A break does the world of good.

[Sunshine-x]

My grey lad had 2 months off after the hunt season to give him a break and let him grow up a bit as he came out a bit light as a lot do. Well he has grown a lot! He is 5 now and a full 16.1, with a real deep girth and looks cracking. The past few weeks I have been hacking him about, just getting back into the swing of thing. Yesterday I took him in the school for the first time and he was fairly on his forehand and a bit wiggly but still well behaved. Today I took him back in the school and the difference is unreal, I could really put my leg on and ride him up to me. The break has done him wonders, he is so much more together to ride and really listening. It has made me realise how badly I ride though, he would be so much better with a good rider on him!! The next couple of weeks will consist of more flatwork and hacking, then he is going to come up to Warickshire with me to possibly have his first sidesaddle on!! I am very excited and it is definitely motivating me to school him (I usually just hack about!) So anyway, what I am asking in a round about way is how many of you give your horses a break, and if you don't why not??

 

[Lemme]

Ours are turned away end of Septemer and brought back into work March if weathers okay - we have no facilities for keeping them going and don't do enough to even consider clipping and rugging, they are always nice and fresh coming back after the time off.

 

[Rubic]

I don't really give Rubic a break as such. She is such a good doer that if I were to completely stop working her like you have stopped working the grey lad then she would balloon. I don't do as much in winter though because of the weather so I ride less. There's definitely much less schooling going on and hacking is a little more restricted. She'll usually get 2 weeks off here and there when the weather is really bad (quite frequently in scotland!). She is 12 so no growing and there should really be no maturing left to do either. The other thing is that without Rubic I would have no horse to ride. I bought a horse so I could ride her, not let her sit about in the field when she is perfectly capable of ridden work. If I felt she needed a long break I'd give her it but I actually think it'd do her more harm than good. She had about 1-2months off ridden work recently because of injury and yes she feels better but that is probably more due to the fact she isn't sore anymore!

 

[sophie33]

My share horse is off tomorrow for a four week holiday in a field with two of her stable companions. She doesn't get enough turnout generally so I feel she really deserves some time to just be a horse. Hope it has a similarly beneficial effect!

 

[squidsin]

My horse is only lightly ridden so I don't think she'll need time off. (Although she's having 2 weeks off now due to slight lameness in her near hind.) It'll probably happen naturally in winter when I'm trying to juggle riding her with the school and nursery run, work, the terrible weather and 6 hours of daylight we have then anyway!