Attitude towards people who like hacking best

We do Trec now, which has an element of 'hacking' in it...love it! My mare is perfectly capable to jump, do dressage and whatever else I ask her to do. There was one comment once about my amazing horse being 'wasted' but soon shut them up. You do what makes you happy, the OH is also taking up Trec this year now he will be retiring later on in the year, this is what we've been looking forward to for so long, more time to enjoy the horses and I don't care what anyone thinks, we will do what we bloomin' well want! :p

Enjoy your hacking, sod anyone else who thinks otherwise. :)
 
Goldenstar said:
To me Hacking is boring , I do it because it's good for the horses and I'll tell you a secret I get bored if I go hunting to much .
I don't find hacking challenging but I enjoy the horses enjoyment .
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^^ this,

JFTD said:
Ironic that the sneering works both ways, really :rolleyes3:
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^^ this,

hackneylass2 said:
I think people should just enjoy their horses,
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^^... and this ;)

I couldn't care less what anyone else is doing with their horses as long as horse and rider are happy :) I hack mine because it is good for their minds and bodies. Personally I enjoy training and competing more and tbh I probably wouldn't be too bothered about having the horses if I couldn't compete at all. Each to their own :)
 
Goldenstar said:
To me Hacking is boring , I do it because it's good for the horses and I'll tell you a secret I get bored if I go hunting to much .
I don't find hacking challenging but I enjoy the horses enjoyment .
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Come hacking with me on Salisbury Plain and show how exciting and challenging it can be! I'm with you on hunting - too much standing around. My mare and I are all about going forward, preferably as fast as possible.
 
99percent of bitchy comments i received whether hacking or competing came from people who hardly ride or don't "anymore".
Personally i love hacking but find going to a new environment to do it -reading maps navigating weird terrain is alot more fun and challenging than boring Road work and rides ive done a billion times at home. I don't compete as my pony is old and doesn't like jumping anymore. I have zero interest in any kind of schooling or dressage and sadly there is very little else on offer where i am. Hacking is something i have always done though and when you are in a nice location surrounded by nature it can be magical. Each to his own but hacking is the whole reason i have a horse
 
pansymouse said:
Come hacking with me on Salisbury Plain and show how exciting and challenging it can be! I'm with you on hunting - too much standing around. My mare and I are all about going forward, preferably as fast as possible.[/


Its so easy to gallop about it would not challenge me a jot .
I see it like going to the pub MrGS enjoys going to the pub and I see why he enjoys it the company the crack etc etc but if I never went to pub again I would not be troubled .
My horses like hacking but it's not challenging for me I been doing it for fifty years I spent my childhood tearing about I see why my horses enjoy it and that's why I do it .
I enjoy changing a horse by training it ,watching it develop and change see it gaining confidence as you train it to straighten and it's balance develops I enjoy taking time to let them mature and watching them physically change .
I don't make any judgement on the fact you enjoy tearing about (that's your thing )and you think I would find that challenging but it simply would not .
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I adore hacking. I grew up in the Peak District and used to spend my holidays exploring the gorgeous countryside with my Arab mare - always felt a bit like Jinny with Shantih :D. I never felt like anyone looked down on me because of it though. I'd love to do more of a mixture if I had a riding horse atm though - bit of hacking, bit of schooling, bit of XC, maybe hunting. I sometimes think it depends on the horse a lot too. When I was an SJ groom we had nice hacking - wide grass tracks cut in round the edge of crop fields, woods etc and we hacked a lot because my boss liked the horses to do it (but wasn't so keen himself!). I swear, the same hack on one horse could be dull as ditchwater yet brilliant fun on a different horse. And I would like hacking some horses that the other grooms hated riding and vice versa.
 
I love hacking out. I mean, not so much in the winter when it essentially amounts to wading through 6"-deep mud (the joys of living on clay soil) to get to a road for a steady wander, but in the late spring & summer it's marvellous to take H out with a friend or two on a good two-or-three-hour adventure and have a bit of a blast. And autumn's lovely too, because we have the stubble fields to play on (sometimes even a few straw bales to jump).

This is not to say I don't ever compete, because I do, but hacking avoids all the worry of travel and entry fees and it makes a nice change from working in the school (which is great in moderation but I can't imagine only schooling with no hacks ever).
 
To each their own! I used to school a lot and compete regularly (just riding club stuff but we did a fair bit). Hacking was a way to get the horse fit and to get a break from schooling.

Now I have a young child and limited time - I've lost the motivation to compete (so much bathing!). And I don't have the time to consistently school so we hack - and do some clicker training. Keeps us both ticking over but is a bit miserable in the winter when the weather is crappy.

I do know plenty of people who like to just potter about on a hack and others who like to do a lot of fast work or schooling - the horses seem happy with either and so do the owners which is what it's all about!
 
AdorableAlice said:
Who gives a S H one T about what people think.

It is a privilege to ride a horse regardless of what we do. We need to remember that and enjoy what we have for as long as we can. So I have taken the pain relief, have the day off work and am off to bumble around the lanes on a common cob. How lucky am I.
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Completely agree, beautiful day, common cobs rock.
 
AdorableAlice said:
Who gives a S H one T about what people think.

It is a privilege to ride a horse regardless of what we do. We need to remember that and enjoy what we have for as long as we can. So I have taken the pain relief, have the day off work and am off to bumble around the lanes on a common cob. How lucky am I.
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very lucky! Almost tempted to do the same!
 
Yardbird said:
Completely agree, beautiful day, common cobs rock.
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Thank you ! We are back and whilst we only hack, on that hack we did dressage - leg yield to give a tractor more room, we did trot to halt to avoid a kamikasi biker rider, we did walk to canter - unintentional cob feet on grass verge, naughty cob. We did park and ride for a natter with a neighbour. We got chased by a dog and whilst the cob would like have splatted it she refrained.

Then we did pilates - me scrambling off her getting off onto the block, really must teach the cob to kneel down, would be so helpful.

An hour on a safe and willing horse, bliss.
 
People shouldn't care what you do as long as it suits you.Keep on hacking.Enjoy.
AdorableAlice said:
Thank you ! We are back and whilst we only hack, on that hack we did dressage - leg yield to give a tractor more room, we did trot to halt to avoid a kamikasi biker rider, we did walk to canter - unintentional cob feet on grass verge, naughty cob. We did park and ride for a natter with a neighbour. We got chased by a dog and whilst the cob would like have splatted it she refrained.

Then we did pilates - me scrambling off her getting off onto the block, really must teach the cob to kneel down, would be so helpful.

An hour on a safe and willing horse, bliss.
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I love hacking, and actually really enjoy 'making' a good hacker - though current project has decided it's 2 steps back time with his airs above the ground yesterday scaring the local drivers :)

My own horse loves exploring, finding new routes, and is safe as houses on the road. Hacking on him is like putting on comfy slippers - I pick him when I'm worried, or stressed, or not feeling well and need to put in zero effort!
 
It took me a long time to understand just how good my horse is at hacking, and my mission for this year is to get my younger horse on the same track. I don't have any facilities at home and am blessed by living in quiet horse friendly countryside with generally great other road users, I feel a lot braver out hacking than I do in a school.
 
I used to really enjoy hacking. It's pretty much all I would do on my share horses.

These days, I don't enjoy it so much. We're stabled on a busy A-road and you have to hack along it to get to the bridle paths. But there's too much road work for my liking, so I do avoid it. Plus I'm a nervous nelly, so it just wouldn't be enjoyable.

So I stick to schooling, lessons and trips out (competing, schooling or lessons).

I think non-hackers get looked down upon by 'happy hackers' just as much as happy hackers get looked down upon by non-hackers.

But tbh, you will get sneered at by someone no matter what you do, so you may as well do what you enjoy and stuff what everyone else thinks :)
 
I don't give a damn what people think about me hacking only. Likewise I don't give a damn what other people do with theirs.

Our school is out of action ATM anyway and I don't like showing (always hanging around) and there are no local hunt/SJ/ODE within hacking distance.
 
I love hacking. I love competing. I work in a school when I can't get out for a hack because I want to keep my boy ticking over. I also school because I know it will benefit us both for competing. I also sometimes school whilst out hacking because my boy is so much more forward going out hacking.

There's nothing like a blast around the fields after a busy, frustrating day at work on a lovely evening. I can't wait for the ground to improve so I can box him over to some of the places nearby where you can pay a small fee to go out hacking off road for miles :) If there are ditches and logs so much the better.
 
We used to do the pony club thing, rallies, schooling etc. Then we stopped, and started just charging around the countryside doing what we feel like (you can call it hacking if you like), and realised it was much more fun!

Now I know some people like showing, and some like schooling, but if my ponies could speak, they'd tell you that what they like best is charging 5 abreast across a hillside, or trotting through town, hearing their hooves sing on the damp tarmac and admiring themselves in the shop windows. ;)
 
One of the things I like about hacking is that it can be quite sociable if you hack with a friend as you have a bit of a chat as well enjoying the countryside whereas if I am in the school it is a bit less sociable as everyone is concentrating on schooling their horses and trying to not get in anyone's way.

If I had a horse that was very difficult to hack out but was lovely to ride in the school then I think I would want to compete because it would be a chance to get off the yard and go somewhere different rather than being in the school all the time. I can definitely understand why someone people may not hack though as if you have a horse that is not relaxed out hacking it probably is not that relaxing or fun for you either.

I also don't enjoy hacking out in really bad weather either so if is horrible then I tend to stick to the school.
 
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