How many rest days does your horse get?

ladywiththebaby

ladywiththebaby

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Mar 6, 2007
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My sister in law is just buying her first horse and I am going to help her exercise it, but we aren't sure how many 'days off' it should have. In its current home, it is hacking and hunting and jumping, but we will just be hacking.

Also, can you ride a horse more than once a day? We are planning to share the riding / days, but on some occasions, I might need to have a lesson on 'her' day, due to my RI's availability. Would that matter to the horse?

:confused:
 
In the unlikely event that i could ride every day, I would def give the horse one day off. As far as riding twice in one day, I often have a lesson in the morning then a hack in the afternoon - I just have to put up with a grumpy mare when the tack comes out again for a second time;)
 
tend to give them all a day off so I can get one!!

there should be no problem giving it more than that one week or not at all another so long as you are not working it so hard it needs one. how is it being kept? if it is stabled then try and get it out for its day off.
as for being ridden twice a day if it is fit enough then it should cope perfectly well.
 
Depends on how hard they are working and how fit they are, Bo can work 6 days a week twice a day (up to 3-4 hours a day) when he is fit and would happily do the 7th day too, but at the moment he is not so fit (on purpose) and has only been doing about 3 days a week and would find everyday/twice a day a bit harder for a while until his fitness built up.
If I were doing a hard lesson in the am, I would only like to do a fairly easy hack int he pm though :p
 
Mine doesn't get a set day off a week - realistically, he doesn't work hard enough to warrent it, although I am rarely able to ride every single day, whether I have plans for the evening and no time, or am not feeling too well, so he generally has one or two days a week when he's not expected to work.
When he is in work and not off on the sick :rolleyes: , we only really do half an hour of fairly gentle schooling (i.e. enough to get him warm and working but rarely enough to sweat) with one short hack out a week. A few days a week, we lunge instead of riding, and once a month, my RI schools him for me (and boy does she make him work! :D )
 
When Joy was at the riding stables she used to be able to be worked 4 hours a day 6 days a week. She never was used that much but that's where her capacity lies (she's 6 and a welsh sec D).

Obviously I don't ride anything near that and it really does depend on what you are doing and the level of fitness for the work to begin with :)
 
I think it's nice to see them just being horses at least one day a week. My horse will look up, wherever she is in the field, then it's head down, and getting on with the business of chewing, and herding, and strolling, completely ignoring my presence, but I don't mind. She loves her day, or sometimes more days off. :)

Roseanne xxxxxxxx
 
It depends, I would never ride Mayo every day as I haven't got time anyway. Plus to me its a lot more important just having fun in the field with him, doing liberty work and so on. Riding to me is just a small part of it, I enjoy spending time in the field with him a lot more. Depends on the horse I guess as to how much you should ride!!
 
I ride twice a day over summer, but cut the workload for each session slightly so he doesn't do too much. He's fed high energy feeds accordingly, and is fit enough to cope. I wouldn't have two lessons in one day, and if I was having a lesson I probably wouldn't ride at all before hand.

He gets time off when he needs it, or when I need it. So it's not very often that he's completely off, but sometimes I decide we just want a slow and short hack, and it's enough.

Edited to say, when I say I ride... this year we'll be incorporating longreining, and more lunging. We can also jump, so there'll be schooling, schooling over fences, playing over fences, lazy hacking, working hacking, lunging, freeschooling and longreining. I couldn't do the same thing twice a day every day!
 
Do as many days as you like. The horse I ride, I go up once or twice a week as I am at uni and the stables aren't that nearby. The owner can't ride at the moment and he is only going out with me so once or twice a week. We are only schooling and hacking at the mo. He was doing about 5 days a week but as owner off he cant but RI said its fine
 
I ride three times a week at the moment. Tuesdays and wednesdays and saturdays, she could do with riding abit more and i think her owner is going to start riding aswell on a sunday soon which will be good.

As long as the horse is fit and willing there will be no problem.

Yeah i think one day off a week is enough!
 
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