Giving horses "vacations"

I am planning on giving my horses each 2 months off this winter. Most people I know who ride their horses don't do this. I am wondering if anyone on here gives their horse a break for an extended period of time? Good idea, bad idea?

Thanks so much!

BTW I have a jumper whom I ride 4 days a week, and jump about once a week. My other horse I just ride around (walk, trot, canter) and he gets ridden 3-4 days a week, fwiw.

i sometimes give them a break in the winter. when its really cold i just pull their shoes for a few weeks.

The broodmares get some what of a brake for a few months. However I have found that if you are wanting to compete then you need to keep ridding them. Perhaps not as much give them some what of a brake however giving them 2-3 months off and then try and leg them back up is hard on them in the long run. If you want to give them a bit of a vacation them just ride them 2-3 times a week with a bit a few days here and there off and do not ride them as hard. I know with my reiners I pull shoes and I do not ask for stops and rollbacks and such. I just lope them around every few days to keep them some what is shape. They are not in show shape but it makes it easier down the road. Even the broodmares get ridden some. Helps keep them in somewhat shape and makes foaling easier.

Ha, my horse has been on a "vacation" for almost a year! LOL, I'm in school right now, so I can ride maybe 1-2x a week and of course it's complete slop right now so nowhere to ride. He was also lame all summer (just lame enough to not ride) but he wasn't uncomfortable in the pasture or anything. He's thinking he's got the good life... food, a girlfriend, grooming.

Alright, seriously though I think Nhreiner has the right idea. Once I start training Soda after this semester he won't get any true "vacations." I don't ride as much in the winter due to the cold, but by giving them that much time off you're actually making it more likely they'll get injured when you start riding. Their bones/ligaments/tendons take 2-3 months to acclimate to competition type riding and you're just undoing that work by letting them take that much time off.

Well I live on a ranch, so there's lots to do, and a lot of the horses just get shoes pulled off, and then they get turned out to be horses in the winter, while we're uber busy. From the end of my show season, AKA, whenever I decide to be done, I ride just for fun until the first winter storm, when it's nasty out. Then they get shoes off and turned out until we need them for feeding, or riding if the snow is too deep for the 4-wheelers. Really, they're kinda on their own, unless I get them in to ride for a bit, but lately it's been so nasty outside that they've been content enough to stand out in the pasture by the trees and eat hay, and I've been content to stay inside. But then, I'm not a serious competitor, I only really do 4-H and ranch horse competitions, reining, and ranch riding. I would say that if you compete a lot, keep them in and conditioned a little, like reiner said.

Suppose you're a runner, and you take two months off and do nothing but laze around. Do you think you'd be able to go right back to running? I doubt it - so why would you think your horse would be different?

Well out here if you do hunting with your horse normally that is the only thing that horse will do and hunting is only a seasonal thing were they are off work for six months brought back to work in september and october to get fit and hunt from november to february

Thank you for the replies!

pretty much all horses here get a 6 month vacation every year.. it's a pain to get them into shape again but it does them good

I like to give a horse a break from full time training; example, the mare that I just got about a month ago, after getting her retrained to ride, I am now going to basically focus on our ground work, and 'relationship', as she is so distrusting of other people. She has had a hard time trusting me, even, so now that I know she 'can' be ridden, I am going to set that aside for now, and just focus on getting her used to other people handling her.

The colts I am training, have had all of their basics done on them, and they too will get more of a 'rest' for part of the winter; they know how to longe, tie, pick up\trim hooves, have had syrcingle work, and have had a saddle on them.

Now all of them will still be handled daily, but the 'heavy' work is done for a little while. I think, especially in a horse who has had a bad past, the periodic breaks can give them a mental rest they need in order to heal from the inside out.