Get me out there!!!

Alright ya'll, it's up to you now! Lol just kidding. But I really need to get out to the barn and ride, but I don't want to because it's too cold. Like, in my head, I really want to, but then when I go outside and the wind is blowing and it's like 33 degrees I just go back in. And if I do get out there and ride, I get nothing accomplished, I just ride around in circles, turn around and then kinda let her do what she wants. What should I do? What would you guys do if you were me? Also, I ride soo much better when I have someone else out there with me, I guess it's because I like to show off a little bit so I actually make her do what I want her to do. Lol, I'm not that good by the way, but my aunt thinks I am. Please help my LAZY BUTT!!

Do you have an indoor?

Watch some training videos, think about any goals you have for the year and write them down. Whenever you are thinking about riding but don't want to go out, look over your goals and tell yourself what you need to do to accomplish them. If you're like me and have no indoor, think of how much easier it will seem to ride on good footing when you're going through a foot of snow, or using a tiny little thawed out part of your paddock to school in ;)

You just gotta bite the bullet and go out there... Put an extra moveable layer on, and head out

Have a goal in mind, before you go out; that always helps me...like say, I will go out, and have continuing teaching everyone to bow, and lay down...and with three to work with, that gives me an easy 30 minutes of training (as those sessions are short for each horse). If it's chilly, that is a perfect amount of time, and I have accomplished something, other than going out and just grooming, and lunging (which I will do as well), and takes up another 40 minutes. Other times I will just go out with doing gait changes and stopping in mind (for my mare), so with warm up, that will give me about 25 minutes worth of teaching time. Add in lunging, prior to riding, and groom and cool down time, that gives me no less than an hour with my horse; and in cool weather, that is way more than plenty! Course, where I'm at, I haven't experienced lower temps (daytime) than 25 degrees. BUT I grew up in MN, so winter time was BRUTAL! But I still spent alot of time riding; when you grow up with cold temps, you learn just to 'brave' them so you can ride!

What I would do about this ^ is pretend someone is watching you. Pretend you're at a show, or in a parade. Whatever it takes to motivate you. Also, make sure you know exactly what it is you want to work on. Like everyone else said- go with a goal in mind. That way, if you start to lose what little motivation you have, you can remind yourself, "Hey! I can't leave until I do [fill in the blanks here]." I certainly understand about the cold- no one wants to go outside in the winter. Just do what's best for your horse and yourself! Don't ride if you're legitimately uncomfortable being outside. My cutoff is usually around 10 degrees (F) w/o wind chill, 15 degrees (F) w/wind chill.

I know where your coming from... but here its usually so wet in the winter all I can do is ride up and down the driveway. No, I'm not lucky enough to have an indoor. :(

Thank you all for your advice. No, I don't have an indoor arena that's the thing lol but I will brave it out and go anyways. And I'm actually going to start to write stuff down that I want to accomplish and I will make sure that I stick to it when I go out and ride next time!!

Mom2Pride: I guess you could say I grew up in cold weather too, here in Ohio, but it's not as cold as where you said you grew up at. But the winters here can, also, get pretty brutal at times. I'm just a big baby lol. But I'm definitely going to bite the bullet and get out there!!!