How windy?

[Sue B]

Question is sorta self-explanatory, but how strong does the wind have to be before you give up trying to train that day. I live in a windy area, and certainly if the wind is 50mph or more, I don't bother to ride but that's more because it gets too hard to get the tack on, not anything the horses do. I have noticed, however, that my tolerence for the wind seems to be decreasing such that I quit trying to school Tio when the gusts were only 30mph. It was simply getting too hard to hear his footfalls and at his early stage of training, I am working on developing a consistent tempo in the walk and trot. Ten, fifteen years ago, though, I would've held out until the wind was closer to 40mph. What do you guys do?

[demi]

I just now came inside after riding my Arab/QH mare Rocky. We are having 30 mph winds. Rocky is 10 and I've had her since a 3yr old. She is a hot little mare but we're a team so I trust her in the wind even though she gets momentarily tense when really big gusts come up behind her. Especially when the tress are blowing wildly and the sand kicks up.

Today is my day to ride Emma but I may lunge her instead. I tack up in the barn so wind isn't a problem in that department.

[khall]

I am not a wind fan! Anything much more that 20-25 and I usually will not climb on, but is horse dependent. Now when Mark was still alive and I hosted clinics several times a year we would often have a blow at least one day of the clinic and most often the horses were just fine. Except for April 2016, Mark's last clinic here. It was blowing maybe 35 mph and gusty, Rip was full of beans and made a move on the lunge line that would have made a cutting horse proud. Thankfully once I got on he minded his manners but I was definitely riding defensively!!

[StraightForward]

If it's over about 20 I usually don't ride out of sheer wimpiness. I was out in it most of Thursday and Friday, then Saturday I planned to go ride Kyra after working Annabelle. It's always windier up at Susan's barn than at my barn, and after being out in the wind so much for three days, I was just over it and went home and enjoyed watching the storm come in from the kitchen window.

If it's very gusty I definitely don't ride because tree branches can come down in the arena, plus there is a tarped hay stack right next to the arena that creates quite the boogey man for green horses.

[kande50]

My horses, for all their spookiness, don't seem to mind the wind, but I do because even though I have an indoor the wind makes it creak and bang, which I find unpleasant. And besides, how am I ever going to become a true fair weather dressage queen if I continue to saddle up on days when it's cold and windy?

[piedmontfields]

We don't get the high winds that you do, Sue (at least not routinely). I would say that I ride with 30 mph gusts when it happens if the weather is otherwise okay. But a lot more than that I might not (and probably it would be raining if we had that kind of wind). The main thing is that I stay out of the woods when it is very windy---I don't want a tree limb to fall on us! I have been out riding in 30+ mph steady winds in a large field when a tree some distance from us blew over. That was interesting.

I do find my Emi and past horses are more aware on hyper windy days. It is harder for them to keep track of things with the wind covering up sounds.

[Kyra's Mom]

I probably wimp out at 25-30mph as my max. Not only is my horse NOT a wind horse...hyper vigilant and a bit spooky...but she isn't a big horse and I am sure as we head into the wind, I am like a sail on her back and she definitely has to work harder to go forward. We do have an indoor but it is seldom watered and I can't stand and won't subject my horse to the dust so I do put up with some wind. You won't catch me on any type of trail ride on a windy day...that is a death wish. I want to try one of those noise minimizing bonnets when it is windy to see if that helps the distraction factor.

As Straightforward said, you can count on another 5-10 mph at my barn...special, huh. I do have another indicator. I clean pens first so horse can get a snack and some food in the tummy before work. If the poop blows off the fork between the ground and the wheelbarrow...it is too windy .

Susan

[Sue B]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who gives up when the wind is blowing hard(ish).

[Kathy Johnson]

I usually stop when things start flying by (chairs, trash cans, small animals). Most horses who live outside are more used to the wind than we are, but it can be really ungrounding for some of us. After working with people with autism and sensory integration issues outside, I realize that the wind strips the senses. Sounds we shouldn't hear come at us from long distances; a moment later, we can't hear things up close. The same with smells. They become mixed by the winds, and confusing. Eyes water, skin is pounded by sand and grit. It's no wonder some horses, and some people, are terrified by the winds. I've had a few horses freeze in the wind, just stop and stand and try to make sense of their senses. I gauge it on a very individual basis. How much attention can that particular horse pay and how worth it is it to work through the winds?

[Moutaineer]

I find wind very unsettling. So does Laddie. He is much better when wearing a bonnet, but he's still unpredictable, so if things are flapping around more than usual, we tend to err on the side of caution. (I board him at a barn that was apparently built in a wind tunnel, though, so all things are relative.)

Walker, however, can have tumbleweeds and trash blowing between his legs and he'll just keep on keeping on.