When you say "winter off", how much do you mean?

[2boys]

How long do you give?

[snbess]

This year I'm hoping to give 2 months off...but it might stretch to 3, depending on how the weather is in February. Weather permitting, I'll start to build muscle and flexibility in February with hill walking and caveletti walking and some free lunging if I can trailer out.

Sandra

[kellyb]

Totally depends on the situation. I've yet to give a full winter off...but I have really scaled back on riding before - just pop on my horse 2 times a week and take a stroll around the farm.

[saultgirl]

Winter off?? Never heard of it! :)

I've always boarded with an indoor, but if I had to rely on the weather and daylight, my horse would be off for about 6 months per year!

[Simbalism]

My horse doesn't get "the winter" off. I live in Va so we have decent weather give or take a few days all winter. I probably ride a little less in December between getting ready for Christmas and attending parties, etc. I usually average 4-5 days a week in the winter of riding.

[amdfarm]

I voted 3 months. Don't have an indoor and the weather is always real iffy as far as footing and temps. My body doesn't like winter and I hate the cold. I did go for a little jaunt in the pasture today, about five minutes, in the dark as the temp was above freezing and there was no wind. So the majority of any riding is bareback (nekkid, the horse, NOT me) when I know the footing is safe. If I had a one horse sleigh, I'd probably do more driving just to get out and enjoy them more.

I don't mind just feeding and fussing over them though. I've got a lot of youngsters and two 3yo's will be started in the spring (my son exclaimed tonight, "Why wait until spring?" Cause it's warmer and there's less chance of ice and snow getting in our way.) I reminded him there's always ground work that's easy that we can do if we have a decent weather day, like today/tonight. He was up for that so we worked w/ a couple of them.

[Sansena]

Last year Docky got 2.5 months off.
This year, I've had to move him out of state (no income + DH surgery = no tiime for Doc). He's going to have 4 months off total. Not the optimal situation, but I can't afford to keep him closer to home right now, and can only make time to see him aprox once every 2 weeks. Good news is, he's adapting to his semi feral life quite nicely.

[Huntertwo]

No time off... ;) Only time we take off is like right now in New England. Freezing temperatures and that is only because I'm freezing. She can handle it. I'm the wimp.

[4whitefeet]

Living in NC, our winter only lasts for a couple days at a time, then its warm again. So we don't really take any time off unless we get some snow on the ground. You know and inch of snow will really slow you down trying to get to the barn. :lol:

Gotta love the south...:winkgrin:

[Bluey]

When we were training in the East, we went to Southern Pines NC for the winter.
There we could keep training, fox hunting and showing in schooling shows all thru the winter.:cool:

Here, we just trained race horses all winter, regardless of the weather, until we quit training them.
Now, older and wiser, our horses tend to get all winter off, other than the occassional time cattle are out and a four wheeler can't get around, which is very rare, so they get the winters off any more.

Our horses don't seem to mind.:)

[LSM1212]

Didn't vote as my horse doesn't really get any time off, per se. But we do slow down in the winter time (Dec, Jan, and early Feb). We have an indoor at the barn so I can still ride but I just do more light hacks and just walk around the property a bit if the weather and footing permits. No more real field work or riding in the outdoor most of the time. I also cut back on lessons (2x month instead of 4x month) and focus much more on flat work and poles. :) We both don't do well in the cold weather but he's better if I keep him in light work than no work. I do at least one "putzing around" ride a week. :lol: But I do set 1-2 goals for us over the winter to work on. Stuff we need to polish up, etc. so we do have some purpose during our rides. :D I probably ride the same amount of days (4-5 times a week) but just lighter work. And if I miss a day here and there, no biggy. ;)

We start gearing back up mid to late Feb. to get ready for the Spring shows.

[ddashaq]

My horse is having the winter off due to daylight constraints. The barn I am at is perfect other than the fact that the arena has no lights and there is just not enough time after work to get out there and have enough light left to ride. This year I do not mind as next season we are only going to be doing starter level eventing and walk/trot dressage to start with.

[Giddy-up]

Last show was Sept & then I won't ride until Feb with the younger one. The older horse might wait until April. Not 100% sure on the game plan for next year yet so it could change. I am a "weather wienie" so my horses get turned out when it's cold. :D

[Rhyadawn]

Winter off for me means lots and lots of beautiful trail riding when there is too much snow on the ground to find the ring. So Dec to Apr usually

[Trevelyan96]

We only ride on weekends from Nov through March due to short daylight and time constraints, and I usually have very low expectations of what we'll accomplish through the winter. We don't get snow much in my part of MD, but the cold and rain bone chilling, the footing sucks, and I'm a total wimp about the cold. I do have the option of trailering to an indoor on weekends, but most of the time I don't bother. I may be more 'active' this year, as there's a dressage schooling series I want to do, but I probably won't be ready for the Jan show.

[olympicprincess]

I used to give 6wks or so off from the week of Thanksgiving through New Year's.

It really was the best time when I was in college and had finals and the Holidays.

My horse had 5mo off from work this yr due to hoof issues, so I won't be taking off unless the weather is too bad to drive to the barn.

In the future, I think Dec & Jan will be the time I take off.

[Beverley]

When I hunted back east, they went hard through the winter and got a bit of a vacation, at least reduction to light trail riding, in the summer.

In Utah, they have it easy over the winter, because I like to ski. But, since I tend to try to get some foxhunting in beginning mid-February, I do start achieving fitness after the holiday guests leave around New Year's.

That means, although I checked the 'one month' box,' they'll really only have 'mostly' off from this weekend thru the first of the year- because we had nice weather thru yesterday and so I took advantage- not enough snow to ski on yet, at least for spoiled people like me who live 20 minutes from the slopes.