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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 911
 
Location: Northern Ontario | How many time a week do you usually ride? How many horses a day and how long? Also, where do you classify competetively? 1D, 4D pro? I have always been a bit curious as to how effort translate to success. Are more chill rides better than a few good workouts? I tried to ride 4 days a week atleast this winter but it has been so very cold. Between -30 to -40C so I try to ride on the warmer days but they are few and far between. So, tell me about your Schedule :) |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
  
Location: Kansas | You will not see me get on a horse if it is below freezing lol |
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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| I try to ride each horse 5 days a week. Of course when the weather gets bad during the winter that doesn't always happen. In the winter I can keep 2 ridden. When it warms up I can keep around 5 ridden.
I like to split up my time between arena, pasture, and the little dirt track I have. They also see time taking care of pasture cattle and some go to the roping pen.
I mostly just run locally, but occasionally find time to get to the big shows. And if I have a horse that can compete I'll run at amateur rodeos. I have horses at different levels, anywhere from 2D to 4D. I have some that can clock 1D locally and have placed at ammy rodeos, but I wouldn't consider them 1D/Pro. Maybe with the right pilot!
I'd love to hear what others do as well, because I'm always looking for ways to improve my horses and myself. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | i try my best to ride everyday but this weather seems to be winning this year, my cut off has dropped a bit in the past years..lol...i used to ride at -20 now its -15........and i ride at night after work so each horse get a good 45 min trip........and right now i have 3 on the go and as soon as i have more light it will be 4 and i will start back with my now 3yr old so then it will be 5............my goal is to rodeo again riding young horses is getting old.............lol....but i do jackpot
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Edited by mruggles 2015-02-26 1:11 PM
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  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | Right now I'm not riding, it's to cold & icy that I will not risk injury to my horses. Come spring I will ride from about 9 in the morning until dark. I have 15 head of my own (10 of which need riding this year) as well as a few client horses coming & going through the summer. I'll easily work 7-8 a day, trim feet as needed & do morning & evening chores. I alternate between pasture miles, arena work, and a lot of days just pony my finished shooting horse. When I can I also get them on the cattle in the pasture. My horses do very well for me. When I was showing they consistently placed at the top of our classes both english & western and have brought home a lot of all around awards. When I roped & ran barrels I won quite a bit locally. Right now I compete in mounted shooting & in 2 years I've gone from a complete beginner who had never shot a gun to a Level 4 shooter. I truly believe hard work & dedication pays off. |
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Location: Texas | I ride my 2 colts (4 and 5 years old) everyday, at least an hour a day. My 7 and 10 year old get rode 4 or 5 times a week, but are excersided everyday. Mind you, I live in central Texas, this winter it has only got down in the mid-20's a handful of times and I have access to a private covered arena.
My 7 and 10 year old are 2/3D at big shows, 1D at local jackpots and regularly win/place at CPRA rodeos. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | I currently have 2 horses. Pretty much between the daylight savings time changes, my horses get ridden every day (or almost every day) between March and October. I usually just ride on the trails unless I have a horse who is learning the barrels or needs work otherwise. I usually take my horses on a 4 to 6 mile ride each time, when on the trails.
During the winter, it is dark when I get done with work but I try to ride on the weekends when I can and the weather cooperates. I don't work them as hard in the winter because they aren't in as good of shape, and I certainly don't barrel race when they are not in shape. If it is below zero, I usually don't ride because I have a hard time keeping my own fingers and toes warm. I haven't been riding for the past month because it is SO ICY outside right now that it is just not worth it. I sometimes haul to an indoor in the winter but not always.
Currently Red has clocked at the bottom of the 2D a few times locally. I'm not sure if he's got 1D potential or not. My Shotgun is only going to be 4 this year so he's just begiinning to learn how to lope the pattern. My old horse I used to have (who had the same workout schedule) was 1D locally and 2D at the bigger races.
For myself, barrels aren't the only thing my horses do. Red does reining, showmanship, and western pleasure and Shotgun will be also doing reining, and hunter/jumper. I personally feel it keeps their minds quieter when they do a variety of things.
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Regular
Posts: 98
Location: Kentucky | I usually ride from January-Oct/Nov and then give them Dec off to rest.. I think it really helps! I prefer to ride 4-5x per week in season. (I let them rest the day after a race and maybe the day before if they've been good. :) ) I have a dirt track that I do long trotting on and work them up to anywhere from 2-3 miles per day trotting. Depending on the day I'll add a mix of loping circles, roundpen work, trail riding, poles, or some drills that I do with 4 barrels. This usually translates to me riding each horse for about an hour or maybe a little longer... I usually pony one on the track to cut down on ride time. My finished horses only see the pattern 1 day per week if they need it (usually walking or trotting a couple times to tune up as a cool out after their workout). Younger ones get more work on the actual pattern. I have had some good results with this (1D/2D at big $ shows) but am interested in incorporating more hills, sprint work, and maybe even swimming? I'm planning on throwing these in some this spring/summer and am excited to see if it gives me a new edge!
Edited by ohkissmydash 2015-02-26 1:52 PM
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | SaraJean - 2015-02-26 1:12 PM
Right now I'm not riding, it's to cold & icy that I will not risk injury to my horses. Come spring I will ride from about 9 in the morning until dark. I have 15 head of my own (10 of which need riding this year) as well as a few client horses coming & going through the summer. I'll easily work 7-8 a day, trim feet as needed & do morning & evening chores. I alternate between pasture miles, arena work, and a lot of days just pony my finished shooting horse. When I can I also get them on the cattle in the pasture. My horses do very well for me. When I was showing they consistently placed at the top of our classes both english & western and have brought home a lot of all around awards. When I roped & ran barrels I won quite a bit locally. Right now I compete in mounted shooting & in 2 years I've gone from a complete beginner who had never shot a gun to a Level 4 shooter. I truly believe hard work & dedication pays off.
That sounds like the best day ever. A lot of work but holy cow would I love to do that. |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25352
Location: Bastrop, Texas | I probably ride 5 days a week, on the average down here, 2-3 horses each day I ride. I've been scattered between the 1D to the 4D, here in Texas....so I haven't been consistent. If I ride 3 horses, that chews up 3-4 hours, total. When I lived up north in 'Minnesota, I rode an awful lot, even when the weather was bad....unless you are talking colder than 20 below wind chill. I always thought riding through fluffy snow was good conditioning. I was careful not to get them lathered up too much, but when I did I dried them off with coolers in the barn. |
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Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | cavyrunsbarrels - 2015-02-26 12:52 PM SaraJean - 2015-02-26 1:12 PM Right now I'm not riding, it's to cold & icy that I will not risk injury to my horses. Come spring I will ride from about 9 in the morning until dark. I have 15 head of my own (10 of which need riding this year) as well as a few client horses coming & going through the summer. I'll easily work 7-8 a day, trim feet as needed & do morning & evening chores. I alternate between pasture miles, arena work, and a lot of days just pony my finished shooting horse. When I can I also get them on the cattle in the pasture. My horses do very well for me. When I was showing they consistently placed at the top of our classes both english & western and have brought home a lot of all around awards. When I roped & ran barrels I won quite a bit locally. Right now I compete in mounted shooting & in 2 years I've gone from a complete beginner who had never shot a gun to a Level 4 shooter. I truly believe hard work & dedication pays off. That sounds like the best day ever. A lot of work but holy cow would I love to do that.
The pay sucks but I'll take volunteer labor if you get bored & want to move in! |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | Even when I've ridden a lot more times a week I haven't done any better. I'm a nobody that competes locally, and have done futurity/derby for the fun of it.
Between working full time with a 35 minute commute, giving lessons, writing I don't get to ride as much as I'd like even getting up at 4am. My barrel horse and my young mare I'll shoot for 3-4 times a week of something - lunge, pony, ride. I have 2 others that I show in ranch/trail/ sorting that I try to work 3x a week. Then I have one that I try to get in at least 1-2x a week.
When I was getting my barrel horse ready for the futurity & derby I lunged him 4 mornings at 5am and then rode 4-5 evenings a week. I can't say that it made us any better honestly. I've changed my workout and that seems to have made a bigger difference than anything. But then I have to say my horse is an old soul and has always been like an old rodeo horse. It might have made a difference if he acted his age!
Edited by Fairweather 2015-02-26 3:47 PM
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 Unknown Drip
Posts: 5624
Location: Back in MT BABY!!! | I think having them in shape makes a HUGE difference. Depending on the level each horse is at determines what their conditioning is. The horses that are finsihed get barrel work as needed only. Most of the times they are rode out in a field just getting miles on them; about 20/25 minutes of trotting and about 10/15 min of loping. If they need barrel work they get about 10/15 min of trotting and are brought in to work the pattern. I ride these guys 6 days a week when I am running them (they are turned out in the winter)
The horses that are "in training" get rode 4 to 5 days a week. I will have days where they are out in the field similar to my finished horses but they get a lot more "arena work" added in. They don't get a lot of barrel work until they are able to do the different drills/stations. Once they know the pattern...they don't get worked on the it unless they need something fixed.
Depending on the horse, I usually clock anywhere from the 1D to 4D. I have a full time job but in the summer I am usually able to run 3 and have 1 in training. In the winter I usually will just have 1 colt I'm messing with and I ride when it's above 20 and very little wind :) |
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 Expert
Posts: 1612
Location: Cocoa, Florida | I live in sunny Florida so riding year round isn't a problem for us. I ride 4-6 days a week, I do 2-3 days in the arena and 2-3 days on trails or outside of arena. I only have two horses to keep in shape so it's pretty easy, when I had 3 a month ago I did a lot of ponying.
I pony one a lot and do a lot of long trotting while ponying the other.
I work full time so even two is exhausting
I have two young mares that are both running 2/3D so far, with much room for improvement |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | I try to ride at least 4 days a week, and generally pony some of my horses (have ponied as many as 3 at a time to get all 4 barrel horses worked before dark) to save time. My work schedule is nuts on Mondays & Tuesdays, so I rarely get to ride those days during the winter, but that works well because after a weekend on the road I can give the horses a couple days off.
Generally, I'll work 4-5 horses a day though some days I can't get them all worked. Yesterday, I worked at the school in the afternoon so I didn't get home until almost four. I rode Elvis the project horse, rode Streak and ponied Cliff, did the farm chores, then rode Chance & ponied Joker. When I got done with them, I turned the whole gang loose and fed them, then waited 10 minutes for them to mostly finish eating before I walked around and blanketed everyone because the windchill was supposed to be about 8 below. I think I got inside about 6:30, so I spent over 2 hours out there.
All 4 of the barrel horses have been competing off & on this winter, averaging a couple runs a month, so I've kept them in shape and therefore can do shorter workouts than if I were bringing them back from several months off. They don't lose fitness as quickly as we might think, so a week off here and there isn't a bad thing IMO.
In the busier months (aka any month but January & February), I'll work each horse at least twice during the week if they're going to be competing that weekend, then run 1-3 days between Friday & Sunday. Their exact schedule varies, but generally if they're running on a weekend, they get worked a minimum of two days during the week.
Each horse has his schedule tweaked to fit him. For example, my 22 year old gets a solid week off at least once every two months, and he runs a max of 2-3 times per month. My goal each year for him to run less than 30 times, and in 2014, he ran 26 times, so obviously he gets a lot of time off. I do try to get him at least some exercise every week, even when he's on vacation, as it gets tougher and tougher to leg him back up after a break the older he gets.
When I ride, I'll spend a maximum of an hour on each horse, and its actually rare that I ride one for more than 30 minutes unless I'm doing a lot of slow work at the end of a workout. I might spend 30 minutes walking the pattern and reminding Clifford to FOCUS! but if I'm giving him a hard workout, it will usually only last 15-20 minutes. I get on, walk a few minutes, long trot, maybe do some hills, some circles if needed, trot more to start the cooldown, then walk the last about 3-4 minutes on our way back to the trailer. I'll usually step off and handwalk those last minutes so I can loosen the cinch and also get myself some exercise. I love hills, and will go up & down the few that we have for a solid 3-5 minutes during a "hard" workout because the hills are so effective at getting a horse in great shape. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 319
| Feeling like a real slacker here.... |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | In the winter I feel lucky if I get to ride once a week. The daylight hours and the cold do not help. My horses got a whole month through the end of December through most of January where it was too cold, slick, and snowy to be ridden, and so they didn't. I'm hoping with daylight savings time starting next week, and the fact that it is almost March I can start getting out there more regularly again so I can get my mare in shape and get a few more rides on the youngster. He'll probably be sent off to a trainer, though, just because it seems like I can't find time to leg up my mare and train him on the same day. Once I'd have him started, though, my mom could ride my mare and I could ride him and get/keep both of them in shape. Longer daylight hours will help, though, too. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | Typically, I ride 6 days a week. Each horse gets ridden between 4 and 6 days a week, depending upon their needs. I ride between 5 and 9 head a day. My rides vary anywhere from 25mins to an hour, depending on what the focus is for that horse that day. I like to mix things up for them a bit, so I spend a lot of time out in the fields. I am a conditioning freak, so some days, they may just go for an hour walk, they may do trot sets, or gallop sets. I also like to go to the arena and work one briefly and then head out to the fields. I probably do arena work for a total of an hour a week, split over three or 4 days. I have everything from 1D local/top of the 2D at NBHA World show horses to colts just starting, so the frequency and intensity of work may vary from horse to horse, but the basic program is the same. |
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 Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
Location: Texas | When I was running in the 1D consistently I was riding 7 days a week for an hour atleast, my horse was in tip top shape.
Now I hardly get to ride, but the lady I board with lunges every other day for me. When it's dry I have 4 days a week I can ride or go to a race and i'm lucky if I hit the 1D it's mostly 2D.. |
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 Go For It!
Location: Texas | SuperTrooper - 2015-02-26 12:53 PM
How many time a week do you usually ride? How many horses a day and how long? Also, where do you classify competetively? 1D, 4D pro? I have always been a bit curious as to how effort translate to success. Are more chill rides better than a few good workouts? I tried to ride 4 days a week atleast this winter but it has been so very cold. Between -30 to -40C so I try to ride on the warmer days but they are few and far between. So, tell me about your Schedule :)
The answer depends on the horse... I have downsized to two horses... Both are in the 1d and yes I have my pro card, but only did the divisional races last year... finished 4th or 6th in the TX divisional circuit finals. My young horse only needs to be ridden a couple of times a week, but he needs to do distance work at least three days a week if he isn't making runs. If I am making a lot of runs in a weekend (3) then I will only breeze him one time that week.
My older horse needs more riding to stay soft and supple. I ride him 3 or 4 days a week and do distance work as well. I tend to save my runs on him for the bigger stuff, just because I don't want to use him up. I use to ride several horses a day and decided that I was working way too hard and not getting enough of a return. So I sold pretty much everything and ended up with these two.
As for me... I work out everyday so I don't fall off! ;)
Edited by grinandbareit 2015-02-26 10:50 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1586
Location: west of East Texas | I work fulltime and get home about 6pm. I end up riding one horse about two days during the week and make it to a couple of barrel races a month. I ride more outside the arena than inside, about 3:1. I usually ride with my 12yo daughter and she likes to 'condition' her horse more than work on drills or the pattern. As long as they keep making nice runs, I'm not going to get in her way. My horse is a hyper crackhead in the seasoning stage and so I circle a lot of trees and scrub brush while we are out long trotting the pastures, creeks, hills. Her horse is a bit lazy so she'll breeze her pretty good now and then. I've used a phone app and I will have covered about 3 miles to her 2 miles by the time we get back to the barn an hour later. Comp level---we are still improving and Crackhead has gone from 10D to 2D with 100-150 runners since I started her 8 months ago. The last 300+ race, she was 1.2 off 2 of the 3 days. Last weekend she was .7 off with 165 runners. My daughter ran 2D all 3 days at the 300+ race and was .1 off last weekend. She won Youth 1D at both races.
I used to worry that I wasn't doing my horses justice because they got ridden so little. Now I'm older and I don't let it bother me as much. They are turned out and moving 23 hours a day. They are sound, healthy, and sane. I haven't had lameness issues to deal with nor illnesses. In my wise old age, I've decided to enjoy my two days a week and not stress over the other. My descriiption of me is "It takes me two years to get '90 days' on one...."
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1056
Location: somewhere in the middle | Quality,not quantity,is what's important. I'm fortunate to have a 6 horse Driver hot walker that goes really fast. I keep deep sand around it so they can get a pretty good workout on it if I long trot them for 25 minutes or so.I think people really under rate the value of turn out time. A horse that is turned out and isn't completely lazy gets a lot more exercise than a horse that's only ridden for 15-20 minutes and is in a stall the rest of the day. On the other hand you absolutely can not have a top 1D horse if it's turned out full time with a big grass belly. I have a 1D horse that I have never worked on barrels and only ride him out in the pasture or use him to work cattle. I try to ride him once or twice a week and put him on the hot walker other days. I have though started working him on poles just for something else to do. I have a 5 year old that is a solid 2D horse that I do slow work on occasionally and I try to ride her 3-4 times a week as well as put her on the hot walker on days I don't ride her. I have never made a full out run at home on either one of them even the young one that I trained. |
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How many times do you ride