# Need your Encouragement yet again please



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Ok, I am over the flu, there is only a few inches of snow on the ground and one of my horses is really itching to go for a ride, so.....I usually don't ride in December until March but it's been mild so I need all of you to tell me to get out there and go for a ride. Last time I posted something like this was in the summer & I was gonna beg off going to a horseshow with my daughter, but you all talked me into going. Appreciate that, need it one more time please?


----------



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Get your butt off the couch and go riding dammit!!! That work for ya? Seriously, I do not know of any circumstances that cannot be made better by going for a good ride.


----------



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Go riding. Winter weather is the time to dress up like a marshmallow in a snow suit and run through the snow... like a boss.


----------



## mildot (Oct 18, 2011)

Do you have an indoor arena available?

I could not imagine not riding through the winter.

Edit: I prefer riding outdoors even in winter, but right now both our trails and outdoor arenas are mud bogs and swamps.

This rain has got to stop......


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Right on thanks! Actually I rarely sit on the couch, I go do kickboxing instead, but I really need to cut a trail in the arena before we get more snow.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

mildot said:


> Do you have an indoor arena available?
> 
> I could not imagine not riding through the winter.


No indoor arena, if I did, I wouldn't need your words of encouragement. If the snow is too deep, I don't ride, period. Horses hate it & so do it but it's only 4 inches out there.


----------



## mildot (Oct 18, 2011)

How deep is too deep?


----------



## uii (Dec 26, 2011)

Is it a wet snow, or a dry snow?


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Hmmm, I would saw a foot or more, too bouncy jumping through that. When I say one horse is itching to go, I see the other guy (my showhorse), hiding, he hates, abhors any kind of riding in snow, he pouts. His sire on the other hand, doesn't mind a short hack in medium snow.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

uii said:


> Is it a wet snow, or a dry snow?


Dry snow, this is the Cariboo, high altitude, nose bleed type dry.


----------



## Sairys (Dec 22, 2011)

Riding in the snow? All I thought of was all those really iconic pictures of foxhunters burning trails through fresh powder and having a blast. 

GO GO GO. Even if it's not THAT epic, I wish I had snow on the ground here to ride through right now (badly, but even a frosty trot would be fun). Where I am, all we'd be burning trails through is fresh mud. Go and let us know how it goes (maybe pics? ) so I can live vicariously through your ride in snow wonderland. :3


----------



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

I wish we had some snow on the ground. So far a very wet mild winter in our area. While it's a nice change from the blizzard we had a year ago, it doesn't make for very jolly outdoor riding.


----------



## mildot (Oct 18, 2011)

waresbear said:


> Dry snow, this is the Cariboo, high altitude, nose bleed type dry.


Love your part of BC. My favorite.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Ok, thanks, thoroughly convinced I will go riding tomorrow before work. Yes I will take a picture & post it so I can't back out. Appreciate your help everyone.


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Well, i went for a ride in the dripping rain, all alone. Was so peaceful, just me and Mac. What a nice boy he is.


----------



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Riding in snow is so much fun! Glad to hear you're going through with it! I will look forward to those pictures!!!


----------



## sapphiresrider (Dec 19, 2011)

Get your horse out


----------



## Caitlinpalomino (Nov 16, 2010)

RIDE!!!!! haha Just do it.. I feel the same sometimes but I then end up going and love it


----------



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Caitlinpalomino said:


> RIDE!!!!! haha Just do it.. I feel the same sometimes but I then end up going and love it


I think we all do at one point or another.. but I always feel so much better after getting in that saddle


----------



## Elessar (Dec 28, 2011)

Let me put it to ya this way: the cubicle walls are grey, the carpet is grey, the sky is grey, and the general mood is grey. If I could get out, I'd go, so, YOU HAVE TO GO FOR ME, and everyone else that can't. Enjoy the freedom that you have and ride, baby, ride!


----------



## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

I would like to hear that you have been riding on your faithfull steed in the snow. But I do ask that you take just a little care. 
I want to hear that all goes well.

Bring you horse in from the fields. Give him a wash and a good groom. Trim his hairs. Make him look pretty. 
Clean his tack and wash your own riding gear.

Then prepare him. Lunge him first in a training arena - use a pessoa and a bridle with a soft bit - if you know how. But check his fitness.
Check his feet, his breathing, his back and his mouth.
Also check that his tack fits.

Choose from your riding friends a good rider, who owns a well schooled horse and ask him/her to ride with you. Explain it is your first for a little while - if they don't already know.

Pick your route. Plan the ride with your friend. Feel confident and safe.
Choose a nice day for your outing.
and 
When you are ready - go and enjoy your ride. Not too many canters, mind for even random ice is slippery.

And tell us all about it.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Ok there's another post & pictures. Sorry Barry, I didn't trim no whiskers & both horses were in their paddocks on their own, so no bringing them up from the pasture. Scotty always looks pretty flash anyways. My tack was already clean as I store it indoors in a pretty posh tackroom I designed.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Sorry, we don't lunge or ride with friends, we are way beyond that, besides I doubt anyone would wanna travel up 2 steep mountains to ride with me lol. And we don't ride on the road in the winter, way too icy & steep. Reason why my winter riding is curtailed but today was a gooder....


----------



## QHriderKE (Aug 3, 2011)

Glad ya did it!

I ride in the snow all the time. just gotta bundle up!
Bareback in the snow. It's just too fun!




 
And then I went on a cow-checking adventure!


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Sounds like Peanut is snorting at the cows. Hopefully we don't get anymore snow, this about all I can handle, usually we have close to 2 feet by Feb. Hoping not this year.


----------



## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

To we West Europeans, it is amazing as to how you guys cope with snow. In our world if a mere couple of inches of the white stuff falls from the sky, then the so called sophisticated world in which we live, comes to a grinding halt.
Crowded motorways slither to a halt, airports close, schools are shut and we all huddle indoors close to the heating radiators.

As for taking our horses out such chilly days, well one little slip of one iron shod hoof on an icey tarmac surface over which invariably we would have to cross, is enough to send us skurrying off back to the stables for fear of tearing ligaments.

But over one Christmas past, I did manage to ride out with a couple of friends in the Brecon Beacons on a faithful steed named William. That day we wandered over the moors for a couple of hours on a crisp sunny day. I remember it still. The countryside had been transformed by the snow.

The biggest problem for me had been driving the fifty miles from my home to the stables. My horse coped magnificently with the slippery surfaces - much to my surprise. At the beginning of the ride it was me up in the saddle who was tense whilst anticipating any sudden slip but William a Welsh Cob/ Hannoverian cross knew his job.


However in our part of the world, there can be snow one day and overnight a warm front might blow through, in which case most of the snow will disappear and leave behind chaos and a brown, slippery sludge.

Father Christmas would have wheels fitted to his sledge in our part of the world.


----------



## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

*Snow UK style*

This photo taken a couple of years ago in the Brecon Beacons looks down into a valley. We'd been chasing Charley with the local farmers hunt, but he was nowhere to be seen. No doubt he had been hiding in his lair.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

That is a beautiful picture Barry.


----------



## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

WB, on horseback I took the photo up in the Brecon Beacons behind the town of Brecon in Sth Wales.

The man in hunting gear was the whipper in. He was looking down and across the valley for a couple of lost hounds. From a position below in the valley, he would have been seen as lord of all he surveyed.

It was almost the end of one memorable day chasing an elusive fox, which we never did find. No matter.


----------

