What is a reasonable number of times each day for a five year old mare to be ridden for an hour in an arena.?

Question

Each ride will be for one hour with rest periods between. How many times each day would it be fair on the horse and what rest periods between rides would be reasonable?

Answer 1

none because its cruel!!!

Answer 2

This depends a lot on the horse's fitness as well as what the horse will be asked to do when ridden.  If you have not such a fit horse, it should have short riding periods with longer breaks.  If you have a very fit horse, she can handle a little more work.  Also, if the horse is just going to carry little kids around in a pony ride, it can go a lot longer than if it's barrel racing or jumping or something.

I think it's completely reasonable for an average horse to be used 2-3 times each day for medium work (walk trot canter and a short time of jumping maybe).  The rest period depends on how much you're asking the horse to do.  At my barn, if the horse is mainly doing a walk-trot lesson with only a tiny bit of canter, then we might re-use him right away.  But if the horse is going to be doing a lot of canter and jumping, it should have at least an hour to rest.

Getting ridden twice each day is perfectly appropriate for a lesson horse who will be doing a lot of walk and trot.  Three rides per day can be acceptable if they're spaced out enough and you're not asking the horse to do too much.  If, however, you're training the horse and asking it to do new things that it doesn't quite understand yet, and you're doing strenuous work that makes the horse hot and sweaty, then the horse should only be ridden once per day.