At what age do you let kids hack out alone....

I used to hack out on my own at a very young age at home when I was little - no choice!!

When my daughter goes off on her own - I have kittens and stand at the highest point and try to watch her go round as much as possible, then I climb up the hill with the dogs to meet her coming back.

The other week she wenting hunting on her own - can you imagine the state I was in
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my mother still hates me going out alone and i am 42!!!! She is sure that someone is going to put out a trip wire and get me off somehow just for a laugh!!!

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That's what some of the people on the estate would try and do! Hate to say it but its true
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So perhaps you will be able to wander round the lanes together then
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I agree with the estate thing..... there is not much entertainment for kids up there, other than getting into trouble
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But I figure they would have to have a good guess at my route over there to know where I was going at what time on a particular day!!!

Does get me worried though that in my lifetime there has been a double murder (80's) a body found last year (dismembered and buried) and two sex attacks.... one of which with a slit throat!!!!

Oh god, now I am scaring myself
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But Zoe only went from our yard and round the block and back./... It just seemed to take ages coz merlin didnt want to go past the BBQ at the farm just down from your yard
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Pratt!!!
 
I dont mind wondering around the lanes when pony is sound again, vet still out every other day
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I know one boy that throws lit aerosols on the cows! Hes been resently visited by the m.o.d police....
I heard about the murder last year but know idea about the other things...to think i live there.
 
Oh poor pony.... what is wrong with him???

Bugger about the cows,.... perhaps thats why some died.... they have taken them away at the moment... which is great as they all seem to think that merlin is their daddy, and chase us
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Oh the tales I could tell you after my many many years in this area!!!!
 
just to add some of the youner kids are ok
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They seem to have no communication with oler children/parents and when you actualy sit with them and ask them why they do things its very sad with what they come out with
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Most of them are really kind when you explain to them what they do is wrong I have 2 friends of my brothers that were bad news and since letting them take my french lops for a walk and just messing about with the rabbits they are so sweet you wouldnt realise they are the same kids.
ok now i sound like a psychologist
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And i smelt the BBQ 2day...it made me hungry hehe
 
I nearly put merlin on it to teach him a lesson
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I think that a lot of kids just need a bit of attention, something sadly lacking in certain areas of our town...... some are just kicked out of the door at the crack of dawn and told not to come back till its dark.... its no wonder they have to make their own fun!
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he has a cut in te back of the pastern that got infected because no vet was called when he was in the loan familys care. Taking longer than expected because of another injury that happened in the same place in may.
Funny about the cows i dont know what pony would do with one
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That is completley true, i was out in the garden a few weeks ago and a girl about 7/8 wanted some sweets but her dad told her she couldnt because he needed to buy his alchohol.
My brother was shot with a high powered paintball gun last month (was actualy bruised and has a scar). The boy that did it is chucked out at 7 every morning and doesnt go back until 10 in the evening.
 
I did read that thread.... gulp.... will I ever feel happy though. As I am always being told, you have to let them go at some point.

It is tragic that such young riders lose their lives.... like the young kid at the indoor cross country rotational fall.... but thankfully rare. I just have to keep clinging to that thought
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I know exactly how you felt MQ - the first time I let my daughter ride out alone I was exactly the same. I did make her take a walkie-talkie though so that she could call me if she ran into any trouble, and she wasn't allowed off the farm which isn't a problem as we have loads of trails up in our forest. She was 11 years old.

She is now 12 and she rides out on her own a few times a week. Sometimes she will ride around to the neighbours and go for rides with them, however their farms all link onto ours so she doesn't have to do any road work. Once she is with an adult I don't mind her going anywhere, however when she is riding alone I do ask that she tells me exactly where she is going just incase.

I rode out alone at 8 years old, but that was a very long time ago.
 
Deffo a fone for tomorrow..... actually I think it is my turn tomorrow
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They can stay in and weed the yard!!!

Trouble is that now my 10 year old is asking when she can go it alone
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At least I can say, not till you're 13
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That is so desperately sad and as a parent I can't possibly even begin to image how the family is coping.

However, you can't live your life terrified to cross the road and I really do think it is such a hard decision on when and how much freedom to give your children.

There are no details in that article on how the fall occured and I wonder if she could have been saved even if she had an adult with her
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I agree..... you have to take calculated risks...... today I calculated how much grief i would get if I said no!!!!

If only we could look into the future and see what would happen.
 
I rode out alone all the time when I got Chex, aged 12. Before that I rode alone for a year or two - whenever I got free rides at the yard! I never told anyone where I was going and didn't have a phone in those days (those days lol, I'm only 23!) - didn't occur to me anything bad might happen, it didn't though!
 
I hacked all over the place on my own at 11. We had no mobile phones in those days and I only got told off if I came home in the dark
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I regularly met up with friends and rode for hours as well as hacking an hour or so to Pony Club or hunting. My pony wasn't great in traffic either - he regularly jumped gates off the road if a tractor came along
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It's the first time she has ridden out alone and that's why you were so worried. Once she has done it a handful of times and nothing has happened, I'm sure you will become a bit more laid back about it, like I have become now. So long as you put safety measures in place I do believe you have to let them do this - giving children this type of freedom is something very important I think.
 
It did mean a lot to her as she knows how precious i am about the horse, let alone her on him!!!!

She sees it as being trusted and capable, which means so much
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She has had a crap year with the dog bite and the caravan accident though, and I was just waiting for merlin to arrive back without her, after one of his famous spin and flee moments!!!!
 
My mum let me hack out by myself from the age of 10, but I was on her super safe mare, Bertha, and I live in a very rural place. To be honest my lack of common sense came from lack of adults out with me- by the age of 12 I was jumping things instead of opening gates, but then again I have always lacked common sense in any shape or form.
 
luckilotti and Vrin- about that kid dying.... I'm not really sure how this is relevant to this thread, she was with her friend and at the end of the day we entrust our lives to our horses anyway. Yes it is extremely sad what happened, but it could happen to anyone, in the school, out hacking, just on the yard. My friend worked at an SJers yard and got kicked in the head, she still blacks out sometimes now.

And as for falling off and being unconcious, its a risk that we all have to take really.

I'm sure zoe will be absoloutely fine, you say merlin is worse in company anyway, she is only going out for 20 minutes, just make her take her phone
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He he he..... I rode him round the lanes today and he caught sight of a lady hiding round a corner with a garden refuse bag by her side..... he lost it big time and spun and ran for it.... I stayed on by the skin of the skin of my teeth!!!!! I doubt she would have done.....

Now worried again
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I had a pony and sole responsibilty for her when I was just 11. Did everything for her all by myself and obviously rode her out on my own. That was 1978 though! Before riding hats were considered compulsory, mobile phones weren't even imagined and no one but the odd professional wore a body protector. Goodness knows how I survived, as I cringe now at some of the risks I took back then. Woe betide me letting one of my own children out on their own on foot, let alone on a flighty welsh pony! How times change, eh?
 
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