How Long Do You Ride?

[PNWjumper]

20-40 minutes of work. No walking - my horses live out 24/7, so there’s no need to do a walk warmup, and I don’t count any time that I cool them out in the end.

I typically do 20 minutes of warm up (long and low stretching, but forward) where I do 10 minutes of trot and 10 minutes of canter (no walking breaks) - all timed. Every horse I own does this every single day…well, except the youngsters who do 10-15 minutes instead of the full 20. For all I let them slow down a bit in the corners and then go forward out of the corner and down the straight of way. I throw in circles and serpentines, but still focused only on forward and stretching the whole time.

Then I go into connection/collection work where I do all of my lateral work, transitions, etc., and that can vary from anywhere from 10-20 minutes. I rarely do any walking at all while I’m riding, but if I do it’s lateral/collection work at the walk between my long and loose warmup and my trot/canter work.

I often throw jumps into my daily rides too, though it’s not anything that adds time as I’ll typically incorporate them into my flatwork and just jump a few.

[quietann]

Most of the time, in an arena, 45 minutes to an hour, less if I am riding bareback. My horse requires a longish warm-up because she is arthritic. Luckily she seems to need very little cool-down… She just doesn’t get overheated or have a high pulse rate.

On trails, we go anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours depending on what we’re doing and where we are. Our trail riding is mostly walking because of the rocks and tree roots etc.

[Synthesis]

I’m working with a green somewhat anxious mare and our rides last between an hour to an hour and a half 4-5x week. We do lots of walking and relaxation work with around 15 min of trot and transitions work at the end.

The walking is getting her leg fit. I have lots of time to working TOH and TOF so she can really understand how to move the parts of her body around. If she gets stressed, I can work on relaxing her jaw so she relaxes in general and then we continue on. Essentially, I can add in complexity in tiny amounts each ride without rushing her while letting her figure out balancing a rider.

As she gets into a more high intensity workout, the time will more likely end up near the hour mark.

[UrbanHennery]

I ride 45-60 minutes if I’m riding on my own. That includes warm up and cool down. Usually it’s a few minutes of walking, 5-10 minutes of trot work and then the rest in blocks of lope and gallop, regular and counter. I do a lot of circles and serpentines. I takes some walk breaks where we work on collection and stopping/backing.

Lessons are 60 minutes. They can run 15 minutes longer or shorter depending on the day and what we’re working on. That includes warm up time but not cool down.

id like to work in more hacking but there’s no where great to do it at the arena and my horse has sliders on so we stay off the trails most of the time.

[workin_onit]

I have a 12 year old Morgan horse with goals to reach 2nd/3rd level next year. Retraining from saddleseat. We are at training level and he is 2 years out from EPM. My coach said 6 days a week/ 45 mins, have a day or two for hacking/pole work, etc. I aim for two lessons a month with her and FINALLY have my own indoor arena, YEAH!!!

[Appsolute]

I am in the saddle between 45-75 mins week days

I never ride exclusively in the arena though. We have “bridle trails” with hills around the ranch. I warm up with a 15 min ride around the property. Mostly walk, usually some trot, and a canter up a long grade - then we head to the area.

Usually 25-30 in the arena. Then a 5 -10 min walk on a lose reins back around the property to cool out. - or if a lighter day in the area - we head out and do more hill / fitness work after supplying in the arena.

This way my horse gets some hill work daily (with the outside warm up and cool downs). Outside riding will get a bit more limited as we turn to winter - I will add poles to our flat work when we are stuck inside.

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=Proffie;7790011]
They were normally about 25 minutes, never longer than 35 and sometimes only like 20. When I really drilled down, I walk with some circles and bends for about 10 minutes, do a brief trot warmup for like 5, then school at trot/canter with some transitions for about 10, and then walk for about 5.[/QUOTE]

My horse is also 11 and finished. I ride for pleasure usually 3 days a week. Field hack or flat school. We’ve recently added some jumping (2’ to 2’6") twice a week as part of our flat school. I would say my rides lengths and make up are very comparable to yours. Really nice days I may linger a bit longer. Once and awhile he needs an extra mile put on him to burn off some excess yipees.

[joiedevie99]

Depends on the horse. On ‘work’ days, I’m on the 5 y/o in the ring for 30-40 minutes. That means 20-30 minutes of work. My older guy was pretty reliably 50 minutes in the tack for 35-40 minutes of work.

Light days are shorter since I stop after warm-up. Hack days are longer - often 1:30 all at the walk.

[Kimchi]

It depends on the ride. If its bad and its the I need to work through this or it will become a major issue, I will ride it out (longest is 2 hours) sometimes its a bad day and you just do one easy thing and call it quits, or its a fantastic day and she does every thing beautifully and there is not m but I average 45 with warm up and cool down. Hacking terrifies me so its usually 20 mins as that is all we can handle.