Exercise !

[Jay.o]

In the summer i try to take timmy out for about 4 hours a day and loves it, he can go longer but i get tired at all the trotting ! lol !

In wither, i only get to take him out for an hour aday, 5 days a week. and 2 hours for saturdays and sundays ! it gets so dark and cold, he gets more irritable if he gets annoyed or spooked by something ! [birds is the latest thing - nasty experiance with them ! lol]

Do you think that he is getting enough exercise for a day in the winter ?

He is turned out all day and night so can run about a bit !

Thanks !

P.S. how long and often do you give you horse exercise ?

[Gracie]

I think your giving him more then enough, especially in the summer.. 4 hours?
Not to put you down but what do you do in that four hours? Trail riding? Or actual riding....

I only ride my horse 4-5 days a week.. winter/summer. And we only for 30 minutes to an hour. But she is younger! How old is your horse?

[Jay.o]

it is timmy the shetland !
i walk him along trails and bridleways, through streams etc...
we do stop for breaks for a dronk in the stream and a carrot !
i dont ride him, its not intense riding just relaxing trail rides !!!!

[Cochise]

Is it the fittest shetland in the world title you are after?wow!The shetlands next to Cheeky just sit in the paddock all day having babies and eating and standing around looking very sly then all of a sudden cute.

My horse is what you would call an all round sport horse. I SHOULD be doing at least an hour to an hour and half 6 days a week, but not more than that~! and over winter I hardly to anything! Spring trials are from March to April and Autumn trials are September to November so he doesnt need all that much work, and i am only doing a couple of small dressage days in the winter months next year. Even now in the lead up to Xmas and New year, he is getting less and less work to give him a little break while I am away for a week and then I will bring him on again for a dressage meeting on the 19th of January.

So I wouldnt worry about Timmy not getting enough exercise!

[Gracie]

ohh I never knew you weren't riding him!
Is he too young for riding? Because four hours maybe too much if hes young, they have low attention spans!

[Emma_G_NZ]

I think what you are doing now will be fine for Timmy!
As for 4 hours being too much, she did say that she took him out for walks in the forest- Which I am sure Timmy loves!
But for now, in winter, what you are doing will be fine :)
He's a very lucky pony! :D

[Wally]

Timmy is only a baby, I don't think Jay.O is a super fit marathon runner who is running with him for 4 hours.

Shetlands are built for HARD work, 4 hours of hard work a day for an adult Shetland I wouldn't bother about so long as he is well cared for and fit (I think Timmy is not going to fall into a neglected catagory at all) I'd back down a bit on the 4 hours in summer until he is mature, but 2 or so of gentle pottering about will be fine, so long as you are not trying to make him use his brain for 2+ hours. Mental and physical work for a baby should be kept to short bursts.

An hour a day in winter is brilliant, again so long as it is just pottering and bonding and just enjoying each other and the view. No serious lessons for an hour.

A Shetland in the wilds will walk ALL day looking for grazing. I have seen them move over 20 miles in a 12 hour period just pottering about. A bit of a pain when you are looking for a particular horse to catch.

Our Shetlands too live out all the time, in a huge acrage of hills and moorland, they potter all day. In the winter they may only work at weekends, but as they have big hills to climb and each other to play with they exercise themsleves and keep them selves suprisingly fit.

To be honest, if I was training (seriously) or driving or riding him I would not do more than an hour a day summer and winter until he was at least 5 and had time to mature mentally and physically, but since you are just messing about and he seems happy what the heck!

Don't forget he's only a baby though. If he gets sour leave him alone completely for a while to be a horse.

If only all Shetlands had his life!

[Jay.o]

Ok, thanks every one !

I do only potter about, walking with about 5 - 8 short trots !
Its mostly getting him to understand me and listen to what i want him to do. I am Schooling him, but out and about with the country and woods. [so he doesnt know it ! [shhhh]].

I am not schooling until at least 4.

I dont want to bore him that why we go out and do stuff, not in a school. And some some said that he may have a low attansion spam - well he does unless its something fun for him !!!! he gets bored eating !!! [i know very wierd !!!] but you can see on his face he thinking of a plan to plot !!!!

yesterday while i was in london [shopping yaya !!] i asked david to feed him and said it was fine [and also bow]. but i came back today to see them and timmy had rubbed up against the post and actually pushed it over [with the help of he mate blacky [partners in crime lol ]].

I may cut it down the four hours in the winter if you may think hes haveing too much ! but he didnt seem that he was out of breath or tired, oh i dont know ! i will se how he is this summer and think about it !!

If only all Shetlands had his life!
He's a very lucky pony!

thanks im flattered !! :D ! LOL !
only joking, but thanks !!!

yeh hes only young - 2 and a half.
no hard work yet, but in a couple of years maybe !

p.s. some one down our road said that a fully grown shetland, in a fit condition, should be able to plough all morning and then be able to ride into town in the after noon ! i think some one on here said that aswell [wally ? or floppy ?]

any thanks again people !!!!
:D :D

[Wally]

Plough all morning then carry a man to Eið in the afternoon, Eið is about 12 miles away. This is how the old chap down the road, who is about 90, describes a good Shetland.

They have been bred a bit small now, but my friend who rides her Shetland as well as drives him is an adult and older than me. She is only tiny, about 8 stone on a wet day! Her husband rides him to his summer field about a mile and a bit up the road. It's what working horses have always done up here. Mind you Hobo could pull a house down, small and weedy he most certainly isn't.

Pants, choked again tonight, not his teeth, just a greedy little so and so! That's 3 times this year, Frances and I have got it down to a fine art now to clear his pipes. He will have to have nothing but Alfa beet made so sloppy he can drink it.

[Jay.o]

yeh a man down our road said about that but he was saying about 10 miles [near enough !]

what does he choke on ?

timmy tries to eat a certain food really fast [he loves it] and chokes a bit but nothing serious !!!!! this has only happened one in the first week we got him. he was a bit underweight and obviously a bit hungry too !

bow is more of the laid back type, spends all day to eat him happy hoof and hi-fi lite !! lol ! wonder over for a drink, little nap then eat again ! wonderful personality !

hmmm....sorry gone a bit off the subject there !!

[Cobby]

I think timmy is a lucky pony too. So many shetlands are kept virtually as pets in fields, and end up fat and naughty - probably because they're bored. These ponies, like all the native breeds, have plenty of strength and stamina and are usually happier leading active lives.

[Wally]

Pants gets, sugar beet and chaff. If the weather is really, really coarse he might get a few oats or barley to keep him warm. Remember folks, the weather up here is like no weather you get in England or Scotland! Whatever you do don't give oats to a Shetland living on a field of grass doing no work!


He wolfs this down and gets it stuck, then chokes. he cannot swallow his own saliva and this builds up until it comes down his nose and he starts to cough and splutter. We have looked at his teeth lots, even the vet cannot find a cause, only being a greedy so and so!!;) :eek:

So many folk look at Shetlands and say "Aaaww, how cute" They think they can be treated differently to a TB because they are only small. Beleive me, they have twice as much mischeif in them as a TB and need twice as much amusement to keep them out of mischief.

This is why they have such a bad reputation. folk buy them because they think they are like a big dog. They have 200 times he strength of a big dog and need treating like horses....no I take that back, they need treating like ponies with more brain than is good for them. Big horses tend to be far more generous to a fault!

I do love them though, they have so much cheek and sense of humour!

[Jay.o]

i know a few people that keep them as company for their bigger one but not once been taken out or handled, just sat in the field, fed and everything [not ill treated] but no love really, no attention, i doubt they even get groomed !
i too, am a shetland lover. david has 5 of them !! you probally have more wally, but they all have an individual character and so cheeky !
how come shetlands got a bad name ???
i never thoguht that they got a bad name ?
i havent lived as long as you probally !

[Wally]

How many folk think that Shetlands are "cute" all of us I expect, except those who have come across one who hasn't been brought up properly. Because they are so small they attract the wrong owners, someone who thinks they are like a big dog and need no dicipline. They have the brain and strength of 10 horses when they want their own way.

At the sales here, they are sold unhandled, wild from the hill, they fight like a wildcat at first. If you do not train them and tame them they will remain difficult and not for the fainthearted. So couple a wild hill pony with a novice owner and you have recipe for disaster. As you say, folk keep them as pets and companions, the devil makes work for idle hooves! and what devilry they come up with when bored. Work them, play, teach them tricks anything to keep that wicked little mind from thinking up his own tricks and you'll have a smart, quick learning little ball of fur who is very loving.

Beleive it or not we don't have that many,- have owned lots, but as we have to be 110% sure with them around kids we are very, very fussy which we keep and which we sell on.

If they do not want to be kids ponies then they go on to driving homes. Only the ones who enjoy working with kids and are 100% worthy of trust we keep. At the moment we have Fivla, Shilling, Andy and Charlie only 4, but we have sorted these guys out of maybe 20 wannabees who just didn't make the grade. If kids were not involved we'd be less fussy, but I canot allow folk to let their kids on ponies who I do not trust to be kind. If I wouldn't let our kids round them I wouldn't let anyone else's. As Shetlands attract tiny kids I have to be doubly sure about the ponies we use. I wish we had more as good as Shilling and Fivla...Andy Pants is just ......well, a cheeky little hooligan who can have you infuriated one second then have YOU eating out of HIS hand the next. Kind, but too darned clever for his own good...and everyone elses. He'd make a brilliant circus trick pony, he wants to perform.

[Mossy]

last time I had working knowledge of a shetland I was 6! He taught me to get off very quickly! He wore a saddle pad and was the only pony I have ever me who would roll, any place anywhen on any surface, with or without a rider! Cute and cuddly he was not!!!As regards keep I would guess they are much the same as Highlands, live on fresh air and can cope with HARD work. Moss gets oats as an extra boost when hunting fit, he is at the moment, and he is like a turbocharged pogo stick!
As regards weather I can maybe visualise the weather you get as we get it yowling across Dartmoor! At my old yard I have gone flat on my face in a feed bucket, whilst trying to use my body to keep the feed in the bucket for the horse in the field.