Help! Horse is bored, bored, bored at home in the indoor.

[snaffle635]

Any ideas to keep your horse interested in his job during the long winter months?

I have a gelding who is quite funny. Funny weird AND funny ha-ha.

At horse shows, he is the most perfect horse in the world. He loves going to shows. I take him to as many as I can (about once a month). He seems to enjoy going to new places and feeling important in the show-ring.

But at home, especially in the winter, he seems bored out of his mind. I try to make our flat-work interesting by incorporating lots of changes of direction, school figures, and some dressage.

We have no trails or fields to ride where I board. Getting out of the indoor during Chicago-winters isn’t really an option for us.

So, any ideas? What do you do to keep your horses engaged and having fun?

[CanteringCarrot]

When the ground gets bad, I face a similar situation.

I lunge (rarely), long line, ride, and do groundwork.

I was never really into ground work and “tricks” but my horse seems to enjoy the mental side of it. He walks himself up to the block and “aligns himself” for me to mount, picks up a whip and gives it to me if I drop it, counts and will pick up any limb with a point and command, plays “soccer”, and some other random things. He’s very intelligent and an anticipator, so changing it up is good for him.

I also have a riding exercise book that has dressage tests, patterns with poles I would have never thought of, and uses for cones. So I don’t just get on and flat everyday. I keep a lot of variety for both physical and mental fitness.

You could:
Ride one day
Ride the next on the flat (general schooling, maybe some lateral movements or others as focus).
Patterns
Poles
Small jump school
Ground and/or liberty work
Ride on the flat

So there is seven days of variety.
​​​

[RugBug]

No real ideas, just sympathy. I may not ride at all this winter as I hate to ride my mare in our covered ring. G’ah, her behaviour goes down the tubes, sulky. behind the leg and when you do get her forward, she gets very leapy and cavorty when there is the slighted noise. I’m going to try ear plugs…which she normally doesn’t need, but dang, anything to avoid jumping 3’ high jumps that aren’t there (one of the local vets pulled in once, his truck hittin a puddle and she went airborn. He thought she was jumping something. Nope…just airs above the ground).

Sigh. How long is winter?

[ParadoxFarm]

How about setting up some competitive-trail-type obstacles just for fun. Try something completely out of the box. Maybe he enjoys shows because it’s always new. Try to recreate the “new” at home. Good luck. I hate winter.

[rockonxox]

There are some pretty intense brain engaging ground pole exercises that might keep his attention. There are a lot of great ideas on COTH if you search the forums, youtube, and pintrest. Youtube Tristan the Wonder Horse for some of the really advanced ideas. It is a pita to set out all the poles, but if it works for you and your horse it would be worth it!

[SuzieQNutter]

Dressage keeps both a horse and rider from getting bored. Tgat is what the levels are for.

Dressage can include poles and cavellettis.

[joiedevie99]

Write out a weekly schedule so you make sure he has variety.

Monday: stretching and suppling exercises
Tuesday: cavaletti or small gymnastics
Wednesday: long line or longe focusing on transitions
Thursday: off
Friday: focus on trotwork - leg yield, shoulder-in, trot-walk/halt-trot transitions, transitions within the gait, etc.
Saturday: ride small courses (or ground poles) working on accuracy, flow
Sunday: focus on canterwork - simple changes through trot/walk, transitions within gait, circles of different sizes, etc.

[PintoPony]

I agree with doing some trail type obstacles.

Google some ideas and set up a mini trail class to play with. There are tons of things you can do with poles, cones, barrels, tarps, jump standards, buckets, etc.

[Edre]

Fellow endurer of Chicago winters, so I can completely relate with this!

I will say that having a good cavaletti book (I’m super fond of Ingrid Klimke’s for the variety and adjustability of exercises) has spared me a lot of boredom in dreary weather. I also found that being careful that I included “fun” things really helped preserve the satisfaction and willingness of my horse. For him, that was generally something like stretching serpentines and a good hand gallop. But ultimately, making sure I wasn’t making things too repetitive and ensuring that he was being asked questions mentally really helped us from climbing up a wall in the winters.

[snaffle635]

Thanks, everyone!!! These are super helpful ideas!!

I’m so glad to hear some of you mention trail-type obstacles. I’ve been thinking about that same thing.

I bought one of those giant horse soccer balls, but after my old horse ignored it, I gave it to a friend. But I think my new guy might really like it.

Great idea to recreate that ‘new environment’ feel at home!

[mpsbarnmanager]

[QUOTE=CanteringCarrot;n9919340]
When the ground gets bad, I face a similar situation.

I lunge (rarely), long line, ride, and do groundwork.

I was never really into ground work and “tricks” but my horse seems to enjoy the mental side of it. He walks himself up to the block and “aligns himself” for me to mount, picks up a whip and gives it to me if I drop it,

That is brilliant!!! Now we need to teach them to put jump poles back up :lol:

[Hunter_Happy1]

I do pair or group work in the indoor.

Sometimes just with a friend. Sometimes larger groups.

We had a mock hunt-team lesson Sunday where we got in groups and flatted together-first in a tight line and then side by side.

We worked on downward transitions and counter-bend.

We then did some jumping exercises together.

The jumping helped us focus on our pace and the location/speed of our team members–instead of obsessing over the distance.

[zakattack]

@ParadoxFarm

How about setting up some competitive-trail-type obstacles just for fun. Try something completely out of the box. Maybe he enjoys shows because it’s always new. Try to recreate the “new” at home. Good luck. I hate winter.

Was going to suggest that too! Trail obstacles or sensory training. Something new for him to see and concentrate on. And at the end of the winter you’ll have a bombproof horse! :winkgrin:

Pool noodles, silly string, old tires, a tarp, looping a rope between two standards and practicing opening the “gate”, plywood “bridge”, pushing a big yoga ball, the list is endless for sensory training.

[PintoPony]

Are there other bored riders/horses at your barn? If so, you could suggest a game of “broom polo”.

“Broom polo” is played with a soccer size ball and brooms are used for mallets. Depending on the players/horses and the arena you can make it walk/trot only to keep things calmer.

It’s even fun to play alone but instead of scoring goals, you set up obstacles to move the ball around/thru.

[CanteringCarrot]

[quote="“mpsbarnmanager,post:11,topic:439400”]

@CanteringCarrot

When the ground gets bad, I face a similar situation.

I lunge (rarely), long line, ride, and do groundwork.

I was never really into ground work and “tricks” but my horse seems to enjoy the mental side of it. He walks himself up to the block and “aligns himself” for me to mount, picks up a whip and gives it to me if I drop it,

That is brilliant!!! Now we need to teach them to put jump poles back up :lol:

I mean, these horses need to earn their keep and do a little something around here for my convenience! :winkgrin:

He did turn over a fallen down plastic cavaletti/jump block standard so it was right side up again when he was loose and I was moving jumps…so there’s hope!

Also, feel free to get creative and think outside of the box. We’ve brought random items to the barn to introduce to the horses or use as a training opportunity. Example: umbrellas There can be umbrellas at events and some horses are not too keen on them, so we (safely and thoughtfully) did some work with those. Something to do.