9 reasons riders love (and hate) autumn
As a horse owner and rider, what do you enjoy most about autumn? Here are a few of our thoughts…
1. Hound exercise/autumn trail-hunting
What could be better than following hounds under a pink sky as the sun rises on a misty autumn morning, or riding across country in a landscape where everything that is still living or growing is tinged with gold?
(On the flipside, is that my morning alarm? It can’t be. It’s the middle of the night)
2. Clipping
Nothing makes a horse look smarter than a neat clip revealing a healthy, shiny coat over well defined muscle. You can even clip to accentuate his good points and hide conformational weaknesses. Meanwhile, stroking his neck feels like velvet.
(Never mind the fact you’ll fill a tissue with hairs on blowing your nose, and have an itchy neck in that jacket for the next month. These will be the least of your worries if your horse leaves the vicinity at speed on hearing you start up the clippers)
3. No flies
So long evil horse flies. Adios midges. Sayonara sweet itch. Good riddance lumps on your horse’s saddle patch.
(Greetings, wind and rain, it’s been a while)
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4. Soft going
Hurrah for heavenly, long canters now the fields are soft enough having been hard baked all summer.
(Boo to scraping the mud off your girth the next day if you fail to wash it off on returning to the yard)
5. Stabling at night
You get to build deep beds that look more inviting and immaculate now than they will for the rest of the year. You can bring in your grateful equine from a downpour and watch steam rise from his back as he tucks into his supper.
(You’ve just signed yourself up for mucking out every morning until the weather turns again in April).
6. No dust
No more brushing and brushing and brushing and brushing the endless amounts of dust from his coat.
(There’s the small matter of wet mud, but that’s a darn sight easier to get off once dry. Oh and there’s mud fever. That’s a pain in the derrière. Or rather pastern)
7. Team chasing/hunter trials
And, we’re off! Storming along over courses you don’t get the chance to access for the remainder of the year, in the company of great friends, with your horse enjoying the camaraderie and competition as much as you are.
(Pack spare breeches and pants in case you come a cropper in the water/bog and it’s a little fresh out).
8. Lovely leaves
Call us frivolous, but having been cooped up at home or in an office for the majority of the week, the contrast of riding through fallen leaves on a Saturday morning, admiring the reds and golds still clinging on to their branches, is heart warming.
(We see little that is bad about leaves, other than they congregate on the yard to form a damp, shiny ice rink on which we go A over T. Similarly, wet moss — which didn’t make this list, on account of having no redeeming features)
9. Baths
You need, no, you deserve a long, hot, steaming bath to ease your frozen bones on returning from a day at the yard. Bliss.
(However… chilblains)
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Sarah has worked at an equestrian journalist and editor since 2004 and has held the position of Horse & Hound Editor-in-Chief since 2014. She has reported for Horse & Hound from major championships including Europeans and World Equestrian Games. She has co-written books on horses and horse sport including The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies. She has owned and ridden horses since 1993, and worked for and trained with Olympic gold medallist event rider Leslie Law prior to going to university. While studying for a BSc at London School of Economics Sarah also worked for top British dressage rider Louise Spate.