# How often do you ride your horse?



## jumpingtothemoon (Jun 16, 2017)

Hi,

Everyone has different training schedules for their horses depending on age, turnout, temperament, goals, etc. so I thought it would be fun to see how often everyone rides their horses 

For me, I ride mine 5-6 (mainly 5) times a week. This consists of one jump lesson with my coach and 40 minute flat rides for the rest of the week with some poles integrated in each workout. We are showing the .9 jumpers this year so obviously I need to keep him in consistent work. He's 13, super chill, gets some turnout, so that's my situation. 

What about all of you? How often/long do you ride your horses, what do you do, and what sort of stuff/goals do you have/want to do with your horse?


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## Paintedponies1992 (Nov 17, 2013)

Depending on weather, averaging about 4-5 times a week. Mondays is an hour lesson for myself and my mom (who's a beginner and I'm just taking lessons to help build up stamina and to learn tips for training my own horses). The rest of the time is just trail riding and putting miles on my Quarter horse and working on a Paint to be ready for my mom to ride this summer. The trails last about an hour or more, and the end goal is to have my green mare ready for off property trails and to get my mom on the trails with us on the Paint mare. Also like to add we ride western and all the horses are on 24/7 turnout with shelters.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I have two horses (actually three, but the third is my daughter's horse so she has to ride her) and I try to ride each 2-4 times per week (usually ends up being exactly three times per week each) to keep them in good riding condition. Usually ends up being three times per week each. About 45 minutes at a time, although I'm trying to work up to more like an hour. I often ride them one after the other on my riding days. 

I feel like, for their health and fitness, it would be better if I could ride them each four times a week, but I just don't have the time. I work on whatever each one needs that is within the realm of my competence. e.g. for Pony keeping him straight, making him go over ground poles, riding out in the street or pasture; for Teddy, working on bending, keeping a consistent pace, anxiety, and moving forward we'll be doing very low jumps.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

3-5 times a week. 

I didn't ride him this past week because I was sick and also snowed in at town 3 days. Because I was gone, he didn't get different hay as I'd planned starting last Sunday. 

Wow, was he fresh today. Just miserable. Too much energy and didn't know what to do with it. Well, he had an idea, but that wasn't going to work for me. .


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## ClearDonkey (Nov 27, 2016)

Over the school year, I ride my horse at max, once per week. This is usually closer to every other week and throughout the winter, once a month. It is a 40 minute drive each way, and I just don't have the time with work and school.

During the summer, I ride my horse 2-3 times a week, but I am usually on a horse every single day as a trainer. This year I'm hoping to ride 4 times a week, as I am bringing along an unbroke horse also, but that depends on work and gas prices, bleh.


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

0. Unless 10min of handwalking counts.


When sound, 5-6 days a week. Dressage work, field hacks, occasionally pop over a fence, lesson a few times a month usually. Goals? Ride my horse again.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Oh, I guess I didn't see the whole question when I responded. My horses are on pasture 24/7, so fortunately even if I can't ride them, it's not like they would be wasting away in stalls all day. In fact, sometimes I go out there and get to see them running around and play fighting, which I love because they just look so happy. If they were in stalls, I would feel like I had to ride them every day or almost every day, depending on how much turnout they got. They are both fairly young (one is maybe 6.5 and the other maybe 8) and as far as I know they've never been stalled for more than a few days at a time. They both are fairly easygoing guys who have enough energy to do the work I ask them to do, but not so much that they come in overly frisky (most of the time LOL). I sometimes wonder how that would change if I had to stall them. I hope I never have to find out.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

About 3 times per week. All trail rides of 1.5 hours on average.


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Ride 5 to 6 days a week trails 4 hours sometimes longer. Right now about 1.5 hours of riding weather permitting. Only did 4 days this week do to snow storm, made for poor footing.


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

1-2 times a week, trail ride, one hour at least, rarely above two hours. For both Hamlet and me, this is strictly a hobby...neither of us has aspirations to achieve greatness.

He's on rough board with a nice big pasture and a beautiful shelter (raised so it won't flood, with arena footing). I interact with him almost every day after work - sometimes just brushing, some desensitizing, some "liberty" goofing around. 

We do everything in moderation!


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

Every morning for 1 to 2 hours and then sometimes a different horse in the afternoon. When camping, I ride about 3 1/2 hours a day. Just about always trails with an occasional activity like barrel race, parade, horsey soccer, field trial, or fun show.

My goal is for me to be on top and the horse to be on the bottom every ride.


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## redbadger (Nov 20, 2017)

I don't have a "my" horse (ie I don't own or lease anyone), so most of the time it's once a week.  Last Spring & Summer, I could sometimes bump it to twice a week by drag-riding for trail rides. When the nice weather eventually comes I'd like to be able to do that again regularly. Nature of the work-beast is that I could never ride every single day, but on the flip side even if I worked two 24's that would afford me a lot of leeway in barn-time.


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

My horses had the winter off due to so much rain and mud. There is an arena where my paso is boarded but it's extremely dusty and full of pigeon poop. And he's semi retired anyway at age 26. The good thing for me is no matter how long I wait in between riding him he's always the same. He is like a poster child for what brio really means--a controlled energy. My kmh will be going to a trainer in a few weeks to see what all he knows, if there's any holes in his training to be worked on and just as a refresher before we start up riding season again.


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## Countrylovingmamma (Feb 27, 2019)

Weather permitting and schedule permitting I try to ride my mare at least 4 times a week. But some times I can't get a ride in at all due to weather ect.. She has had most of the winter off not ridden at all due to winter weather conditions here so when we do start riding again I will start off slow with maybe short half-hour rides and work into longer. On average though I try to trail ride around our property about 1 -2 hours at a time. When she is not being ridden her and our gelding have a large pasture they roam and run in so I don't feel to bad about not ridding. Along with I get them out daily to graze on lead and to light ground work unless the snow or ice is to bad. I am big on even if they're not being ridden that they at least get handled for 30 min or more every day.


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## DreamerR (Dec 17, 2017)

Every. Single. Day. 

I am very tired. 

It's very hot outside. 

But I love it.

I get 4 lessons a week all consisting of jumping and once a week we are trying out Dressage. The other 3 days I ride Bee


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## NavigatorsMom (Jan 9, 2012)

3 times a week is our usual max lately. Just due to work schedules, weather (we are currently making our way into hail and rainy season here, yay...) and other "adult life" obligations. Wish I could do more but it's just not feasible right now. Mostly arena work, but I split it up between dressage practice, poles/small jumps, and a lesson every other week, and then I try to do a little hack around our rural neighborhood most times. I wish we had more real trails around here, I think I'd probably hack him out much more if we did. I try to mix things up though so Nav doesn't get bored of the arena. We usually ride for 30-45 minutes, but I am typically at the barn for close to 2 hours whenever I'm there.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I ride about 5-6x a week.  For about 30-40mins, sometimes an hour at a time.


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## Tihannah (Apr 7, 2015)

During the winter months when the days were shorter, I mostly rode on the weekends only. But now that we have daylight after work again, I'm riding or groundwork/lunging 4-5 days per week. Rides last anywhere from 25-40 min depending on what we're working on. My horse is a baby, so basics and foundation are our main focus right now, but dressage is our main discipline.


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## apachetears6 (Jun 7, 2018)

jumpingtothemoon said:


> Hi,
> 
> Everyone has different training schedules for their horses depending on age, turnout, temperament, goals, etc. so I thought it would be fun to see how often everyone rides their horses
> 
> ...



I trail/dirt road ride, two hours ride time one hour prep and cool down every day, time, weather and circumstances permitting.
Some weeks I get a whole week of three hour ride time. Others I get at least one to three.
Some months such as our last January I did not get to ride the entire month except for saddle pad rides on my property.


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## vonlora (Mar 28, 2011)

Usually do an hour or so meandering down the trail every day. But I live in California, so weather is generally not an issue.


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## Jenandcharlie (Nov 26, 2020)

This is the first winter owning my own horse Charlie, I have had him since march. I work full time. Hes on a livery yard, I'm struggling to ride now as nights are closing in by the time I finish work and early mornings getting too cold🥶. Lucky I dont work weekend. So would once a week be enough to keep him good under saddle. Hes a good boy doesn't get excited when ridden. I've worked hard with him through spooking. But hes different horse now doesnt get excited when ridden. So I can some weeks ride both sat and Sunday would this be ok 😳


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

These days? Sometimes not even once a week. Usually we try to get out at least weekly for a couple of hours trail ride but sometimes it's just a walk to the end of the road & back or over neighbours properties, few KMs. Lately, because Bee the foal (& me!) can do with the exercise and she isn't quite up to being ponied yet & her mother isn't broken in yet, we just all go for a walk for a few KMs each day. 

Today someone left the gate open & when I brought them out, they all bolted up the road... & then down the road. & then up again...(it's a very quiet dead end Rd, no stress) so I figured I they took themselves today!

Been working on float loading last week with Bee & we plan to take them for an outing this weekend - bushwalk somewhere different. Can't wait till Darcy starts this mare - reckon she's going to be a nice ride. But she is his project so I am doing very little with her till he starts her. He had his first sit on her last weekend...


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