# Don't feel bad if you don't have an indoor...



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

My barn has a very nice indoor arena, and I still can't get a thing done this winter because my horse has lost his mind. There's something about the walls and confinement on an indoor that seems to chip away at the psyches of horses as the winter progresses. It starts with a small spook in late December, moves onto a few bigger spooks and some more overall tension on your horse's body. By February, you're riding a combo/squirrel/time bomb and spending most of the time playing defense from all the monsters. Today the birds showed up and started nesting, so now he's freaking out about all those new sounds too. 

I have not even been able to canter in 3 weeks no less practice my jumping. I can't wait until the 38" of snow we just got melts and we get the first freak warm days so I can get him back outside where there aren't so many monsters. 

I know I ask this every year around this time, but has anyone else's horse lost it's mind yet this winter?


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Awwww, sorry, that's sucks Puck, silly boy of yours. Nope, my horses are better behaved in the winter, probably from trudging through the deep snow and wearing the edge on off them.


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## Lexiie (Nov 14, 2011)

Thankfully no! My mare has her brain on lockdown!

The wind banging the metal siding around will get her once in a blue moon, but otherwise no. Maybe it has something to do with the indoor and their stalls having metal siding. Who knows. I'm just super thankful and lucky!


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## BarrelracingArabian (Mar 31, 2010)

Thank god i live where an indoor isn't needed haha. I feel your pain though scary monsters tend to appear from the places horses see most haha.


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## Poneigh (May 25, 2012)

before I retired my gelding he would get so depressed in winter when i had to ride him inside. my mare never minded though and now we dont have an indoor which sucks!!!!


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## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

We have an indoor but its very crowded in winter. The barn gets pretty busy and we usually have room to spread out. The indoor is pretty decently sized but when you cram 4 horses in there, not a whole lot gets done.

My mare is pretty calm in the indoor but she had been getting crankier and crankier. We were cantering outside just fine until winter hit. I was going to wait to canter her in the indoor since the circles would be smaller and we needed to work on balance. At first she resisted but then we settled into a nice rhythm after a couple days worth of trying.

Now she bucks, which I can ride and push her through. But she hates the indoor and is becoming increasingly cranky for wider spaces.

So am I!


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

My wife's horse hates arenas. Especially the corners. She thinks he was tied in a corner or something tragic happened in one. 

Another horse of ours is a fruit loop outside but is complete opposite in the arena. We nicknamed him Showpony even though he's almost 16hh.
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## Muppetgirl (Sep 16, 2012)

Yes! I noticed my horse getting squirrelly this January and have now moved him to a barn with a semi enclosed arena and lots of turn out......it means I have to wear my tuk and long johns while riding, but the difference in my horse is awesome! He's happy! Not souring up and getting squirrelly!!!


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## BeachinIt (Apr 17, 2012)

So glad I'm not the only one whose horse loses it in the winter. No indoor, not even a fence around the outdoor ring. She's wide open, just convinced that leaf is going to kill her. Sigh.
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## ponyface (Feb 8, 2013)

ugh, losing their minds in the winter? story of my life. fortunately flicka still has a few brain cells this year; last year was just awful. she didn't really get spooky, she just got a nasty attitude that was accompanied by bucking/crowhopping/kicking walls/etc. dum-dum-pony also didn't like getting her girth tightened and would lay down in the crossties. 

like i said, she's better this winter but boy do i know how you feel.


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## Cruiser (Aug 28, 2011)

I tried to lunge my horse twice this winter, both times she freaked out the whole time. The last time I had a bruise on my forehead the shape of the clip. Ouch. 

So we're waiting until the big field has better footing and that she freak out as much as she wants before we work.


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## Phura (Dec 4, 2012)

My mare and I started doing lessons weekly at an indoor arena in Jan in addition to my riding lessons...she actually responded really well. She spooks occasionally on windy days, but her spooks are actually smaller than out in the pasture where we ride and she's familiar with. Trouble with us is the trailer...the arena is only 7 miles away but she's wet with sweat by the time we get there despite the cold weather.  

Last Sat I worked her in the roundpen from the ground and she was apparently feeling frisky and doing plenty of bucking but it seemed to be more playful than anything else...


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## Maple (Jan 10, 2012)

Sorry he's bein a prat!

As I have no arena of any sorts, I would force Bandit to just get on with things. I currently have fields that resemble lakes and/or giant mud puddles to ride in if I dont feel like chancing the road - I dream of sand.. and an indoor? yes puhleeze! 

Tell Puck to sort himself out, that Bandit has no choice but to get rained on so he should consider himself thankful


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

Winter time is super glue season for me. I swear mid October Nasty Brats brain packs up and heads south for the winter. Refuses to come back until mid May. In the mean time I am stuck with super glue on my behind and gripping the holy carp handle on my saddle going "please don't let me die" while snow slides off the roof, sand hitting the walls and her own farts scare the living bejeesus out of her *sigh* Worse of it is... it will never change. She has been this way her entire 20 years of living. Yet I love her anyway and just laugh my way through winter getting ready to try our hand at rodeo bronc instead of eventing.


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## BeachinIt (Apr 17, 2012)

NBEventer said:


> Winter time is super glue season for me. I swear mid October Nasty Brats brain packs up and heads south for the winter. Refuses to come back until mid May. In the mean time I am stuck with super glue on my behind and gripping the holy carp handle on my saddle going "please don't let me die" while snow slides off the roof, sand hitting the walls and her own farts scare the living bejeesus out of her *sigh* Worse of it is... it will never change. She has been this way her entire 20 years of living. Yet I love her anyway and just laugh my way through winter getting ready to try our hand at rodeo bronc instead of eventing.


Bahaha the fart part is so true for my mare.
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## Valentina (Jul 27, 2009)

Have you tried upping his magnesium during the winter, and lunging him before riding? Just athought. Also changing gaits (transitions) every few strides to get his attention focused on him not the birds! :lol:


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Ha! Love the super glue analogy. I finally got a mostly sane horse today. Didn't hurt that it was 45 degrees out instead of 20. It took a little work to get his attention, and I had to be very loud with my aids every time we passed monster hiding spots, but I ended up getting a fantastic trot, decent canter, and some grid work out of him. We're doing a clinic on Sunday. It's supposed to be windy and 20 degrees, so I'm thinking full seat breeches with synthetic saddle!


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## Catpeedontherug (Oct 23, 2012)

Can you take him in the arena and not work him~ just let him chill and listen. Reward the lick/chews.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Catpeedontherug said:


> Can you take him in the arena and not work him~ just let him chill and listen. Reward the lick/chews.


It's just an under saddle, "I'm going to act like a psycho and spook at everything in sight until you call my bluff and put my butt to work while risking your life in the process" sort of thing. He's actually fine on the longe and walks around next to me like a big puppy dog.


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## JustImagine (Dec 2, 2012)

My Arab lost his mind this winter, too, I promise it's not just you =] During the summer, I can not ride him for a week and hop on bareback and he'll still be lazy as can be. Now I can't go 2 days without riding him, or I have to lunge him for 10 minutes to get all his bucks out; he won't buck with me on him, but the more fired up he is, the more he spooks at his own shadow!


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## Shadow Puppet (Aug 15, 2011)

Since my tiny barn doesn't even have an indoor I ride outside all year long even in the snow, we have to squeeze a loader through the gate to get it plowed. But my horse doesn't do anything but get fat and fuzzy in the winter. She actually has more of a brain in the winter than the summer. Backwards horse...


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