and they are generally pretty wild when you start that process.
Since I live in North Dakota and do not have access to an indoor arena, my horses ALWAYS get the winter off. 
They are going to get a little extra time off as there is NO WHERE to ride with all the snow and we’re forcasted to get hit with another blizzard starting tonight, up to 15 inches of snow and 65 mph winds.
Gonna be a late spring this year…
But I do think it is good for their minds and their bodies to have time off. Humans enjoy a vacation here and there - horses should too.
I was recently talking with someone from Texas who told me our horses are “young” up here compared to down there. (He’s a roping guy.) Because they rope year-round, their horses seem to have more problems sooner in life because they are used harder. Because ours usually get the winter off, they “last longer”. Not sure how much truth there is to that, but interesting thought.
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There is a big difference between PEOPLE needing a mental break or weather-related issues, and the horses y “needing a break.”
There is no research to back up that giving a healthy, sound horse a 3 month break is beneficial. If you have been hard on your horse due to your competion schedule, it’s understood that whatever damage you caused should be given time to heal. If you go roping or racing or jumping or whatever and it’s hard on your horse, you need to allow him time to recover before subjecting him to that exertion again. If not, you have a weakness that is susceptible to injury. Cumulative trauma builds, so if you don’t allow enough time between events to return to normal, each subsequent event does further damage. I don’t see how that kind of timetable is good for any horse or rider.
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Well, according to the USPA equine welfare committee research, all polo horses require 1-2 breaks from work every year that last one month at the very minimum.
It takes 7 weeks for them to loose their muscle.
My boy had 3 months off when he severely pulled a muscle in his chest. The chiropractor said he had gone over at speed.to do that in the paddock.
He has come back to work, physically he was okay but mentally we had to get past that he had learned that playing up got him out of work.
I think we are back to how we were mentally before the injury now.
Link? Even polo horses who are training not competing?
For what it’s worth, I’ve always found that letting a trained horse just be a horse for a few months is never a bad idea.
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https://www.uspolo.org/assets/docs/Equine-Welfare-Guidelines-Rev.8.2.17.pdf
That link is kind of crappy because they do not cite any of their sources. Long vacations are common practice for polo horses all over the world, though.
If by “in training” you mean green horses who aren’t ready to compete in super competitive games, they still get at least one season off per year since they are running just as much. My 5 year olds have been getting legged up for April for several weeks now. They had been off since January. Polo horses are generally not considered totally finished until they are around 7, so the 5 year olds are still officially in training.
Many people do not spread the break out to twice year, instead they do one entire 3 month season for each horse and shuffle them so that they still have a playing string for any season if they choose to play year round.
I don’t play polo, but I can see how it would be hard on a horse. I would consider “in training” to mean a horse is not being used for competition. Ever meet Prince Harry?
Okay @Palm Beach since the method of giving horses some time off works very well for many of us, why do think it doesn’t work? If you are doing the timing right, conditioning isn’t suffering and if training work has been done properly, that’s certainly not going to go away while they get a bit of a break.
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