5 year old horse - not done much roadwork

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silverstar

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Im going to see a 5 year old in a few weeks but the horse has been showjumping and done dressage both at RC level. The horse hasnt been out hacking much. Cant understand why. She did say tho that the horse has recently moved yards and its a very busy road but surely if you've had the horse since a youngster you would do some hacking?

Sorry for the silly questions again.
 
Ive not had a horse from an early age as that but I would have thought that it ought to have had some roadwork. Roadwork is so good for them in building up muscle etc so they can cope with showjumping etc. Perhaps the owner doesnt like hacking out and isnt confident, or didnt have anyone to hack out with.? You need to ask yourself if you can do the roadwork ok and have the time and patience to deal with traffic and the worry and the time it may take to get the youngster confident on the roads. They are so busy nowadays and you will need a very good escort to go with you. Drivers are unfortunately in a rush more often than not. Good luck!
 
I am a big fan of hacking but have to say that my 5 year olds very rarely hack out on the roads as the lane from our stables has a lot of traffic on it that goes very fast. It has high hedges and no good way of getting out of the way of the traffic. We do take them round the little (15 mins) block but to be honest I don't think it if worth the risk to do too much on the roads with them as I don't have a really SAFE escort horse to take out with them. They do hack round the fields at home though.
 
My friend bought her 5 year old and he hadn't done any hacking/road work. He was simply bought to break in and sell so the previous owner seen no purpose in doing so but did introduce him to farm machinery. His field was next to a motorway so he did hear the traffic.

My friend's done a really good job with him and he's always the best behaved on a hack.

As above really, if you have the confidence and ability, you should have no problems, especially as the horse has been taken to competitions where he would have found himself in new surroundings anyway.
 
There are a few people who regularly hack out at the yard Im going to so hopefully educating the horse shouldnt be too much of a problem. I just cant understand why at such a young age its not part of a horses overall education but as a few of you have said if the only hacking is on a really busy road then it may not be appropriate to start a young horses education this way.
 
My mare was a jumper and so very, very green to hacking and I assumed her jump fanatic owner didn't want to waste her time on it?

Even though my mare had spent her life at competitions, her greatest fear on the road that I found, was trailers and caravans, she would spin!! It still tickles me though, as she would of seen thousands of them being dragged across open and crowded fields in her time!
 
I understand what you are saying but in the same sense, it was prob not in the owner's interests to hack as she wanted a competition horse. She may have also not had the time.

I do agree that it is important to expose a young horse to as much as possible though (in a safe environment).
 
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