# how long do you work your horse



## brandig (Nov 12, 2006)

how long do all of you work your horses? be it round pens or loungeing ground work etc? i have always done about 1 1/2 to 2 hours if i needed to 2 1/2 but that was pushing it. normally i try abotu an hour and a half with jewels. is this too long? i have jut had someone tell me that i was going way too lont and to do 15 to 20 minute sessions??


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## sparky (Dec 14, 2006)

it depends on how my horse is that day. If she is in a bad, cranky, stubborn mood, i might work her for 2 1/2 hours if she is not doing what i ask. 

I usually ride for and hour, maybe a bit longer. We do lots of everything. Because she is uneducated, i always go over things we have learnt. At the moment we are working on legs aids, so if i use my right leg she will go the the left etc. 

I see no problem with riding your horse for 1 1/2 hours.


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## kristy (Dec 8, 2006)

I ride my older horse for an hour max. I ride the younger ones longer, no more then 2 hours.


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## [email protected] (Dec 8, 2006)

I do whatever i can find time for personally i try to work/train for 45 minutes max, but usually it's 20 -30 mins, but i ride for longer if its just pleasure, when i work younger or uneducated horses it's usually about 15 -20 mins, i try not to overload them and always end on a good note (of corse  ).


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## aussie_jumper (Dec 22, 2006)

i ride all my horses for about hour-2hrs and it keeps them fit... sometimes i give them a good old bash(not literally) ariund the gallop track and jump and then end with dressage...

i see no prob with you riding for that long..


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## cowpuncher (Dec 27, 2006)

Depends on the horse, what it's level of training is, and what job I have to accomplish that day. 

First ride on a colt? fifteen minutes is long, although I might put an hour in sacking it out with the rope and saddling the first time. 

First thirty days on a colt? 45-90 minutes, although it might go longer if I have a fence to ride that needs work. That can be an all day ride, albeit at a walk with lots of stops. 

Branding? Maybe twenty or thirty minutes for a green colt, four or five hourse for an experienced working horse.

Gathering cows off the mountain? ten or fifteen hours is not unheard of.....


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

I don't do much in a round pen or arena. Most of my rides are on the mountain. Young horses get an hour at easy walk. 4-5 year olds will go out all day. 

I keep my horses pretty well "Legged up" I don't tire them out so they are dead beat. But rather stay out long enough that they pay attention to me and stop fooling around.

My horses seem to enjoy a good trail ride. It gives them so many things to see and deal with. Corssing logs, streams, dark shadows, hikers, mountain bikers, pet dogs, birds like pheasants and turkeys exploding from cover, deer spoking and running off. It all helps the young horse learn to trust me. If they get a little excited, I can make them turn circles around a sagebrush until the calm down. If they really get excited, there is usually a steep hill close by to make them climb and burn off excess energy.

I agree you have to ride them in an arena or round pen long enough to fell comfortable that you can stop and control them prior to going on a trail ride.


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## Sandra (Dec 31, 2006)

Hi  
I ride my horse usually only 30 minutes - one hour but not more!! I think it also depends wheather you do dressage, jumping or whatever. Sometimes I longe my horse but only 45 minutes till my horse is easy-going and relaxed!! :wink: 
Sandra


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## barnrat (Jan 1, 2007)

alright, young horses should only be ridden and in training for 20-30 minutes, I read an article (if anyone wants to read it just tell me, I will find it) that because there young they have a short attention span and that they cant concentrate for more then 20-30 minutes. 

However......

The horses that are trained and fit can go all day, thats what I find.


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## royalrox (Jan 6, 2007)

If I'm riding alone I tend to be able to have a short ride (not a second is wasted) but if your riding with other people it tends to be longer because you can't do exactly what you want right at that moment you have to work around others. But with my four year old I like to do a short but useful ride 30 min usually if he goes without problems.


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## wyleeluver (Jan 7, 2007)

brandig said:


> how long do all of you work your horses? be it round pens or loungeing ground work etc? i have always done about 1 1/2 to 2 hours if i needed to 2 1/2 but that was pushing it. normally i try abotu an hour and a half with jewels. is this too long? i have jut had someone tell me that i was going way too lont and to do 15 to 20 minute sessions??


 I normaly work my horse for about 45 minutes if she is being good but if she is bad i work her for an hour


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## barnrat (Jan 1, 2007)

An article by John Lyons and Keith Hosman

How long should you ride your horse.


A person is able to keep his attention span for about 20 minutes before something else enters his head. The coffee pot he left on will come flying into his head. A saddle sore, his wife, something. So the best amount of time to ride a horse is for about 20 minutes, then give yourself a 10 or 15 minute break and ride for 20 minutes again. If you know you're going to work for 20 minutes, then you can focus and stay working hard for 20 minutes. But during that twenty minutes, you want to make something better. Ask yourself "What can I make better?" Find one thing and work to make it better. 

The key to training is to find improvement in what you're doing. That's what keeps you going, what keeps you wanting more. You should never be satisfied with what you've got or what you've done. "Satisfied" is another word for "content" and that's another word for "quitting." Then you can't go any farther. So never be satisfied and you'll find that there's always more to it, there's always more to want. 

Always raise your expectations. The whole time you're riding, you need to be looking for the moment when you can begin asking for more. You're looking for something to make better. Not everything, just something. Say you're starting off and you're just kind of moving around. You're just out there changing directions. You don't care how it looks; you're just changing directions. After awhile you should begin staying in one direction till you see the nose start to go down, or you feel it start to soften up. Then build on that. Always ask for something to get better. Either he stays going the same speed, or his nose stays bent to the inside, or he softens upâ€¦ something has got to get better. Stay there holding your horse until something improves, then release him and change directions. 

The more the horse has to think about, the more chance the horse has to think, like trying to get to the other horse or trying to get out the gate or thinking about that back. The more you give him to think about, the less choices he has so give them something else to think about. Pick up speed, slow down, change directions. Soften his nose up, drops his ears, raise his ears, change direction, break at the poll.


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## rodeobunny (Jan 15, 2007)

The amount of time I ride my horses depends on how fit they are and what I'm trying to work on with them that day. My two main rodeo horses, whom I ride everyday and are in very good condition, normally get rode 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon. For my other horses, who aren't normal rodeo horses so they aren't competed on as much, get rode 1 1/2 hours in the afternoons.


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## heartshunters (Jan 13, 2007)

I usually ride for an hour to two hours, or somewhere inbetween.


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## crackrider (Jan 23, 2007)

I ride anywhere from 2 to 4 hours but i do endurance on them so we cover a lot of distance in training and when they are in full work they only get ridden every second day or so. 
In one training ride we can go anywhere from 10km to 20km and then usually once a week we do 30km or 40km.

All this riding is done on different trails so it doesn't get boring for the horses.


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## Raini (Jan 15, 2007)

I work with Raini on the ground for up to an hour and a half sometimes longer. I usually ride her for about 30 minutes to an hour. I usually school horses for about 30 minutes depending.


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## savepitbulls (Jan 2, 2007)

Jeeze some of you must have some serious thigh muscles to train for 2 1/2 hours. I can't even i_magine_ schooling a horse for that long. When I'm starting the babies I work them for 15-25 minutes depending on the horse and what I'm trying to accomplish. I don't like to "finish" horses for other people (people are too darn picky) but with my own horses I don't usually ride for more than an hour. Seems to me that longer than that starts to be counter productive but that's my opinion and my experience. If it works for other people then good for you. Now being up in the mountains or doing endurance I can totally see being out all day on a horse that can handle it. What kind of day could be better, really? Course being pregnant now I don't ride at all and I'm about to lose my mind.


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## Obrien16 (Feb 14, 2007)

*!!!*

Wow, what type of riding do you guys do?? I ride hunter/jumpers....and most of my schooling sessions are a max of 45 minutes. If I'm jumping with another rider, and my horse is getting breaks in between, jumping sessions may be an hour or more. Conditioning hacks on the trail I'll usually be out for 1 1/2 hours depending on the weather and my horse's condition. I also have days where I'll hop on for 15 or 20 minutes and if the horse is responsive and working well for me, I'll finish there. Young horses I keep it really short, 20 minutes of riding max. All my horses are happy and in great condition with this regimen!


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## Razeal (Jan 29, 2007)

I do whatever I have time for. I work full time and have 3 horses, one is only siutable for very light work. I usually dont start work till about 2pm but go till about 1am. Somedays though I have so much to do like paying bills,appointments and groceries etc that I just feed them and shoot to work. I try to ride my young ones 4 days a week, usually about 20mins of either flatwork or roadriding, weather permitting of course. Sunday is the big day when me and a few of my friends go hacking around the mountain, another friend rides my other young one and sometimes we are up there for 2-5hrs.


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## jumpingqueen (Feb 17, 2007)

About 1 hour for each horse, every evening, it's kinda like a habit, that I never really break, I like it though!


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## Friesian Mirror (Jan 11, 2007)

I try to make sure I brush Rose and Gypsy every evening if I can and I spend about and hour or so just grooming them. It's been to cold for anything else lately.


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## brandig (Nov 12, 2006)

i'm so glad i'm not overdoing it with her!! thanks guy for the input!!


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## BeautifulBay (Jan 25, 2007)

When a new horse has to be conditioned, I only ride for a half hour, keeping it an easy ride. As time goes by, I make the ride a little harder, doing more trotting and up to a gallop, but keeping my time the same....as he gets into shape, I add more time to the ride gradually. This seems to work really well at getting them into shape. 
Lunging, for a horse that need to get into shape, I do about 15 minutes, but sometimes that has to go longer because you can't end on a bad note, so once I get what I want, I let them stop. 

With Ella, since she is in shape, I ride her anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours....depends on the day and her behavior. Some days are so much nicer for a ride!
When I lunge her, I only do about 10-15 minutes. She doesn't need a lot of time on the lunge, and I don't do it often with her at all. I tend to keep it as a back up for needed respect, if she shows a sign of losing it during a ride.


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## GaitedHorses (Feb 20, 2007)

Are you talking about riding in general or training?

The 5 year old I'm training...I'll ride her for a max of about an hour and a half, minimun, about a half an hour. I ride her about once or twice a week.

As for the other horses... how much riding I do on them varies with the seasons.
In the Winter/Autumn, I try to ride every weekend for about 5 to 7 hours and after school until dark.
In the Spring/Summer I ride every weekend and almost every day during summer break about 7 to 12 hours and during school, until; it gets dark (between 3 and 6 hours).

As for how many miles I put on the horses, what gaits, and where I ride... I trailride, ride on the sides of the roads, up and down mountains and hills... valleys, etc...everywhere I can get the horse to fit is where I ride. Walk, trot, canter, gallop, and full out run. There are times when I trot for about a good three-to-five miles or so... I put probably over 400 miles on the horses every week in the summer, and probably over 150 miles every weekend.


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## Bentley (Mar 2, 2007)

*How long do you work your horse?*

Depends on your horse, his/her condition, and what you're doing with him/her. Endurance riders have 12 hours to complete 50 miles and 24 hours to complete a 100 miles.


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## spoiledrottenpenner (Mar 26, 2007)

YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CUT YOUR SESSIONS DOWN TO ABOUT 25 TO30 MINS. YOUNG HORSES DO NOT HAVE A VERY LONG ATTENTION SPAN YOU WILL BLOW THERE MIND IF YOU ASK TO MUCH. IF THE HORSE DOES GOOD RIGHT AWAY DO ABOUT FIVE TO TEN MORE MINUTES IF HE IS FRUSTRATED JUST STOP AND START AGAIN THE NEXT DAY BUT IF HE IS JUST BEING RUDE THEN YOU SHOULD WORK HIM UNTIL HE UNDERSTANDS THAT YOU ARE THE BOSE AND HE IS THE EMPLOYEE. I HOPE I HELPED. 8) I AM GOING THROUGH THE SAMETHING WITH MY COLT AND MY MOM IS HELPING ME AND SHE IS A REALLY GOOD TRAINER AND SHE TOLD ME THAT, I HAVE ALSO HAD SEVERAL OTHER TRAINERS TELL ME THAT. - SPOILEDROTTENPENNER


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## Babyrowz (Mar 16, 2007)

Monday: schooling in the rubber menage for about 24 minutes.
Tuesday: ride in the rubber menage for an hour in a lesson, and then a 45 minute lesson with a different instructor in the evening.
Wednesday: day of,but sometimes 30 minutes intense training
Thursday: jumping for an hour in a lesson
Friday: maybe an hour jump.or might ride after work in the rubber menage.or a dressage show in the summer time once a month.
Saturday:day off normally,but if i do ride 20 minutes intense riding in the rubber menage. 
Sunday:either a lesson for half hour,a hack for 2-3 hours,or a show either cross country or show jumping or dressage.


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## wee-lyndz (Mar 24, 2007)

yeh, I think 2 hours is a bit much, but People say that that your horse should be schooled for up to an hour for it to make a difference. Try to cut it down...............................xx


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## kristy (Dec 8, 2006)

Schooling for two hours is fine IF the horse is in good condition and the rider knows the horse's limits. I don't know where people adopted the ride for one hour deal. I think it's a bit silly. Not all horses require the same things.


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## wee-lyndz (Mar 24, 2007)

kristy said:


> Schooling for two hours is fine IF the horse is in good condition and the rider knows the horse's limits. I don't know where people adopted the ride for one hour deal. I think it's a bit silly. Not all horses require the same things.


sorry, I meant that the horse should be worked for aleast 1 hour for it to burn fat and get the muscles working properly, more than an hour is fine if the horse is fit enough, only the rider would know how fit their horse is..........x


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## tumai (Mar 15, 2007)

I agree with Kristy...it does depend on the horse and there fitness levels, I try to end any schooling on a good note with a quiet hack out on the farm, not long but just enough to stretch and relax before going home...to me schooling is about perfecting a skill, practice enough to remember but short enough to keep it interesting.


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