How many days a week do you exercise your horse?

Gattino

Gattino

Happy Appy
Jul 16, 2012
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Ireland
Just wondering how many days a week you ride?

Does it depend on your horse and kind of work you do and do you vary what you do each day?

At moment have horse on trial, hopefully will own him soon, just bringing him to a show (without competing) next week to make sure he is ok in a new place. If that goes ok then sale goes ahead.

Anyway at moment he works six days a week with day off, I have had him on trial a week tomorrow and he had the same day off he usually does.

Towards end of Sept I go back to college at night two days a week, so is it ok to ride 5 days a week. It would be 4 days riding, day off, 1 day riding, day off, 4 days riding etc.

One of the days would be a lesson so more intense probably, then schooling other days (but varied what work on), hopefully will be able to hack some of time but depends if someone around to go out with for a proper hack though.

I don't live too far away luckily (20mins) and finish work by 2:30/3 which will be good in winter with less daylight and have weekends off.

Also how long do you ride for each day, at moment as so warm and just getting used to each other been riding for about 40 mins apart from lessons which are 1hr.

Thanks :biggrin:
 
Depends on a few factors for me..

Horse:
Fitness
type of work
surface

Me:
time/work
two to ride/hubby ride

Hubby:
If home in time to ride one

Other:
Weather eg now if its too hot then hack or not at all

If off work I try to ride 5/6 days varying what I do depending on their fitness too. If working I try to ride 4 times a week. If weather prevents it i still try to get them moving or turned out or spend the time with them grooming/massage/groundwork etc.

I dont ride for an hour every time cos often find shorter more productive blasts achieve more although hacks can be longer of course. I like to start sometimes with short hack to loosen up as works better for my mare then school short time and cool off on hacking track.
 
I aim for 'most days.' That's it really.
I am NOT exercising tomorrow. I am knackered! My legs ache! I'm going to the cinema with my husband and drinking wine and I am going to try not to bang on about my horse too much over pizza beforehand!
 
It is entirely dependant on madams health, my shifts and weather/other joa need doing.

She is more pet than anything else. It probably averages once or twice a month
 
Appley

Summer - 5/6 times a week, which includes 1 private lesson and 1 group lesson this year.

Winter 1-2 per week (we have no school or lights!)

Angel

2-3 times per week, just hacks

Winter 0-1 depending on how she is doing :)

Julia
 
I ride Ben every day in all weathers. He does have the odd day off and he has the occasional week off when I go on holiday, but on a usual week I ride him every day. We do a mixture of everything - jumping, schooling and hacking and we have a private lesson once every 2 weeks. I tend to ride for about 50 minutes to an hour each day, and in addition to this we also do in-hand walks. At weekends I try to ride him twice a day - early in the morning and then again in the evening, so he will do about 1.5 hours each weekend day.

I don't think that he works hard really. He needs to be exercised lots to keep his weight down and his body is now becoming so lovely and toned. He actually has muscles!
 
ATM about once a week. Twice if we're lucky!
Ideally I'd like to aim for 2 hacks, 1 flatwork and 1 (pathetic attempt) at jumping but the heat is hindering us at the moment because I'm getting there at the hottest part of the day and it doesn't seem to be cooling down much in the evenings.
 
I have a new horse so still trying to figure out a routine, but in general I will aim for 5 days a week mainly hacking with one or two schooling sessions thrown in a week. But it really depends on work and weather.

Unfortunately with it being so hot just now I don't think it's very fair to ride, he has just stood in a field for the last month so isn't fit enough to cope. It was still 29 degrees when I got up to the yard last night!!
 
5-6 days (sometimes 7 days) a week when my horse is actually in work. Usually more schooling than hacking but I try to aim for a hack a week. I enjoy schooling and jumping more.

Decreasing it by a day shouldn't be too big an issue unless your horse is a good doer. You can play it by ear though and increase the intensity of the exercise you do, decrease feed, feed soaked hay or muzzle or strip graze etc if that starts to become a problem. There are loads of things you can do that would more than make up for decreasing exercise so slightly so I wouldn't worry about it too much!
 
Thank you all :biggrin:

Haven't figured out if he is a good doer or not yet lol.

My instructor will be schooling him for me one day a week (some weeks anyway), so that will be included in the 6 days while I am not at work during summer. I'll be watching so can learn from her. He needs it as is a bit young, and she can teach him how to do some new things if that makes sense.

So if i find in future he does need the 6 days work that is an option for her to do on day I can't get up.

Tomorrow going for little hack down to field and off road track with two other riders. There is a little water tray thing there so going to let him cool his hooves in that (will follow one of the other horses through) :giggle: Nice for us all to get out of arena when we can.

Going well and I am getting more used to riding without being given instruction and having to tell myself what I need to do etc.

He is a very good boy at standing still when mounting now, a week ago he'd keep wanting to move and try and walk off once on. Really happy that he now waits til I give the aid to walk.

Anyway I am rambling :redcarded:

Thanks for sharing what you do with your horses :biggrin:
 
In the summer....

Finn - 2/3 times a week
Buff - 2/3 times a week
Roo - 1/2 times a week

That's what I aim for...but it usually doesn't happen :giggle:

Winter...

I only have the weekends to ride/exercise so just depends If the weather is okay or not! :cold:
 
I also think it depends on what you want to do with your horse, I mean Belle wouldn't care one jot if she was never ridden again and I honestly believe that most horses are the same, but if you want them to be able to jump a clear round or hack for hours over the countryside whatever then you going to have to ride to keep them fit for the purpose if that makes sense.
I ride when I feel like it and don't if I don't and have at last stopped beating myself up about it if one day I don't want to ride for whatever reason, as a rule Belle get ridden 5/6 days a week summer and winter normally but sometimes it's only four days a week or maybe none at all (holidays)for anywhere between 20 mins and 1.5 hours depending on what were doing that day and how much time I've got.
 
Generally I ride about four times a week but it can vary down to as little as one ride if I'm just not in the mood or the weather is bad or I'm busy. We are first and foremost happy hackers and in no need of a schedule other than when we are getting fit for the one show we do every year. I don't generally ride any more than four or five times a week as I sense my horse's displeasure - he's a bit of a lazy bum!!
 
This is one of my problems really, I aim to ride/do something with each of my three about 3 times a week but it never really works out that way for one reason or another so, sometimes they get ridden more than others.

If I am working on something specific with one, I tend to ride that one three or four times a week then the others miss their turn. In some ways I would be better off and make more progress just having one horse but the situation is, I have three and I love them all so I just have to juggle.

Fortunately they are all pretty chilled and remember things well, so gaps in riding/handling them don't seem to create to much of an issue.
 
I am very much like MP, Ginger is ridden at least 6 days a week, mixture of flatwork, jump and hack, I try and give him a day off as he is worked hard each session.

Chanter on the other hand is my leisure horse he is hacked 5 days a week.

I love riding my boys and it is never a chore :smug:
 
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