I have taken my horses to 3 shows in the past 3 weekends and i was wondering how much time should i give them?

Question

To take a break

Answer 1

Three shows in three consecutive weekends is not a tough show schedule if it is local. However, if you are touring regionally, or worse, nationally, it is an extremely tough schedule and extremely hard on the horses. Not that the shows are too exhausting. It is the stress of transport. But if the shows are local, it is very likely that show day is the only morning of the week when you actually don't mind getting out of bed before sunrise and it is likely your horses share your excitement and enthusiasm. And when show day is over, it is likely the only enthusiasm you feel is looking forward to a relaxing evening at home and a stress free restful week. When show day is over your horses will share that enthusiasm as well. They will be eager to relax in stall and to get out to pasture and just be horses, to socialize, to roll, and to get dirty. So my answer is, if the shows are local and there is no stress of long distance transport, a week off is substantially recuperative and three shows over a period of three consecutive weekends is not too physically taxing and too tough of a schedule.

Answer 2

Without knowing your horse I cannot answer this question accurately.  I know horses that show every weekend religiously as long as there is a show to attend and I have known some that burnout rather quickly to the whole idea of showing.  I think much of it has to do with the environment, shows can cause stress to the rider who transfers that stress to the horse, causing burnout, as long as the rider and environment are as relaxed as possible (some stress can't be helped) there is no reason a horse can't show quite often.  Personally I often found that I would burnout before my mounts would, and I would often schedule my showing season so I had every other weekend off, I am not saying that I never showed more than one weekend back to back, there are some rather big local shows around me that all occur within the month of May...which often mean that I am living at a show ground for that month since most of those shows run into the week as well.  It is nice for your horse to have time off and you will notice that horses that do receive time off will (most times) have a show career that lasts years longer than that of regular campaigners.

Answer 3

Usually for me, June is my busyest show month. I'm showing just about every weekend. So I give horses a break at shows, if I have a while between classes and they're preforming fairly good, I'll get off. Loosen the girth, re fly spray if needed and water.

But I show on Sat. so when I get home from the show, I put them in a stall to eat their feed, and the check them for any lameness. When their done, I'll turn them outside for a day, they have all day on Sun. to be them selves. But on mon. its back to work again. If it was big show and the horses worked a lot harder they'll get 2 days off. But typically I'll give them a day off.