Winter Goals/Plans

[atr]

@pony_baloney. I would echo that no, you are absolutely not a wimp! Riding horses is not for the faint of heart and you are out there doing it!

My winter goals primarily involve our negotiating all 4 corners of the indoor arena with snow crashing off the roof and surviving. Neither my horse or myself are huge fans of riding indoors, but I have to be the one to make him feel safe about it.

If we can do that, along with all the basic “just riding better” things, I’d like to work more on the quality of the canter half passes, and heck, yes, the trot ones too. I aim to raise the scores for those by a point by next show season.

I’m very fortunate (if also very broke) that I’m in a full training program that I love. If the weather is too bad for me to get to the barn, (40 minutes of freeway driving over a difficult mountain pass.
I’m not risking life and limb for my hobby,) horse gets a great training ride.

[netg]

I missed most of 10 months of riding this year due to health issues (mine) so basically just trying to get fit again. I’d like to get our second level qualifying scores fairly quickly, then get basics down firmly enough to send her to training boot camp for changes. Every horse I’ve had before has changed practically automatically from a good canter and being set up. She has a big canter I do not want to mess up, so I want pro help!
As much time as I can spend in lessons at a pro’s place the better, as I’d love to be part of putting them on. Since the other part of my winter plans is finalizing details for breeding her via ET.

[Manni01]

I am a bit late to the thread but hopefully starting tomorrow I will have plans .
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Fingers crossed my new horse will arrive tomorrow . I have been looking for a 3rd level possibly 4th level horse for some time and I found it incredibly difficult… they are rare, pricey and most of the time don’t pass a PPE.. I was so lucky I found this guy. He is a Trakehner, incredibly well bred, now 7 won a FEI class for 6 year olds (about 3rd level) and simply the most charming guy ever . Originally I went to his barn to try another horse which didn’t work out at all and when I got ready to drive home, the owner asked if I would be interested to try another horse which did not exactly meet my criteria but she thought it might be a fit… and she was right he just got on the market so I was the first rider trying him and he was extremely cute and willing. I went home and made an offer and we found an agreement . And now hopefully I have a potential 3rd level horse for this season

[steelerino]

Beautiful! @Manni01

[SimonSays]

Exciting- he looks lovely!

[Lunabear1988]

Looks lovely

[outerbanks77]

@Manni01 what a gorgeous boy, and a stroke of luck that you got to see him first!

@outerbanks77

This will be my first winter in several years with no indoor, so it really depends on what kind of winter we have. The arena at the new barn drains well, so if it’s not frozen solid for weeks on end, we should still be able to keep riding. If it is frozen, or we just have really rotten weather, I’ll be lucky if I can haul out 1-2x per week. I just told my husband yesterday that if I’m not able to ride much this winter, I’m going to spend the time at the gym and just get really ripped.

Winter so far has not been too bad, so I’ve been able to ride consistently. I got out of my comfort zone last weekend and hauled 3.5 hours each way to spend the weekend with my coach (she does not come to my area during winter due to lack of indoor arena access). It was good experience for my mare, and we got confirmation that she is stronger and improving as compared to when she saw us about 3 months ago. I’m actually happy that it’s now gotten cold enough for the ground to freeze up and I can give her a week or two off. We’ll resume in earnest mid-February!

[Pico_Banana]

Our winter weather has stymied my plans. My outdoor ring has been either too frozen to use or too wet. I’ve been trailering my older one to my trainer’s when I can, but I don’t trailer when the roads are bad so that hasn’t been too often either. Desperately hoping for some warmer weather soon!

[Hawks_Nest]

Winter plans are to keep getting stronger and develop my boy’s collected trot more and work on the 1 tempis. He is solid I1, has the piaffe and passage (mostly), just needs strength and a more expressive trot to bump his scores up some more. Thankfully we have an indoor, so I can ride through the winter. I don’t always though, because freezing my legs off isn’t my favorite activity.

[luvmyhackney]

We are about 2 weeks behind and will need additional time to build fitness. It’s been too cold to ride even with an indoor.

Thankfully we have baby goals that are still obtainable.

[netg]

I had a clinic with Jeremy Steinberg, where I was quite impressed with my mare even though she’s always good she was the best behaved she has ever been. Even though she had more than a year without going anywhere. She couldn’t sustain her uphill balance and we need to build more energy into it, but the fundamental reactions to build that direction were there. We know where we’re going toward being ready for changes plus I suppose showing second level, though to me that’s more an afterthought compared to continuing to develop. I’m so pleased she was so good with so little work, and we took enough rest breaks to ensure she wasn’t overworked. She was just mentally with me, and her suppleness and responsiveness I worked on in my few rides stayed there, as opposed to how it had been going when we traveled to shows.

VID-20250104-WA0011

[Moss]

I’m actually teaching my Fjord to pull a little cart. We’re just working in the closed arena right now and focusing on “woah” and “walk on” all at the walk. She dragged the tire yesterday, and did an awesome job. I let her get caught in situations with the expectation that she will immediately stand still and wait for me to cue her. Well, the tire got caught in one of the cavalettis, and she stood with all four feet planted and waited for me to help her out. I had previously taught her all of this when she was a youngster.
I don’t know if I will get into driving or if this will just be a tool in our toolbox when we take a break from dressage, but it’s a lot of fun to work on. Plus, it will make her dressage aids a lot better. Her Fjord side also seems to really come out, and she appears to really enjoy driving. Her favorite is definitely getting out of the arena and going for hack, but it’s blisteringly cold out, and while she might love the cold, I hate it.

[piccolopony]

You guys look amazing and what a smart mare. It’s so lovely when they start to really mature and be rideable even when everything isn’t “perfect”.

[TwiSedai]

My “will not pick up the right lead” greenie is now getting his leads pretty consistently! If anything, he is now more likely to pick up the right lead over the left. Going to spend the rest of the winter keeping it up, getting stronger and more balanced.

Unexpected, yet fun, side effect of him getting stronger: he’s getting hotter, at least for a mostly-draft. He’s forward and sensitive enough that I can do a walk to trot transition with only my seat, which is a cool new thing to experience. Far cry from the “will not trot more than three steps” I got from him in the beginning.

[enjoytheride]

Admiring ya’ll going hard all winter. I rode up until right after Xmas, then we hit heavy snow followed by extreme cold and I haven’t ridden since. Hoping to get back on today. Even with a small indoor it’s just no fun to ride when it’s 20 degrees after you’ve done chores in 45lbs of clothing. My area doors froze open so it snowed inside and my “we’ll get them dug out and closed” was a month ago, and I think it’s just now thawed enough to get them dug out and closed.

[kaya842]

I too was riding consistently (for me) in Dec, actually on a very good streak until the snow about 3 weeks ago that just thawed out today. Coincidentally today was the first time I’ve ridden since Dec. Just trying to build myself and my horses’ fitness back up and build consistency in just doing the thing.