PrintThere are many different theories on how much rest a sport horse needs and how often, but everyone agrees that horses benefit from vacations.
In 1950, when I first became involved with horses on a daily basis at the Stoneleigh Prospect Hill School in Greenfield, Mass., the frequently harsh conditions of the New England winter created automatic downtime for horses.
There were two big differences between then and now with respect to winter riding. There were almost no indoor arenas, and almost no horses were transported south for the winter.
The second World War had just ended. The United States had struggled its way through both the war and the Great Depression, and the economy hadn’t recovered sufficiently for individuals to build such expensive “luxuries” as indoor riding arenas.
It was possible to transport horses south, but not only was the economy depressed, there was virtually no interstate highway system. Most roads were narrow, two-lane affairs, which went through rather than around towns and cities, so travel was slow and arduous.
Another big difference from modern times was the poor quality of the actual trucks used to haul horses. These were big, top-heavy wooden boxes with limited suspension, which rattled and banged their way down the relatively primitive roads of that era.
Basically, the 12-month-a-year show season that we take for granted in 2010 simply didn’t exist 50 or 60 years ago. We rode outdoors in the winter, if we rode at all, and we didn’t haul our horses any more than was absolutely necessary between December and April.
Riding in December, January and February was always cold, frequently icy, and even the die-hard riders might be excused for giving their horses protracted breaks.
A Different World
I don’t remember that these long breaks caused too many problems. True, the horses who were kept in standing stalls (a more common practice when I was young) used to stock up, especially behind. Also, horse blanket quality was terrible compared to now. They were enormously heavy, not very waterproof, and they always fell off, so if there were days of cold, icy rain, horses tended to get stuck indoors. Outdoors they’d get soaked and chilled to the bone. Snow was no problem; cold rain was the villain.
By mid-March in southern New England, we’d have some nice days for getting out on the muddy roads, and usually by the end of April, most horses would be shod, at least partly shed out, and ready to get back to serious work.
It’s a different world today, even in the northern tier of the United States and in Canada. Serious riders either take their horses to farms with indoor arenas for much or all of the winter, or they head south—to the Carolinas, Georgia or Florida on the East Coast, or to Arizona or Southern California on the West Coast.
What these changes mean in practical terms is that the once automatic downtime either must be artificially created, or the horses will work 12 months a year.
There are enormous differences of opinion about what kinds of time off are most beneficial to equine athletes. Some advocate the probably old-fashioned idea of, “let him be a real horse, where he can get muddy and dirty. Pull off his shoes and chuck him out in a pasture with other horses for two or three months.”
