December is here so it’s officially Christmas. 

 

This time of year can be both a blessing and a curse for horse owners. If you’re off over Christmas this can give you some extra time with your horse but the run up with all the Christmas parties can be a bit hectic. 

 

If you’ve got competitions coming up then it can be helpful to plan in your schooling sessions now and stick to them like business meetings. 

 

If you don’t have anything important coming up then it may not be a bad idea to take the pressure off yourself and give your horse a break. 

 

So get your diary out now and put in your schooling sessions, taking into account social events, hangovers the next day etc and you might be surprised at how easy it is to fit in 2-3 sessions across the week with a bit of planning, even if it’s just 20 minutes on the lunge or 10 minutes groundwork.

 

The same goes for your own exercise regime, just 20 minutes a couple of times per week will keep you ticking over. If you want to do the ultimate horse owner life hack, long rein your horse for 20 minutes with plenty of trot work in there and you’ll have had a decent cardio session too! 

 

Then there’s all the extra eating and drinking to contend with. If you don’t want to hit January feeling like a Christmas Pudding then I suggest employing a sensible attitude to eating and drinking. I’m not saying you can’t have any of the tasty food but I promise you that eating your own body weight in mince pies won’t give you the energy you need to make it through all those parties. Also waking up in January with an extra half a stone to shift is just no fun.

 

So at least aim for a little balance this December. 

 

Whilst I can’t banish all those treats from your office I can help you plan how to manage them. Back in my office days I got around this by insisting my secretary did all of the coffee making so I didn’t have to go near the treats,  Obviously this showed no regard for my secretary’s health but it s every woman for herself! This of course is not a viable solution…….

 

Firstly make sure you have your own healthy meals and snacks with you so you aren’t reaching for the chocolate because you’re hungry. Secondly be realistic, you aren’t going to abstain completely but you can limit yourself to one treat per day. So maybe one mince pie or a couple of celebrations instead of your usual afternoon snack is a good way of a having a treat without it being a month long blow out.

 

Then there’s the alcohol conundrum. Now this stuff appears to be the only advice anyone ever takes on board from me so here goes!

 

Unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that alcohol has a high calorie content. You can switch to light beer, low alcohol wine but let’s be honest it doesn’t usually taste as good! So, just try not to have a month long drinking session, have some days off and save your drinking for your socialising not just for your regular Tuesday.

 

Here’s a couple of top picks though if you do want to watch your calories.

 

Champagne-90 cals a glass = winner! Basically fizzy wine tends to be lower calories than other wine so that’s essentially permission to pop corks.

 

Spirts such as Gin, Vodka and Whisky have a calorie content of around 100 calories, it’s the mixers that add calories so stick to diet mixers or soda water and you’re saving hundreds of calories. The supermodels current drink of choice is Vodka, lime and Soda so of its good enough for them…..

 

I’m imagining you’ve all stopped reading now as you’re already on route to the bar…..