WINTERTIME SCARIES: How to Stay Productive Despite Winter Weather Woes
After the competition season is over, the excitement wears off and winter weather starts to creep in, it's hard to find motivation during those colder months. There is pressure to keep riding and training even when you’re cold and miserable. However, if you can reframe your training goals, you will find you can actually achieve a lot while you’re waiting for competition season to return.
Below are a few ideas to direct your energy towards during the winter months:
1. Evaluate your horses’ bodyweight/condition. Do they need any extra nutritional help when it gets colder out? More calories in the form of hay, oil, or alfalfa pellets, perhaps? Are they getting too much or too little of a certain nutrient? This is a great time to have a nutritionist out to evaluate your feeding and supplement regimen and make any changes so they come out looking good and healthy in the spring.
2. Winter is a great time to step back and work on groundwork and get to know the horses better on the ground. Maybe some of them need basic ground manners that you’ve been avoiding addressing. Or you dedicate some time to work on trailer loading while there's no pressure to get anywhere. Maybe you have a spooky horse that you can investigate flags/tarps/objects to help them gain confidence. All of this can be done with the help of your trainer, and there are tons of resources online for working with your horse on the ground. The goal is to take the pressure off and find the joy in it for both horse and human!
3. Long-lining or lunging can be a great low-impact way to get your horses some exercise without having to carry a rider on their back. Try adding poles, raised rails, or cavaletti for added strength training. Ideally, you can work them evenly on both sides and think of it as fitness/topline development. Long-lining can be super beneficial to see where their strengths and weaknesses are in each direction. You can teach a leg yield or turn on the forehand from the ground so that they are already familiar with the idea before introducing it under saddle.
4. Hacking and road riding are very good fitness work and will help build a base from which you can work when you bring them back to full work before you get back to the show ring. Be sure to stay safe on the roads by wearing bright colors and avoiding high-traffic areas. If your horse hasn’t hacked on the roads, winter probably isn’t the time to introduce it!
5. Barn and horse trailer organizing can be refreshing and a great way to prep for the upcoming show season. Donate or sell things that you haven’t used in a year so you can make room for the stuff you do need!
6. Set some goals for the show season. Try to categorize your goals so that you can work towards them from different angles. For example, you might have competition goals, financial goals, mindset goals, or even relationship goals within your horsey community. For your competition goals, try to find one major one to work towards and then work backwards from there. Break it down into smaller stages with specific checkpoints. Evaluate what you will need to get there and then brainstorm how you will do this. Maybe you need to take more lessons or attend more shows. Maybe you need to work on your mental game. Write a list and don’t be afraid to ask for help!
7. Lastly, don’t be afraid to take the pressure off yourself and use this time to recharge and get some rest. Especially if you have had a long season of riding, training, and competing, you do need to make sure to give yourself a break as well. Don’t listen to the voice in your head saying you’re falling behind or that you NEED to be doing something. More than likely, your horses will be grateful for the lighter workload and a happier human. You will come out stronger if you haven’t overworked yourself or forced yourself to keep going.