POV
Do you turn your horse out to pasture cold turkey or keep him in light work? Phillip: Our last event is usually around the end of October,
and I start them back up at work at the beginning of December, before we head to Aiken. I’ll start them back up at the end of November with walking and then they can start work in December. They get three or four weeks off work that way. Susie: I trail ride, gallop them, and basically just change the
routine. I do have turnouts but they’re not really nice. I used to have grass paddocks but not now. I’ve never taken a vacation in my life; I always have a young horse coming along. Even the older horses need to keep doing something, even if it’s just to go out on a trail ride. I think they enjoy it; they don’t want to just sit around. If a horse is injured I do what the vet tells me; I have a treadmill and I think that’s really good for keeping them going too. Yvonne: Usually at the end of the show season they have
a few days off but they are so fit, I might put them on the treadmill, turn them out with boots on or ride them a little loose and relaxed under tack first, so they don’t run around too much and injure themselves! We do some fun stuff in the winter—we have a huge Christmas show at our farm, with things like a 12-horse ballroom dancing scene, and Kassie and I do the Lion King pas-de-deux at Equine Affaire.
What are the mental benefits of downtime? Phillip: I think the biggest benefit to giving horses a break
is that the horse and I need a little time apart. It’s good for them mentally to be on their own for a bit. Strictly from an athletic point of view, however, I don’t know that it’s best for them to just go out in the field. Susie: Giving the horses a break or changing their routine helps keep them fresh and interested. Just getting them out for a hack can be a great mental break for competition horses. Yvonne: Sometimes a horse is just frazzled—if you pay
attention, you’ll know when they’ve had enough. If a horse doesn’t want to come out of his stall, that’s a sign that you need to rethink something! My Grand Prix horse, GP Raymeister, is doing the CDIs this year. He missed Devon for an abscess due to a hot nail right before regionals, so he missed the end of the season. He did Equine Affaire and our Christmas show over the winter and he seems happy and fresh now. He likes rolling in the sand, so he’s having fun in Florida. At
shows, there isn’t room in his stall for him to roll so I’ll sneak him out on a longe line and he just rolls over and scrubs his back; that’s his little break everywhere we go. I’ll do things like spread out the horses’ meals or give them carrots and apples just to keep them happy during the shows.
Does giving your horse a break mean that he will go sounder longer? Phillip: Obviously you need to consult with your farrier about taking the shoes off. You have to have enough time
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because the feet will chip away, so you have to have time for the foot to grow back. I like to do it at the end of the year because the ground is wetter. I can walk them in the indoor and we have more time for the foot to grow back. If you can coordinate it, it’s not a bad idea for the vet to check the horse out during that time. Also, you need to change their feed accordingly—consult with a nutritionist or feed company. If the horse puts on too much weight, you have to work them that much harder when they come back into work. I think it’s a bit questionable that it helps soundness long
term. Certainly it helps to rest their legs and tendons and everything else but I’m not sure that sitting in the field doing nothing really helps—keeping them moving is probably more beneficial. Yvonne: During show season I run flexions a couple times; I check them all every single day and I think that’s important. You try to maintain their weight and condition through the season but if you need to make any “repairs” in training or condition you can focus on that at the end of the season so that you’re prepared for the next season.
How do you bring the horse back after a break? Phillip: Bringing the horse back depends on the horse.
After three weeks they don’t lose too much fitness, so I’d do about a week of light hacking—walking 45 minutes to an hour a day—and at the end of the week start some flat work. After, say, two weeks you can start to resume close to where you left off before. I think you could do this with most horses, though sometimes with the younger ones if you give them a break it sets back their attitude and training too much. If they’re a bit green or hard to handle I’ll keep them going so that they stay in “work mode.” Sometimes after too much time in the field, they come back and you have a lot of work ahead of you to get back to where you were. That said, generally if you have a nice young horse it’s not bad to give them a little time off to go out and grow a bit and become a horse. In most cases if they’ve had a big year I’d give them time off—just not if it’s a difficult horse and it would make it harder to bring him back. Susie: I’m at Thermal now, beginning the season, so the horses had a couple of months off. In the last three or four weeks I’ve been schooling them more and prepping for the circuit. This is the first time I’ve come for week one of Thermal. It goes for six weeks, so I’ll start out slow and easy. I feel like a lot of people forget that there’s always tomorrow. Yvonne: About a month before we head to Florida, we put
the heat back on the competition and sales horses so they’re ready to show or for people to try them out. Keep in mind that horses feel good when they’re doing work that they can do easily—both mentally and physically. I’ve learned that over time. Everybody learns from experience!
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