Lockdown Activities for Horse Owners
- Grooming: Grooming your horse can be beneficial in many ways. It builds a bond and trust to strengthen your partnership as well as giving you the chance to really get to know your horse and gives you time to notice any changes in behaviour and/or check for any cuts, bumps, mites etc.
- Bathing: Now we are getting warmer weather it is a great time to start pampering your pony by giving them a bath. Bathing can help with lots of things as well as just being a nice activity to do with your pony. Bathing can create a clean and shiny coat, help with irritated skin and when massaging your horse while bathing you are helping increase the blood flow to the skin surface.
- Ground work: Many people are currently not riding at the moment but that doesn’t mean you have to completely stop working with your pony! Lunging and in hand work are both great ways of continuing working with your horse and can often lead to a more trusting partnership. There are lots of pole exercises that can be done in hand or on the lunge, these will keep both you and the horse engaged in the activity and makes the work interesting.
- Tack cleaning: Cleaning tack is important to do as it helps it last longer, gives you a chance to check for damages/ loose stitching and makes it look nice! You should clean your tack regularly anyway but with more time you can give it a thorough clean.
- Clean your grooming kit: With more time on your hands to groom your pony, and with the greasy winter coats coming out, it is really important to make sure your brushes are clean. The best way to clean your brushes is to get as much hair out of the bristles with your hands and then put them in a bucket of warm water, you could add a splash of shampoo to give them a really good clean (and to help make them smell nice!). Scrub the brushes in the warm water and then rinse off with cold water and leave out to dry. You could also give your grooming box a clean, or if you have a grooming bag these can go in the washing machine.
