As I sit down to write this on a quiet Monday morning, the temperature outside hovers right around 60 degrees even though Thanksgiving was last Thursday and Christmas is less than a month away. For Pennsylvania this warm streak is very unusual, but I’ll take what I can get, especially when normally this time of the year the horses are bundled up like marshmallows and I don’t leave the house without three pairs of socks on.
Winter is a tough time for riders. When its 20 degrees out instead of 70 we are naturally less inclined to spend hours at the barn. Our toes are cold. Our hands are numb. Our horses are crazy because we haven’t been able to ride as regularly as we did over the summer, and we haven’t been able to ride because our horses are crazy.
It is a vicious circle.
So before the cold REALLY sets in and the ground freezes for good (unless it has already where you live) take the time to sit down and figure out a Fitness and Conditioning Plan for your horse(s). I’ve found if you write stuff down and stick it someplace you will be forced to look at it often (probably around your computer would be best) than you’ll be more likely to follow through than just telling yourself you’ll ride on Saturday. Decide what you want for your horse. Some riders rigorously compete and show all through the Spring, Summer, and Fall so for them Winter is a great time to let their horses unwind and take a few months off. Other people want to keep showing year round, so giving their horse time off isn’t an option. Personally I do not show in the winter, or have any clinics to go to, so I will be riding and exercising my horses purely to keep them in shape. Come Spring time I would love to have two well muscled machines, but we’ll see how it goes. Once you have a plan, you need to execute it. If you have an indoor than you really don’t have any excuse not to ride. But be realistic. The holidays are coming up. You’re probably going to be away on weekends. It gets dark earlier now. If you used to ride five days a week, don’t stress about cutting it back to three. Just be consistent about it. Don’t skip riding for two weeks and then show up at the barn and put your horse through a three hour workout. That’s how injuries happen.
Winter is a great way to work your horse in different ways than you did over the summer. If you spent nearly every lesson or ride jumping in the big outdoor, switch to dressage for the winter in the indoor. Or occasionally put out ground poles. Do grid work instead of courses. Tune up your flying lead changes. Work on extending and collecting. Perfect the twenty meter circle at the trot and canter. Get your horse stretching all the way down to the ground. There are a lot of things you can do in a smaller space that will keep your horse sharp and in shape.
But hold up, I hear you saying. What if you don’t have an indoor ring? Well then, my friend, this paragraph is for you. Growing up in Maine I didn’t have an indoor ring. I also didn’t really ride that much over the winter, but that is neither here nor there. If you don’t have an indoor ring or a place to consistently ride during the winter, then you need to get CREATIVE. There are lots of things you can do with your horse to help get them in shape and keep them there without even riding. These exercises will also benefit the people who DO have an indoor, especially on days you just don’t have the time to ride or don’t really feel like it.
1) Flexing. You can do this in your horse’s stall if you have to, or even out in their field (with a halter and a lead rope on for safety). Using a carrot or some other bribery tool, slowly ask your horse to flex their head and neck from side to side. Start off gradually – you don’t want your horse to pull something and get discouraged. Also make sure they stretch straight back; lots of horses will kind of duck their heads and cheat, but that doesn’t count. Ask your horse to hold the stretch for 3-4 seconds and go back and forth around three times. Do this four to five times a week if you can, and you will be amazed at the change in your horse’s flexibility. You can also get them to stretch down between their front legs and do some belly lifts to get them to stretch their backs up.
2) Ground Work. Unless you have the perfect horse, I’m betting your guy (or girl) does not have 100% perfect manners on the ground. And that’s OK. During the summer if they balk a little bit when you lead them or crowd you or try to dance on the end of the lead rope you most likely give a little scolding and then let it slide. After all, you have bigger and better things to worry about, like that eight fence jump course waiting for you in the outdoor. But now you don’t have that to worry about, so you can focus on more important (albeit occasionally tedious) things like GROUND WORK! A horse who has good ground work is always conscious of where his feet and body are versus where his handler is. They should follow on light contact from the lead – there should not be any pulling or balking. If you stop, they stop. If you go, they go. If you walk towards them they back up to respect your space. There are lots of ways to achieve this, and maybe that would make a good follow up post, but the best way to get a horse who is always quiet and respectful on the ground no matter what the circumstances is patient and practice. I always start with teaching them to put their head down from the slightest pressure of the lead. This comes in really helpful when Darwin has his head sky high when you’re trying to put on the bridle, or Poppy is trying to reach up and eat a tree branch because she’s a dinosaur like that.
3) Hand Walking. This is a great way to keep you AND your horse in shape. Some people don’t have ANY place to ride once the ground freezes, but your horse should be able to walk without someone on their back on any type of footing, with the exception of ice. So if you can’t ride, schedule in twenty minutes of hand walking a day (make sure you’re horse obeys step number two, first). Walk up and down hills. Walk slow. Walk fast. Walk in the woods. Walk past scary things that you wouldn’t dream of riding past. Walk up and down the driveway. If you’re feeling really invigorated, do some trotting. Hand walking seems simple, but it will help keep your horse in shape and take some of that pesky “winter energy” away. It gives them something to focus on, and gets them out of the ring… which you can’t go in anyways.
4) Free Lunging. This is a personal favorite of mine, whether it be winter or summer. Free lunging is a GREAT way to get rid of any craziness and it can be a good training tool. All of the horses I work with are good at free lunging. They walk, trot, and canter on voice command. I can get them to spin and change direction with the slightest twitch of my shoulder. They stop and turn in when I signal. It’s fun to see how far you can progress from your horse running around like a maniac humming “I can’t HEAR you, I can’t SEE you” to having them react to your smallest body movement. The only thing about free lunging is that you need a safe, secure place to do it in with good footing. A flat field with fresh snow is great, as long as your horse can get traction. A frozen or icy or really big field won’t work, because they could slip and/or tune you out.
5) Miscellaneous. A few things fall into this category that seem simple enough, but will really help keep your horse in shape both mentally and physically during the winter. a. Grooming
b. Body Work: massage, chiropractor, acupuncturist
c. Trail Riding [if your horse is bad on the trails, try a month or so of hand walking him on them first and then try riding]
So that’s it. My five tips to keeping your horse sound and sane this winter. If you have any more tips, post them in the comments! I would love to hear from you.
I told you that so I can tell you this. Yesterday I was riding a connemara/QH in the outdoor ring. I could tell the minute I got on she was going to be frisky, and my right leg had no more swung over the saddle than she started trotting. I brought her back, did a few leg yields to get her moving laterally off from my leg, and went to work. Since she wanted to go forward I let her go forward. We did serpentines, diagonals, circles, and figure eights all at a smooth collected trot. I focused on switching the bend constantly – left, right, left, right, straight, left, right – to keep her focused on me instead of the scary things lurking in the corners (I’m moving those damn white cones tomorrow!) and a few extensions and collections down the long sides. Foolishly thinking she was now going to be well behaved, I let her take a walk break before going into some canter work. 
When she immediately jumped straight into the air like a jack rabbit and proceeded to go into a series of top over tea kettle bucks that would have made a bronco horse proud, I knew I had made the correct decision: when in doubt, hop down and free lunge the shit out of them.