I love when it gets dark before 5pm in the winter – said no horse owner EVER!

Anyone LOVE the winter? (lol – not me!)

I think everyone in Ireland groans when the clocks go back at the end of October.

The sunny days of the summer get forgotten FAST. Instead we end up looking directly at about five months of rain, mud and sunsets at about 4.45pm.

Ugh. And of courses there are muddy gaps, wellies covered in all sorts and the scruffiest horses you can imagine! Delightful, huh?!

I spent most of today sitting inside, warm & cosy with a cup of tea, doing some work at my computer. Ozzie & Matilda were muddy but happy grazing on the hill outside.

At about 3.30pm, I looked out the window and decided I had enough work done for the day. I thought: 

“I wonder what the horses are doing”.

So I pushed back my chair, put my tea cup away & put on my coat to go outside. As I was putting on my wellies, I passed where I kept their halters.

What could I do with either Ozzie or Matilda, that would be handy to set up, and take just 10-15 minutes? After working for most of the day, it was all I had time for. 

Light was starting to fade already, so I had to start doing their feeds a little after 4pm.

AHA!

I figured out what we would do.  We’d do some groundwork with poles! So I grabbed a halter, walked down the paddock & shouted 

‘OzzzzzzziEEEEEEEEEEEEE’

The sound of my voice echoed around the parish. 

About 15 seconds later a very muddy grey Connemara and an even muddier bay mare appeared at the top of the hill.

I walked over, put the halter on Oz and decided I would take out 3 poles and have some fun with them. I really like doing exercises using poles – especially today – because you can have a simple polework exercise set up in less than 20 seconds!

First up we started with the 1 pole challenge. Sometimes Ozzie gets this straight away, and sometimes it takes Ozzie a few attempts.

This time he got it perfectly! And he looked pretty proud of himself.

For fun we did it the other direction, & that was no problem either.

Then I decided to create a triangle out of the poles, and raise up one corner.

Oz was taking great interest in what I was doing. He loves nothing more than walking around & demolishing any type of jump or pole structure I assemble! 🙂

So we played a little with the triangle. We went over it in different directions. We went over it in a slow & fast walk and then in a trot.

It was really nice to be able to spend some time with Ozzie, and have fun together.

I noticed that it was after 4pm, so we ended it there. 

I said thanks to Ozzie, gave Matilda a three minute groom (she adores any time of back scratching or grooming session) & headed back in to sort out their food for the evening.

Polework exercises are great when you don’t have a lot of time.

Sure, my horses love poles because they seem to view them as ‘horse toys’ (!).

But you can do so many fun exercises with them on the ground! So they are perfect for a day when you are short on time, or when the weather isn’t great.

If you’re looking for some polework inspiration for your horse, you can find a ton of ideas here: www.poleworkexercises.com

I’m back in at the computer now, with another cup of green tea in hand. The horses are fed & happy, and it’s pitch dark outside now.

Just another 14 hours to wait until sunrise!

I hope you get to spend a little time with your horse today too x

Elaine