After the horse has had it’s holiday I usually start at the beginning of December with the older horses by walking and gentle trotting out hacking daily for 4 weeks (providing they’ve had no previous injuries). At week 2 I clip the horses. I give them a bit of time as sometimes they can be quite fresh!
Then I gradually introduce flat work and slow cantering by week 6 to 8 again increasing this as time goes on. I then introduce pole work and jumping the horses by week 8 to 10 however, every horse is different and some need more and some need less.
I also keep the horses in a routine as I find this really helps. I do a lot of hill work and hacking and limit schooling in the arena to just a couple of days per week to keep the horses interested and prevent them from becoming stale.