Who took the winter off? Spring is almost here, what’s your plan?!

[QHEventer]

With the next few days in the 60s I am itching to get my horses back into work after giving them the winter off! We do have a winter storm predicted later in the week so I can’t get too excited yet but I’m at least starting to think about a plan.

My ring is still covered in ice and snow and my pastures are closed until April 1, so I’m thinking I’ll just hack around my 2ish-acre winter paddock when the footing is decent, and if the footing sucks I’ll hack up and down the driveway. Both have nice, varied terrain and lots of hills. I figured I’ll stick to just walking for the next six weeks, at which point my arena and pastures should be in good shape and they will be fit and ready for a little more work!

What’s your plan and when do you start riding again? I was going to wait until March 1 but I haven’t ridden since thanksgiving and I don’t think I can handle 2 more weeks!

[FjordBCRF]

We are still a ways off from any consistently better weather, but I am looking forward to (knock on wood no springtime laminitis like last year) hitting the ground running with more weekly rides. Charlie is 5 this spring and we have done a lot of ground work/driving, trail riding, and dressage basics since I got him summer 2020 but it’s all been pretty light. I would like to start getting him 4-5 rides a week with increased ring work (dressage and pole work) and conditioning on our trails. He also drives and I have a harness being made which should be done pretty soon, so making a stone boat is in the plans too to tool around with. I have been working on some basic tricks this winter, but that will also be easier once the ring isn’t hard as a rock and snow covered.

You can probably tell I have some cabin fever and am ready to do ALL the things

[QHEventer]

Hahaha I can totally relate! I want to haul out for some lessons, haul out for some trail rides, and do lots of riding at home - and then it hits me that I’m in the Midwest and there is zero consistency in the weather until May or so. But, a girl can dream

[FjordBCRF]

We had snow on MOTHERS DAY here last year!! Ridiculous. There are a couple days coming up this week in the high 40s low 50s so Im hoping that gets us back down to the gravel on the trails and hopefully clears the ring at least.

[lenapesadie]

I’m over here plotting on how many good days I have until the heat is unbearable.

[candyappy]

I would normally be saddling and lightly lunging my 2 in prep for riding around March 1st ( or when the ground is dry enough) but I broke my ankle 3+ weeks ago so it is on hold a bit longer.

I just start out walking around the pasture, adding some trot work here and there since I have no arena and just increase as we all get fitter.

[luvmyhackney]

Currently doing some ground work in preparation for nice weather. Still cold my later this week looks amazing.

Hoping to get my pony long lining walking 30 min sessions.

Others will start the same, but with a saddle after a week or two. Kinda excited as it’s been a dreary long winter here.

[QHEventer]

@FjordBCRF Ugh! Don’t you just hate that?!

@lenapesadie Well, that’s a good point but I’ll totally take your Florida winters! As a Midwesterner, we go from bitter cold to extreme heat, often skipping the lovely season some people call “Spring”!

@candyappy What a bummer, sorry to hear about your ankle! I love that plan though, I think that’s the approach I’m going to take this year too!

May I ask what your lunging routine is after they’ve been off for a while? I thought about starting one of mine back on the line, just because she’s young and can be fresh, but don’t want her over-exerting herself when she’s unfit!

@luvmyhackney My two-week forecast is all over the place, a couple days in the 50’s and 60’s then snow, ice, and single digits, then back in the 40’s. As anxious as I am to get them going again, it almost feels like of pointless until the weather allows for some consistency! I like the long-lining idea too!

[NancyM]

Has also been a long winter here. Snow and ice is still around, but not as bad as it was. It will be a few weeks yet before I can bring anybody into training. But I did get a valentine’s kiss this morning, from my “Prince among horses”, as I was sitting on my tractor, bringing the round bale out. He’d get right up there into the seat with me if I gave him the chance. He’s not shy.

I do some ground work, lunging, and grooming, general clean up, hair styling (LOL), general re-civilization. Then hacking for a while. I have two to finish breaking (my Prince being one of them).

[lenapesadie]

I think we get spring. That’s when it’s only hot during the day!!! It’s when it’s staying 80 over night that’s tough.

Winter is nice here though!

[B-burg_Dressage]

This is the first winter in my riding life I have given the winter off.

But I won’t get back into it until May after I pop out a baby.

I’ve been lightly lunging about once a week as weather/footing allows. I hope in April (after baby is here) I’ll try to up that to twice a week for fitness to and make sure no one is too feral before I get back on after doctor clearance. Lots of long, slow, and low work early summer. Trail rides at the walk. Hill work. Hopefully we’re all in OK shape by later summer/early fall.

Sooo looking forward to riding again. Idk how you folks do it every winter. It’s been since mid-December for me and this is/will be the longest I’ve ever taken off since I started riding almost 20 years ago.

[TheJenners]

@QHEventer

May I ask what your lunging routine is after they’ve been off for a while? I thought about starting one of mine back on the line, just because she’s young and can be fresh, but don’t want her over-exerting herself when she’s unfit!

I know you weren’t exactly asking ME but I actually do in-hand before lunging, handwalking over poles, asking for haunches or shoulder over (if that has been introduced already), I built a wooden bridge obstacle to walk them over, just stuff that gets them out and also activates the brain instead of just ya-ya’ing around on the end of the lunge. They are less apt to be dumb and yank me around and practice their 60’ Kentucky Derby impersonations…j

I put in a French drain so my arena is already open, even tho my paddocks are still soggy. I’ve ridden the pony a few times and had a lesson already, worked the gelding in hand and got on for a walk this weekend, and worked the 2 yo in hand a bit and introducing some lungeing.

So that’s my plan. Pony doesnt require lungeing, gelding requires tactful hand walking and we added a pharmaceutical aid because he can be a bit…much…cough the drama

[candyappy]

@QHEventer

May I ask what your lunging routine is after they’ve been off for a while? I thought about starting one of mine back on the line, just because she’s young and can be fresh, but don’t want her over-exerting herself when she’s unfit!

Just walking and trotting every other day to start. I don’t do it too long and stop when they are going well and listening to me but I don’t want them hot, blowing and sweating.

I occasionally have bucking and stupidness but not much since they are out 24/7 now. If they act stupid or overly hyper, I just do my best to keep them trotting only until they calm .

[Spudsmyguy]

Being in the PNW and having access to a covered arena, we haven’t slowed down too much over the winter. Odin cut his frog so that necessitated a week or so off, then there was some other reason he needed time off. Finally got a lesson Sunday over cavaletti which was fun. Dressage lesson the following week. I haven’t jumped in forever and need to get going on that. Odin detests lunging and makes it known what he thinks about it with his histrionics. I think he thinks it’s boring so I try to incorporate poles or some other gymnastic activity so it’s not just going around in circles.

[beowulf]

Me! I’m like you, last serious ride was in November. I am not kidding when I say I am considering moving somewhere south in the next few years… I am sick of having to “reset” my progress every year once it gets icy.

I usually start to ride once the snowpack on the driveway melts. Typically, that is mid-February or March when the first big thaw happens. Our driveway is about 3/4 mile long, so it’s perfect for trot sets provided there’s no ice. That’s pretty much all I do until June when the grass ring is usable.

A ride or two is all it takes to get my horse’s mind back in the game, so usually the next weekend I start trot sets. Nothing too crazy to start with; I do three repetitions of 2 minutes of trot, with 3 minutes of walk between each rep. I’ll do that 3x a week while the rest of the days I’ll just walk-hack on the buckle around the farm. I usually increase one minute every week, so by week four will be up to 5 minute trot sets. I don’t add any real canter work until the footing allows - which sadly often isn’t until June when the grass ring dries out, but I do sometimes canter a lap or two of the driveway just to get that canter feeling.

I use this time to work on me versus the horse - doing trot sets in half-seat, as well as working on trotting on the “buckle” up/down terrain.

One caveat: my horses are out 24/7. They have a baseline limb fitness that makes the above schedule easy for them. I would go slower if your horse sees any time in a stall, or has not had a history of consistent work. I’ll be going slower, for instance, with my 5 year old filly, who is looking at her first real year of work this spring.

[exvet]

I too consider myself lucky and able to keep my sanity (or some semblance of it) as a result because we ride throughout the year only giving brief breaks in the highest of heat during the summer months of blazing Arizona. This winter, however, I have struggled more with keeping my horses healthy due to the neighboring barns’ constant show traffic. I’ve had 2 bouts of respiratory virus, definitely flu the first time and either flu or rhino the second time blow through my barn. I was very fortunate in that everyone who showed symptoms continued to eat and do relatively well; but I obviously curtailed the training (and did no hauling in or out) until they were no longer coughing/blowing snot. I did resort to more in hand exercises with those who were recovering nicely but still had mild symptoms. We’re coming into the time of year where the weather is mostly perfect and as a result will be upping the ante on my training/riding of my 2 main beasts with the hope of showing third level at recognized competitions with one and introducing my other, younger beast to the show ring. I say ‘hope’ because the huge show barn that borders my property is getting ready to take their horses to one of the larger shows (2 weeks long) which is local, so they daily are hauling horses to and from the show grounds. I expect I’ll be hearing a lot more coughing and ‘issues’ [again] and just pray that between vaccinations and hygiene practices that my guys will muster through unscathed/uninfected. Physical fitness isn’t that much of an issue because mine are out 24/7 and often can maintain condition with my trail riding; but, 2-3 weeks out of training/schooling due to respiratory infections can definitely blow holes in the plan and cost some heavy entry fees since it’s impossible to have the crystal ball to know, should you? or shouldn’t you? Only time will tell.

[QHEventer]

@B-burg_Dressage Congrats on your pregnancy! This is the first year I’ve taken off too, but my horses are home and trying to keep my footing from freezing is more work than it’s worth. Hoping to fix that issue before next winter!

@candyappy Thanks! Mine are also out 24/7 but I have the worlds laziest mare, until she isn’t ! She’ll go from shuffling her feet barely trotting to full-blown caprioles within a second on the line when she’s feeling good! I may put out some poles to keep her brain engaged and actually IN her head when I start her back!

@beowulf Right?! I don’t mind giving them a week or two off to rest their minds and bodies, but when they’re off so long they lose condition it becomes an issue! Mine are also out 24/7, but while they have a couple of acres to move around, they typically park themselves at the hay feeder all day long.

I love your plan for getting your horses fit again. Our driveway isn’t quite as long as yours (1/2 mile) but it has some steep hills so like you, I’ll probably start them back just walking the driveway a few days a week.