Generally, people tend to give their horse a day off per week. I’m interested to know how you find your horse when you ride him/her after their day off.
I enjoy my days off with Ben – he generally has one a week. I spend ages grooming him and often take him for a little in hand walk around. However, the next day when I get on him again, he is always more difficult. If I try and school after a day off, it takes me ages to get him back to where we were, and if I try and hack him alone he becomes nappy. When I ride him everyday, he is much better and seems happier. When he had a week off, it took me at least a week to get him back into the swing of things. He is a horse who loves his routine and I’m wondering if it actually in his best interests to give him a day off or just keep riding him every day. He doesn’t work particularly hard and we try to vary our activities so we do a mixture of schooling, jumping and hacking each week.
Do you all give your horses a day off? If so, why do you do this and how to you find your horse after a day off? He is refreshed and raring to go (which is surely the point of giving a day off), or are they more resistant?
I enjoy my days off with Ben – he generally has one a week. I spend ages grooming him and often take him for a little in hand walk around. However, the next day when I get on him again, he is always more difficult. If I try and school after a day off, it takes me ages to get him back to where we were, and if I try and hack him alone he becomes nappy. When I ride him everyday, he is much better and seems happier. When he had a week off, it took me at least a week to get him back into the swing of things. He is a horse who loves his routine and I’m wondering if it actually in his best interests to give him a day off or just keep riding him every day. He doesn’t work particularly hard and we try to vary our activities so we do a mixture of schooling, jumping and hacking each week.
Do you all give your horses a day off? If so, why do you do this and how to you find your horse after a day off? He is refreshed and raring to go (which is surely the point of giving a day off), or are they more resistant?