Anyone else losing the joy?

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AutumnDays

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I'm sorry this is long, but I need to vent and check that I am not being unreasonable to feel like not bothering again...
I recently started taking my 3 out and about again lately, and after the last few experiences I'm questioning if I ever want to do it again! Little spotty miss goes out in hand (she is too small for me to ride and unsound under saddle after a field accident anyway), bay boy has "navicular changes" and was given to me as unridden, but has been having a gentle plod out under saddle the last few weeks, and big lad I've tried out again in hand and under saddle and he's so volatile, which is completely different to how he is in the field. He won't be going out again, it's not worth it. Questions are being raised about his eyesight, which would make sense of most things. Anyway, that's the back story...
First thing that has made it in enjoyable is inconsiderate drivers. We are all visible (luminous!) and it doesn't matter if it's the back roads or the main road, everyone pushes past and at speed. The first two are utter diamonds, but they don't deserve to be tested in situations like that. Despite hand gestures, hitting cars with whips and reporting, nothing has changed. We are in a rural but touristy area so things are getting even busier and worse. Which leads me to...
Off lead dogs. And feral children. There are many little beaches which draw lots of people to the area, and even if I don't go onto the sands, we have to go past car parks and campsites near them, or bridleways on the way to them. The amount of dogs who come running up barking ("he just wants to play!") or hoardes of screaming kids running out ("horsey!") is not enjoyable and again tests their limits! I've dismounted and picked up a football and lobbed it in a hedge because some kids thought kicking it at us was fun (I did threaten the kids would follow if I ever saw them do that again), and parents trying to block our way because their little darling would love a sit on the horse (bluntly told where the nearest riding school is located) have added some extra flavouring. Hacking is meant to be fun and relaxing. I feel like I never want to leave the field again! I know is stresses me out, wandering what fresh hell we will come across, and I know it stresses the first two out because they so desperately want to please, but you can tell they are barely holding it together. Big lad goes into orbit over a change of light, so we haven't even got that far with him, there'd be carnage. They all see me in hi vis or getting tack out and they either refuse to be caught or start pulling faces and fidgeting if they are caught. Winter won't be much better, as we still have an influx of tourists, and they daylight availability with working hours means we just don't get a chance to go out. Boxing up isn't an option, I don't have one anymore, and we are quite far from any of the destinations that people go to for an hour or so ride, it really isn't worth the travel time for us.
If you got this far, thank you for reading, and I wish you better experiences and joy on your ridden adventures!
 
My old yard was on the road to the local golf course so Sundays were the danger days, had to go the other way on a Sunday 😂 and the ones you meet going to and from church! They were not driving like they had The Lord watching.

The new place is on an almost single track road and cars really don't have a choice in being polite if they don't want a horse on the bonnet, it has made life SO much easier. It's still only fun and relaxing maybe 5 mins out of every hour's ride tho 🙃 probably wouldn't do it if the pony didn't need to do it!
 
I've been thinking the same thing lately. Hacking is about 90% roadwork, and I can't remember the last time I didn't have at least one driver blast past us like we weren't there. The best one recently, was a woman who tried to squeeze past on a narrow lane. I asked her to stop, but she kept creeping forwards, so I asked her again, same. She did eventually stop when she was level with me, I thanked her, she gave me a rant about how dare I expect her to stop for me? and floored it, just as I drew level with the back of her car, spraying my awesomely well-behaved pony with gravel and causing her to get upset. Just wtf is wrong with people? It never used to be this bad.

I do have a lorry, but it's a mile's hack to get to it to load.
 
I don't have that much roadwork, but it's a combination of one fast road and one that is used as a rat run. Once over that hurdle, there are plenty of oblivious cyclists and dogs with zero recall. While my horse is generally great, hacking's not relaxing anymore. If I moved I think I would be looking for access to a farm with onsite hacking. We used to have a place nearby (I miss you Woolgars!) and I would go several times a year just for lovely easy riding - no dogs, no cyclists, no impatient drivers - bliss!
 
Luckily my cob is an absolute superstar out hacking and she can happily plow through a crowd of children at the park, no trouble 🤣

In all seriousness though, I had to stop hacking out with my old nutter last year because it was miserable for all involved and very dangerous. Mainly because of a handful of irresponsible road users who seemed to think it was funny to watch the scared pony dance. ☹️
 
I can highly recommend a headcam for bad drivers. The amount who suddenly clock it and then slow down makes me raise my eyes - they weren't bothered about the horse, but they are about their licence.

Otherwise if you want to keep hacking then I think you need to change your mindset and think of all of the obstacles as training exercises. I hate loose dogs but now I just stop, let the hooligan look at them (whilst deep breathing so he doesn't pick up on any anxiety) and smile sweetly at the owners whilst saying 'if you don't have a good recall established then your dog really needs to be on a lead'. I wish I could say the same to the parents of most children .....
 
There's some great hacking round here but every single decent route involves going on to the roads.
People speed through the village (even though it's a 20mph zone) - it's either that or the locals with super-rattly trailers, which AJ hates even more than the fast cars.

We are also close to one of the main roads on the NC500 which is a big tourist route with lots of 'maximum speed limit' sections. There is a hack I'm longing to go on (literally into the mountains) but it would involve riding down a short section of the NC500 and it's a heck of a gamble. It may be OK - but then again, I may meet an inexperienced motor home driver on the wrong side of the road (happens a lot) or, even worse, a convoy of Porche Boxters doing about 90 mph round corners. Riding out very early (or late) does minimise the problems but I agree that it's an absolute pain.

The worst thing is those who are not just poor drivers but rude as well. I've had tourists try to squeeze past on lanes (and I mean my foot touching their window), only for them to get angry and tell me I had no right to be on the roads, I was delaying their journey, etc etc. Totally unacceptable.

When I lived in Lancs there was a bloke who'd drive through the housing estate shouting abuse at anyone riding a horse. We just used to try and ignore him but one day he just wouldn't shut up, going on about how horses should be banned, riders should be imprisoned for not picking up poo ("That'd soon sort 'em out!) and we should have to pay £2000 a year road tax (but not sure how that fits in with horses being banned.) On this occasion, my very mild-mannered OH just turned round and said, quite calmly, 'Look, will you just p*** off?' It was so completely out of character I gasped - and even the horses looked shocked! Idiot bloke was shocked too and just drove off.
 
We don't have too much bother, given how busy the park can be. Like SEL, I try to look at obstacles as training excercises, though my method with loose dogs and to wave my dressage whip around and shout and snarl, and basically act like a psychotic two-headed alien. Scares dogs and owners.

But every so often, someone really pisses me off.

Like last week, I passed a family near the park entrance -- mum, dad, and two wee boys, looked like twins, maybe 7/8 years old, and dressed identically (also, who does that???). After I went by them, my horse did a big flying spook forwards, because one of the little boys had run straight at her back end, shrieking as loud as he could. She is generally pretty good with screaming children, but that was a bit much. I snapped, "Don't let him do that!" at the parents. They tried to get ahold their kid and looked apologetic. I continued on my way. Horse was tense and looky, not like her, so I glance over my shoulder to see these kids still runnng straight at her, squealing and 'galloping' like they were horses. I buried the horse in a bush and told the parents irritably, "You go in front of me. They don't like it when you run and scream and chase them." They looked at me apologetically, but with so much despair, as if to say, "You try controlling them!" Horse was fine once these people weren't up her butt anymore.

The local ravens, however, had to put up with these kids running at them whenever one landed on the trail or a nearby tree. :rolleyes:
 
Nancykitt said:
We are also close to one of the main roads on the NC500 which is a big tourist route with lots of 'maximum speed limit' sections. There is a hack I'm longing to go on (literally into the mountains) but it would involve riding down a short section of the NC500 and it's a heck of a gamble. It may be OK - but then again, I may meet an inexperienced motor home driver on the wrong side of the road (happens a lot) or, even worse, a convoy of Porche Boxters doing about 90 mph round corners. Riding out very early (or late) does minimise the problems but I agree that it's an absolute pain.
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Every day, I pray that the people who invented the concept of the 'NC500' (the roads were always there) will spend the rest of eternity naked and chained in a midge and tick infested bog, ideally in a 'Heaven Sent' kind of time loop. And I don't even live there. But we used to go to the northwest a lot for hiking and kayaking when you could still find solitude, and it wasn't overrun by the teeming hordes who just want to 'do' the NC500 but have little interest in the place itself.

There isn't the infrastucture to support the number of vehicles/people. Should the tourist promotional powers-that-be really have gone mad with PR for a holiday aimed at driving, knowing what we know about climate change?? And it's bullsh1t. Those roads aren't 'Scotland's Route 66.' That actually has some history to it, like being the first interstate road in the US, then first paved interstate road, etc. The roads in the northwest are just...the roads, connecting to A to B. There is, of course, a great deal of history in the far north, but the roads themselves are not of any historical interest.

Sorry, carrry on with your regularly scheduled thread....
 
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smolmaus said:
My old yard was on the road to the local golf course so Sundays were the danger days, had to go the other way on a Sunday 😂 and the ones you meet going to and from church! They were not driving like they had The Lord watching.

The new place is on an almost single track road and cars really don't have a choice in being polite if they don't want a horse on the bonnet, it has made life SO much easier. It's still only fun and relaxing maybe 5 mins out of every hour's ride tho 🙃 probably wouldn't do it if the pony didn't need to do it!
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Perhaps they did think the Lord was watching?
 
I hate hacking on the roads now. My horse is young and inexperienced, and although she's good with traffic, we live on a long straight rat run section of 'no road marking' rural road, with a nasty blind bend just about 100m from my yard gates. Drivers have got less considerate, there are more boy racers and old geezers in Mercs and carloads of kids with harassed, oblivious mums...etc etc. So many don't slow down, and some are abusive when asked to.

Last year there was a fatal head on collision right outside as someone came round the bend on the wrong side at high speed, shooting debris into my turnout area and traumatising all of us, human and equine. The driver's family have since made a shrine on the roadside which is only yards from my gates, so I see it every time I go out. They still visit, and lay flowers, and even put pumpkins for Halloween and Christmas decs and all sorts. It's a constant reminder which I find upsetting, but there's nothing I can do.

Horse doesn't reliably load easily, plus it's a palaver to get the trailer hitched due to our awkward access and trailer storage...all these things have combined to make me lose a lot of confidence, and mostly confine my hacking to the woods that I can thankfully access from the yard.
 
@SEL & @Caol Ila they are both fabulous out, it's not really a training thing, it's more of a rant about why we as horse riders have to be so extra on guard and put in dangerous situations because of other people's thoughtlessness and entitlement. Little spotty miss is an absolute diamond and for a baby so unflappable, if anything the scary thing must be thoroughly investigated not spooked away from! We had a motorbike come flying past us, and I mean flying, he didn't even pull over to give us much room, if I had ninja like speed I could have shoved him off kind of close. She just kept walking and focusing on me, the only indication that she was a bit on edge was the ears back and prancy walk. Absolute star. But she shouldn't have to be in that situation to be tested like that just because some idiot didn't want to slow down and think of the safety of others
 
Hacking used to be a nice, relaxing thing to do. I have three unfit horses, one of which is obese. I no longer enjoy hacking, just do it because I feel I ought to, to get them some exercise. It is no longer a pleasant stroll, with maybe a fun blast up up a bridleway or two. The bridleways are mostly poorly surfaced, so only fit for carefully walking on, and the roadwork part, is spent constantly listening out for traffic and looking over my shoulder, in case someone is sneaking up in an EV or about to flash past on a bicycle.

I am keeping a look out for another yard, one that is in a better location and accessible for my lorry. But they rarely come up.
 
Ok now feeling very very fortunate that most of our hacking is off road straight into the woods and the only hack involving a road is literally crossing it into another field or a 1 minute trot to a turn off - although I did cause a peloton of cyclists to do a fall over once as I was indicating I was turning right when a car came in the opposite direction and they all slowed down behind me to such an extent they all toppled as they had feet in those silly clip pedal things.

My main issue is helpful dog walkers who clip their dogs onto a lead then go and hide in a bush or behind a tree so I spend of lot of time saying "can you come into the open please as he thinks you are a lurking monster" oh and the random gas guns the ones that go off at a regular on the hour and 30 minutes later no problem but one of our farmers locally seems to have selected "random" mode so every trip down that track is a gamble especially as the gun is right up to the hedge
 
We once had a neighbour who would stop his car and turn the engine off until we'd gone past when we met him on the lane.
Sounds considerate, but as soon as we were about 2ft away he would re-start the car and rev the engine up really loudly. How we laughed. (not).
We tried explaining that it would probably be better if the engine just kept running for the time we were there (literally seconds) and he looked mystified as he genuinely thought he was being kind.

Has anyone had any problems with very quiet electric cars?
 
Nancykitt said:
We once had a neighbour who would stop his car and turn the engine off until we'd gone past when we met him on the lane.
Sounds considerate, but as soon as we were about 2ft away he would re-start the car and rev the engine up really loudly. How we laughed. (not).
We tried explaining that it would probably be better if the engine just kept running for the time we were there (literally seconds) and he looked mystified as he genuinely thought he was being kind.

Has anyone had any problems with very quiet electric cars?
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I’ve had trouble recently with a couple of those cars where the engine automatically stops and then they obvs put on a tiny bit of pressure as we go past, so the engine starts again. Ended up in a ditch once and some choice words were said.

Only had trouble with one electric car which belonged to a livery’s husband when he nearly ran over my sleeping dog who is old and quite deaf and didn’t hear it.
 
Nancykitt said:
We once had a neighbour who would stop his car and turn the engine off until we'd gone past when we met him on the lane.
Sounds considerate, but as soon as we were about 2ft away he would re-start the car and rev the engine up really loudly. How we laughed. (not).
We tried explaining that it would probably be better if the engine just kept running for the time we were there (literally seconds) and he looked mystified as he genuinely thought he was being kind.

Has anyone had any problems with very quiet electric cars?
Click to expand...
I just got my first car with stop-start and I feel like I'm going to do this by accident at some point. Not the revving, obviously but stop-start probably explains some of this behaviour!

I know there is an EV coming when pony puts herself in the hedge to let them past (and eat grass). Just because I can't hear them doesn't mean she can't!
 
I remember the stop-start thing startling my old horse when it first became a thing. But to be honest, so many cars do it now that the horses don't care.

Quiet EVs startle me, but not the horses. The advantages of 320-degree vision and better hearing.
 
The only thing that has really startled the hooligan recently (apart from pigeons who make an unnecessary racket) was an electric bike. It took a fair while when he was a baby to get him used to bikes - and I'm in MAMIL territory - but this one made the weirdest noise. Didn't help it was following us and I was struggling for a useful gateway to let it past

There's a guy nearby who has one of the para bikes with a huge flag on it. I've seen the hunt horses scatter at that and nothing much frightens them. I think the increase in cars has put him off and I'm selfishly relieved!
 
I remember popping out of Mugdock, on Fin, to see one of those para bikes with the huge flag pottering down the road. "No way," I said, and we legged it back into the park until the guy had gone past and was out of sight.
 
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