Horse people are typically made from hardy stock, but that doesn’t negate the need for equestrian wellness—especially during winter. Self-care should always be paramount, but during the winter, a little extra zhuzh can be helpful to your physical and mental well-being.

Photo by MW Creative Photography

As a longtime horsewoman and wellness advocate, I understand the well-being needs of equestrians. The winter months can be challenging: taking care of horses in cold weather involves additional chores, like blanketing, filling hay nets, keeping water troughs from freezing, et cetera. This, combined with less riding time, can take its toll.

The following tips will help you feel your best this winter, both mentally and physically.

Stay Warm

Keeping your core temperature up and keeping bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments warm is essential to feeling energized and maintaining immune health and range of motion; being cold depletes these things.

Don’t skimp on winter wear at the barn or during cold-weather rides. Most equestrians have a robust, all-season wardrobe, but from time to time it’s helpful to give your winter attire a little upgrade. Perhaps it’s time for a new pair of waterproof or fleece-lined boots, or maybe to invest in some insulated coveralls.

Using inexpensive boot and glove warmers is one of my favorite ways to keep my feet and hands from becoming uncomfortably cold. I’m also an advocate of base layers (long johns, thermals, and the like), and I’m a big fan of legwarmers!

It’s hard to beat the time-tested warmth of wool, whether it be thick wool socks or a heavy wool sweater. Top all that off with some waterproof gear, and you’re good to go! For those who get chilled easily or live in cold climates, heated vests and gloves are a nice option.

Finally, don’t forget to top off with a scarf, gaiters, and hat. With all the advanced winter gear, fabrics, and styles, you can find something to keep you cozy while enhancing your functional equestrian winter wardrobe.

Outdoor Time

Most horse owners don’t have the option to stay indoors all day, and that’s a good thing. Though it may not be as appealing to be outside in winter, there are benefits. Being in nature can have a grounding effect, plus sunshine and vitamin D are essential for mood and immune health.

If you’re feeling challenged by doing winter horse tasks, try shifting your attitude to be more appreciative of the added exercise, movement, and time in nature. Try reframing any complaining to, “Wow, I get to do this!”

One of my winter disciplines is to walk to my barn (½-mile round trip), regardless of the weather. Not only does this add more steps to my day, but I always relish the beauty along the way, whether it’s animal prints in the snow, the quiet, or a hawk flying above. And I’m always greeted with nickers from my horse, which warms my heart in any weather.

Pampering and Self-Care

On another note about keeping warm, hot winter baths are my go-to. A jetted tub or hot tub is even better, if available. It’s a great way to raise your core temperature, plus feel a little pampered.

A popular trend is installing a home sauna to heat up and detox, or perhaps take advantage of one at your local gym. Some people find the warmth and brightness of light boxes helpful in combating seasonal affective disorder.

I’m also a fan of hot teas. I call winter “tea season”—there are so many delicious, warming flavors, and it’s always fun to try new ones. (Some of my faves are Egyptian licorice, ginger, and elderberry.) Drinking a warm beverage from your favorite mug adds to the experience; you can even make it part of your self-care ritual.

Drinking a warm beverage, such as herbal tea, can become a great part of your self-care ritual. Photo by fizkes/Adobe Stock

Stretching

Nobody enjoys raking, carrying buckets, or pushing a wheelbarrow and tweaking a cold muscle. But if you don’t have the option to farm out your chores, you also can’t afford downtime with an injury or strain.

Taking even just a few minutes for some warm-up stretches before heading out into the cold can make a big difference—not only for comfort, but for safety as well. Stretching a cold muscle is like trying to stretch a piece of gum that’s been in the freezer: it’s not too pliable and easily snaps and breaks.

Taking even just a few minutes for some warm-up stretches before heading out into the cold can make a big difference—not only for comfort, but for safety as well. Photo by shurkin_son/Adobe Stock

Additionally, if you’re stiff when riding, you restrict your horse’s movement. You’ll have a better-moving horse if you’re warmed up and moving optimally. Since you warm up your horse at the beginning of a riding or training session, don’t forget to warm yourself up, too!

A few overall body stretches can go a long way. You don’t have to be a yoga expert to include some gentle stretching into your daily routine. By incorporating deep breathing and mindfulness into your stretches, you’ll glean the added benefits of being more centered, calm, and focused, which your horse will also appreciate.

Hydration

Winter is a common time to become dehydrated—a large factor in poor equestrian wellness in the winter. With the cooler weather, you can feel less inclined to drink water since you’re not feeling overheated. Adding a slice of citrus or cucumber adds interest as well as some healthy properties.

Being in a heated house or office can be very drying and dehydrating. Proper hydration is essential to feeling well and reducing brain fog, fatigue, and headaches, as well as promoting a better functioning immune system. Grab that favorite water bottle, keep it full, and keep sipping throughout the day, even when you think you’re not thirsty.

Eat for the Season

Nutrition experts suggest that our diets should change with the seasons. Warmer, hardier, higher-calorie meals can go a long way in sustaining energy, which can often get depleted trying to stay warm.

Energy and immune health can be supported by nourishing your body through a proper diet, and perhaps by adding immune-building supplements for an extra boost.

Continue Learning

Winter is an excellent time to learn new skills. Whether it’s an instructional book, an online fitness class, a virtual clinic, or perhaps an interesting podcast, you can stay on top of your game even when you’re not in the saddle as much. Not only is learning new skills helpful, but continued learning keeps us mentally engaged and plugged in.

Whether it’s an online class, virtual clinic, or perhaps an interesting podcast, you can stay on top of your game even when you’re not in the saddle as much. Photo by Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock

In addition to these suggestions, getting good sleep and reducing stress are also part of self-care. The bottom line is to stay committed to wellness, as a lot falls under that umbrella.

Sometimes when you’re feeling sluggish or unmotivated during the winter, you have to dig deeper to stay proactive, but I believe you’ll find it’s a worthwhile investment. Come spring, you’ll need less of a tune-up. Work with what you have, do what you can, and stay engaged, warm, healthy and well.

Further Reading

◆ Winter Fitness Tips for Equestrians
◆ Improve Your Riding Through Your Everyday Life
◆ Core Strength for Equestrians

This article about equestrian winter wellness appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Equestrian Winter Wellness appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Photo by Daniel Johnson

You start every winter with the best of intentions. This year, I’m going to keep riding all winter, no matter how bad the weather gets!

You’re a tough equestrian, right? You’re not going to let a little snow (wind/sleet/ice) stop you from spending time in the saddle.

But then deep winter sets in, and you struggle to simply keep up with the regular daily barn chores, along with the myriad of winter-centric tasks (shoveling, de-icing, shoveling, then some more shoveling). Throw in some winter weather advisories and what seems like two hours of daylight per day, and it’s no wonder that you ultimately decide that spending some downtime indoors sounds like a pretty good idea.

Winter downtime is one thing, but you also don’t want to go stir crazy. And horses are your thing—you want to learn, grow, explore—without freezing for hours on end outdoors.

The good news is there’s so much more to the equestrian lifestyle than time in the saddle, and winter is a great time to invest your energy into activities that will make a positive impact on your involvement with horses.

The following are a few ideas to get you started.

Read Horse-Related Books

We always tell ourselves we’re going to make time to read … and then we don’t.

It’s easy to pile up a TBR pile a mile high during fair weather, so now is the time to enjoy some horsey fiction and learn from some great horsemanship manuals. Photo by Daniel Johnson

This winter, make it happen. Set aside some of your downtime to explore an assortment of horse-related books, both fiction and nonfiction. Revisit childhood favorites and enjoy them with a new perspective. Explore new subjects that interest you—maybe training young horses, equine nutrition, or the history of your favorite breed.

Check out vintage horse books. Try some biographies of pillars of the industry. Read old breed association yearbooks. Catch up on your pile of magazines.

You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll have the satisfaction of making a dent in your TBR (to be read) pile. If you don’t have a TBR pile, get in the habit of keeping a list during the fair-weather months on your phone’s notepad app. When a book strikes your fancy but you don’t have time to read it, just jot down the title.

Explore New Skills

Quiet winter weekends are a great time to explore new skills. Have you always loved taking photos but wish you understood the nuances of equine photography? Do you wish your horse show videos weren’t so shaky and choppy? Maybe you daydream about creating beautiful artwork or sculptures of your horse.

Now is the time to learn a new skill, such as photography. By next spring, you’ll be snapping beautiful photos of your horse. Photo by Paulette Johnson

Daydreaming is great, but you can take action by pursuing your ambitions: sign up for some art or photography classes, find a mentor who can give you some guidance, and practice, practice, practice! You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can make progress when you carve out regular time to pursue your passions.

Learn More About Your Horse

You love your horse and all of his endearing habits and mannerisms—but this winter, why not learn as much as you can about him?

Start with his pedigree, if available, and begin researching his ancestors. Look for photos, gather info, and find out more about your horse’s background.

Learn the basics of equine coat color genetics and discover how your horse came to be the color he is, as well as how and why he inherited his white markings (or lack thereof).

You can also explore breed registry resources to learn all you can about the history of your horse’s breed, or send off a DNA test if your horse’s ancestry is unknown.

Study for Certification

Do you have long-held ambitions that you’ve always wanted to pursue? Winter is the perfect time to take the first steps.

Check out educational courses and programs, then find out what it takes to become certified in the field you’re interested in, whether it’s judging, training, instructing, horsemanship, equine appraisal, massage, or another related area.

Fulfilling all of the requirements for certification can take a long time (in some cases years), but you can take advantage of the winter months to get the ball rolling. The time will pass either way, so you might as well be making progress toward your goal!

Stay in Shape

When it’s cold, chances are you’re craving comfort foods. Of course, comfort foods get most of their comfort from the gazillion calories they contain. And when you combine that with decreased activity levels during the winter, the result leaves you in something less than tip-top physical shape.

But it doesn’t have to be that way—staying in shape during the winter not only feels great, but it also gives you an advantage when the weather improves and you can get back in the saddle on a regular basis.

Your specific method of staying in shape will depend on your individual circumstances, but might include walking, swimming, yoga, visits to the gym, et cetera.

Make Plans for Warmer Months

There’s no better time to make plans than during the winter. Evaluate the upcoming year and begin to set goals and plans.

Which horse shows will you attend? Can you pencil in some weekends for trail rides? Add in dates of clinics, horse expos, breed association meetings, and local club events so it’s all on the calendar from the start of the year.

Then determine the training goals you want to accomplish with your horse this year. What farm improvements would you like to make? Are there any important purchases you need to consider this year? Start tackling the logistics now, while things are quieter and less chaotic than in the summer.

Get Organized

Wintertime is the ideal season to work on getting organized. Who wants to deep-clean a tack trunk in the middle of a crazy show season? Or sort a box with 43 nylon halters when it’s 98 degrees?

Use the quiet time and the cooler working conditions to make some cleaning headway in your tack collection, show clothes, and trailer. You can get organized slowly, at your own pace, without the rush-rush-rush of the summer schedule on your mind.

Set a Budget

Just kidding. Budgets are for New Year’s resolutions!

Tackle Repairs & DIY Projects

Feeling handy? It’s time to work on some of those long-overdue repair projects you’ve been avoiding.

From little things like repairing tack, fixing buttons on shirts, and replacing laces in paddock boots—all the way up to bigger DIY projects like repainting jump standards, building window boxes, replacing the flooring in the bathroom at the barn—you can tackle these projects during the winter months and feel relaxed and ready to roll when spring arrives.

Go Horse Shopping

Buying a new horse is a surefire way to have fun this winter and make the most of the seasonal downtime, right? Of course, even if you’re not in the market for a new horse, it never hurts to browse some listings or watch a few YouTube videos of horses for sale.

Window shopping can be almost as much fun as actual shopping, plus it’s a lot less expensive.

Get Crafty

Why not put your crafting skills to good use? Maybe you’ve always wanted to make a ribbon quilt with your keepsake show ribbons.

Or maybe you love to crochet—why not start making crocheted ponies for the kids in your life or to give as prizes at next summer’s horse shows?

Crafting takes a bit of time to learn and execute, but it’s well worth the end results. Photo by Karenkh/Adobe Stock

Volunteer Your Time

Breed associations and local horse clubs are almost always in need of volunteers to help with events, to serve on committees, and to handle the details of various programs. Your assistance will be gratefully received, and you’ll have the satisfaction of being a vital asset to these organizations.

Perks of Trying Winter Equestrian Activities

After you’ve put the winter months to good use, you’ll be more than ready to greet the coming spring from the vantage point of the saddle. But you’ll also have the satisfaction of knowing that you put your time to good use even on the coldest, windiest, and snowiest of winter days.

This article about winter equestrian activities with less time for riding appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Winter Equestrian Activities: How to Spend Your Time with Less Riding appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Photo by Alicja Neumiler/Adobe Stock

For many equestrians, winter means a change in routine. Bitter cold winds, freezing hands, thick mud, and icy roads can have the potential to make riding dangerous, inaccessible, or just downright miserable. Even those who live in more favorable climates may find the dwindling daylight cramping their riding schedule.

And saddle time is often replaced with extra-grueling barn chores. Aside from making sure our fur babies are taken care of, it may be tempting to put all unnecessary movement aside and curl up under a thick blanket and wait for spring to come. But neglecting winter fitness could mean increasing your chances of injury and setting you back on your riding goals come spring.

What is Injury?

In the equestrian world, the word “injury” may conjure up frightening images of fractures and concussions, but small muscle strains are also a type of injury. These tears are sometimes caused when too much force is exerted on a weak muscle after a long period of inactivity.

These sorts of injuries can affect even those who are committed to a regular fitness routine. It can feel like a sudden pain in your back after bending the wrong way or reaching up too high.

Particularly in cold temperatures, blood tends to leave the extremities to keep the core temperature regulated, decreasing the pliability of ligaments and increasing the chance of a tear. These injuries can also pop up when the weather warms again if we’ve been inactive and our muscles have become weak.

The good news is that these imbalances can be avoided with a bit of body awareness and a few changes to your routine. If you apply these guidelines to your day, whether at home or at the barn, you will achieve a more balanced musculature and decrease chances of injury during the colder months.

Equestrian Winter Fitness Tip 1: Always Warm-Up

Just as it’s important to warm your horse up prior to any exercise, warming your own body up before activity helps avoid injury.

While “warming up” is a bit of a misnomer since your internal temperature is already warm, doing gentle cardiovascular activities, such as walking in place, further increases blood flow to your muscles.

This is important for everyday activities like bending down to unload the dishwasher in the morning, but even more so with activities that require more force, like lifting a 50-pound grain bag.

A great starting point is a brisk three-minute walk or jogging in place, followed by gently mimicking the motions you will be performing later.

Equestrian Winter Fitness Tip 2: Recognize Your Dominant Side

If you do your own barn chores, winter signals the return of certain tasks. While it may have been months since you’ve done these chores, your body’s muscle memory enables you to pick up those activities where you left off. This is great for getting the job done quickly, but bad for creating muscular balance and avoiding injury.

If you tend to rotate to the left to shovel a frozen pile of manure into a wheelbarrow, one side will become very strong, and the opposite very weak. But even if you don’t do barn chores, using your non-dominant side during everyday activities will promote balance.

To put this into practice, start by recognizing your dominant side when you open a door, throw the ball for the dog, carry groceries, or groom your horse. Then switch to the other for a few repetitions or minutes, slowly building up frequency over several days.

Recognize your dominant side for common chores and try switching to your non-dominant side. You will slowly strengthen it, which helps avoid injuries. Photo by Shelley Paulson

Equestrian Winter Fitness Tip 3: Keep Moving

You’ve probably heard Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion, that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a body in motion tends to stay in motion. He was talking about physics, but the idea holds true with our health habits.

Winter can be a time where we not only fight the weather and shorter days, but sluggishness and holiday overindulgence. If we set very small goals to stay in motion throughout the day, we are more likely to continue with even more movement and not sink into sedentary habits.

Using larger, oxygen-hungry muscles throughout the day not only promotes good circulation with nutrient rich blood, but it helps improves your mood, energy levels, and sleep quality throughout the winter. Staying active can be a challenge for those who have more sedentary jobs, but it doesn’t require much time. Scheduling several short three-minute walks around the office building is one way to keep your body in motion.

Key Takeaway

You may not be able to control the changing seasons, but you can control decisions regarding your health. By making these simple changes, you will increase your body awareness, decrease potential injuries, and—who knows—you may even find yourself looking forward to next winter!

This article about equestrian winter fitness tips appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Winter Fitness Tips for Equestrians appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.