Make the most of your time in the saddle
Daylight is limited in winter, so it’s important that when you find time to ride, you make the most of it. Finding motivation and inspiration when it’s dark and cold is tough, but there are ways to make even short rides count. Whether you are hacking out, lungeing or schooling, sticking to a plan and practising certain moves and exercises can ensure both you and your horse get something out of every session.
➤ Ride and lead
If you have more than one horse to exercise, try to ride and lead on hacks, if it’s safe to do so. It not only saves hours while making the most of valuable daylight, but if you saddle up both horses and swap halfway through, you know that both horses have been suitably exercised in one go. Find out more about riding and leading on page 36.
➤ Identify and set goals
To ensure you make the most out of each ride, write down goals for yourself, your horse, and your partnership. Make these goals realistic and break them down so that you can focus on one or two of them each session, even if you only have 20 minutes.
➤ Bank of exercises
Make the most of the long, dark nights cosied up in front of the fire by making a list of the exercises you can do during a schooling session. Place the list somewhere that you can access before you ride, such as the tack room. It’s hard coming up with inspiration when you are short on time, but this way, you can look down the list while grabbing your tack and pick a few exercises to work on during your session.
A few examples could include:
● Transitions between and within paces
● Circles — 30m, 20m, 15m and 10m
● Serpentines
● Shallow loops
● Shoulder-in and shoulder-fore
● Pole work and cavaletti (you don’t need many)
● Leg-yielding
➤ Warm up and cool down
Even if you are limited on time, it’s important to warm up and cool down your horse thoroughly, especially when it is cold. When warming up in walk and trot, you could focus on getting your horse to stretch across his back and lower his head and neck into a long and low frame. This should take at least five minutes at the start and end of each session.
➤ Getting out and about
Hacking is not only good for our horse’s bodies, but it’s really important for their minds too. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time so you don’t get caught out in the fading light, and always wear hi-vis so you are seen by other road users. Make the most of your time hacking by practising transitions and lateral work as long as it’s safe to do so. Short sessions can be really effective if you ask the horse to knuckle down and work: do some lateral work, find some hills to work up and down for example. You don’t have to go fast or far to have a good session. Alternatively, visiting an all-weather track provides a safe place to do some short, faster sessions, providing your horse is fit enough. You don’t have to gallop!
➤ Lungeing
Sometimes, a quick lunge is all you have time for, but you can make it fun by putting a few poles in the lunge pen to work your horse over. You could also practise transitions and different sized circles, or add a few ground poles, so your horse isn’t simply going round and round.