Do horses get holidays?

[LurpakAspirations]

Inspired by reference to the Olympic horses on another thread but I was thinking, they work pretty hard.

Imagine doing all the training and then being shoved onto a plane and taken abroad to compete, winning medals, being shoved on a plane again and taken back home...

What if they wanted to see the beach, actually, while they're there?

Try some local horse food?

Go for a hack along some rice fields or visit the leaning tower or Pisa?

Just seems a bit unfair really, to go all that way and not enjoy the sights.

Horse owners - you ever take your horses on holiday so they can enjoy somewhere different?

Neigh they don't....
Hay sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear!!
<here all week people >

Have you seen the photos etc of the Household Cavalry taking their horses to Norfolk to the beach?

I used to have a working livery at a local riding school, and they would rotate their horses (yeah, enjoy that picture!) so that they all got a week away over the summer.

Horses mainly get staycations - they get a rest in the field. Some get to go somewhere different for their holidays where they can run free for a few weeks. We used to rent a field to the local huntsman and all his horses had the whole summer off and just spent the summer days grazing in the fields. They would take them back to the stables at the end of August to get them fit again for the winter.

I can just picture a couple of horses eating gelato and watching the sunset from the Rialto Bridge. Or examining the Mona Lisa. Or buying their Big Thunder Mountain ride photos, with their front hooves in the air and their manes blowing in the wind.

My cat rather fancies going to Egypt to see where her family came from, and ask the locals if they know her cousin Tom from Cairo.

Hollibobos!

😂this is a great thread! But serious, horses are very frightened stess-y creatures so would probably find the sight-seeing very traumatic, and sampling the local food might actually kill them right off (yes, really, horses are extremely fussy eaters and have very delicate stomachs, can't vomit so colic is actually quite deadly and something as simple as a change in feed has to be very carefully managed, the Olympic horses will travel with a supply of their own food from home!). They absolutely would not be good gap yah companions, that's for sure, if they were human they'd be the types that would hide in the hotel room complaining about everything any time they went on holiday!

I would expect the olympic horses will have some nice downtime in their own fields at home when they get back. I have taken my horses on 'holiday' before in the UK to some nice scenic hacking places with some lovely gallops on the beach but it was more for my benefit than theirs TBH, they'd choose home every time I think - although saying that one of mine does find even a slight change in routine stressful so he'd probably also hate just being left in a field for a week especially if he saw his friends going in to work at the normal time, basically they're hard to please! 🙄😂

I livery yard I used to keep my horse at used to have horses go there on holiday for 2 weeks every year. They were from a riding school in London with limited turnout so came down by lorry and spent two weeks munching grass in the country.

The brewery horses here get to go and laze around in a field for their holidays

Yes. I always gave my horses a month off every summer. They would go away to the “holiday field”. Live out, not be ridden, run with a pack, minimum human interaction, have a blast. That’s a horse holiday!

I also took my horse on lots of holidays, xc training camps etc, doubt they thought it was a holiday though!

Army horses get a holiday I.e field in the countryside ditto police horses.
Pit ponies always used to have a ho,I day when it for miners week.

The riding schools I used to go to would turn the horses out on the fields regularly and they had time off. As for taking them away - not sure a horse would appreciate the journey! I would imagine high level show horses are treated very well.

My horse has been on holiday with me to Wales and to Norfolk. He particularly enjoyed galloping on the beach.He has staycations when I go abroad.

Yes, I have four horses. I bring them into work in late august for the season and they are ridden 4/5 times a week and competed until April, when we take their shoes off and turn them out to grass. Occasionally I will keep one up for a summer season but only if they’ve had an “easy” winter.

Yes, horses get holidays. Two of mine are off to compete abroad in a high profile competition this summer. They won’t be sightseeing, and we are taking all their food with us. We’ll be doing our best to keep all the things they know and like familiar to them. They’ve been in training working hard so far this year, their competition season began in May and it has been fairly continuous since then. Once they get back they will have probably a week completely off, just mooching about in the field, then they will have at least a month where they do very little hard work but just some gentle hacking. They do not compete through the winter at all, but one of them does hunt a bit as he really enjoys it so he needs to have a reasonable level of fitness for this. As you might imagine with a top human athlete, they can take time away from competing for a rest, but it is better not to let themselves get completely unfit. Horses tend to keep themselves fit-ish in the field anyway. One of mine loves his running around for no good reason! As with humans, you get different personality types and some horses do just slob about if there’s no one to keep them working out.

Wrt taking them away - we’ve taken ours away several times. As long as they go in their little herd and there are all the comforts of home they are accustomed to, it’s rather nice taking your horses away on holiday. We rented a farm cottage in the lakes last year with the most fabulous field in front of it, and the horses had a lovely time. Lots more grass than they get at home!

Yes, they do. Mostly staycations, but some are the sort that travel well & so they go trekking, to the beach, etc.

High-level competition horses have incredibly managed insurance policies so what you can do with them once they're abroad can be pretty limited. I do know of some riders who will hack out when traveling, head to the beach for a swim, go sightseeing -- but only with horses that travel extremely well and don't succumb to nerves.

My horse got upset the other day because he saw an unfamiliar bench.
I don’t think he would enjoy a holiday. 😁

Mine lost his shit last week because he spotted a squirrel pulling a corn on the cob out of a bin. Imagine if he was on the Champs Elysees or Las Ramblas lol!

It is lovely to see the Household Cavalry horses on their summer hols.

They have a camp (near Thetford?) where they stay every year, with wide open spaces (and a cross country course) so they get to do fun stuff in reasonably familiar circumstances. And then they get bussed to the beach with all their mates to go swimming together. Lovely!

I think horses would really enjoy Somerset with all those delicious apples

Some stables do that. I think Hyde Park stables rotate their horses so that they can spend some of their time resting in a countryside farm.

The stables I use put them out in the fields around the stables for part of the day.

Maybe they would prefer a stablecation?

racehorses in England get at least four, and probably six months off in a year. There is no flat racing in the winter (except for all weather, and they are generally different horses). Jumps horses either run in summer jumping if they like fast ground, but the majority come back into the stables in September and gradually up their ‘work’ (that’s a run up the gallops ) most days during October and then race until April. Most of them race four or five times in a seven month season.

The household cavalry take theirs to Norfolk every year

Many working horses get an actual holiday like the cavalry horses who have a trip to the beach for some fun before a couple of weeks chilling in a field. Police horses, pit ponies, hunt horses, RDA ponies and seaside donkeys all get a scheduled break.

High level competition horses also get holidays but the timing/duration/frequency/type will depend upon the discipline and the horse.

Eventers typically get a winter holiday of a couple of months followed by a slow fitness plan. Racehorses often also get a long break during the off season. Depending upon where they live they may go away or they may stay at home. Showjumpers and dressage horses often get shorter more regular breaks.

My relative is a groom for an international/Olympic level showjumper. Their top horses tend to do two ish weeks of competition which includes international travel followed by about two weeks off mooching about in a field with their pal the donkey. This depends a bit on competition schedules but they believe very strongly that the horses work better with regular breaks and rest and they are utterly committed to horse welfare.

My own horse loves a day trip to experience some alternative scenery but very much prefers to stick with her own bed and familiar routine so I don't take her away overnight but she doesn't have a hard life and gets lots of variety in her work and days off on a regular basis.