Giving horses "vacations"

Originally Posted by mom2pride

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.

Originally Posted by arabchica

I think it does a horse good to have a little down time. I'm not talking about not ridding at all. Just a change of pace, instead of working on your jumping just hack a bit let him relax. Show him some new things but still keep him in some kind of shape and if you can do it pull his shoes and let him be barefoot for a turn or two it probably won't hurt him if he has good feet.