Does anyone not

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lydia

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Does anyone not hack? I moved my mare to a new yard in feb. It's great there and she settled in straight away BUT the hacking is not great. The 2 options are either out onto a VERY busy and fast road for 100 yards until you can turn off onto quieter country lanes or up the shared driveway which is pretty narrow and either side are some very inquisitive and unhelpful ex polo ponies that I know would set my girl off (ponies are due to move so I will take her out when they do). Driveway again leads to quiet country lanes but no real off-road hacking.
I'm not missing hacking at all! She's ridden 6 days a week and I mix it up from flat, poles, gridwork, jumping etc and she seems very happy. I was just wondering if anyone else doesn't hack their horses? I do feel a bit guilty sometimes that she's missing out!
 
When The Moose was at college he never hacked out. He was fine and really thrived on the routine of doing the same things every day. Too much variety blows his tiny mind! My other horse would have become really sour and bored with that life. It depends on the individual and a stressy horse may actively appreciate no hacking.
 
magicmoose said:
When The Moose was at college he never hacked out. He was fine and really thrived on the routine of doing the same things every day. Too much variety blows his tiny mind! My other horse would have become really sour and bored with that life. It depends on the individual and a stressy horse may actively appreciate no hacking.
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She's not a stressy type at all, and is very good to hack I just don't think with our hacking options that either of us would enjoy it much!
 
Personally, unless the horse was dangerous to hack out, I would not keep my horse at a yard I could not hack out from. I think that access to a variety of surfaces (road/grass/tracks) is great for conditioning and overall fitness, and too much work on an artificial surface is not good for their legs.

I used to be a 'hacking for fitness only' type and would ride mostly in the school, until my horse injured his suspensory. Since his recovery I school max twice a week and hack the rest of the time. There is nothing better than going for a good 'blast' after a long day at work!
 
I would be bored witless, I moved to a yard with a couple of manege (s?!) in January so I could crack on with schooling and we mostly just hack-It is partly cos we lack direction and I need to book some lessons but I would still hack every day even to warm up and cool off when schooling
 
I'd HATE not having hacking! I specifically picked my yard so I could ride out with my dog off road. I do dressage, polo and started jumping her but she enjoys our little blasts out every week or so where she can be a racehorse again and also her little chilled potters round the block when we are tight for time. I'm sure some horses are happy without hacking but I wouldn't do it personally even with the various schooling things we do. Having said that I wouldn't hack if roads or horse were dangerous!
 
My yard is directly on the Pennine way bridleway so I could hack for hundreds of miles with no roads, lanes nothing and I don't even really like hacking do it purely out if necessity for horses fittening.
 
Hacking is pretty boring but I do it a lot as it's good for the horses and it's good for their minds .
Working on surfaces all the time is bad for their long term soundness .
 
I can take or leave hacking. I hack once/twice a week for my youngsters sake, though I don't think she particularly enjoys it either to be honest. We both love going over the gallops, but have to be careful with the ground. I'm not a fan of road hacking, but unfortunately the gallops is the closest thing we have to off-road hacking where we are.
 
I was on a yard with not great hacking for a while - you had to ride on roads for about 45 mins before you could get off-road - and some of those roads were a bit hairy. It meant I cut down my hacking to about once or twice a fortnight, and schooled the rest of the time. I was bored with it, and my horse got to the point where he absolutely hated it. He turned into a complete stress-head; I moved yards and he was back to the wonderful horse I knew & loved.
 
What is boring about discovering new places on horseback?

finding and playing in streams and fords with your horse, schooling in newly discovered open areas, crossing bridges, facing horse eating sheep (we did that last night) riding past the very scary slaughter house (we did that too), I love it best thing about riding
 
Goldenstar said:
Hacking is pretty boring but I do it a lot as it's good for the horses and it's good for their minds .
Working on surfaces all the time is bad for their long term soundness .
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I agree, I only hack to keep them fit, and even then I bust a gut to stay off the roads because it just isn't worth the idiots on it.
 
Thanks for comments. I do ride her around the grass fields which are on a incline and great for fittness so not solely a surfaced ménage.
 
I had a very scary incident a few years ago where I was exercising polo ponies and nearly got hit by a motorbike because of the riders own lack of patience and foresight. So now I'm very wary of hacking on the road at all as this happened on a quiet country lane and I feel a bit out of control as of course you can't control what other road users do. I don't hack very often because of this and to be honest it's fine. I use the field surrounding the yard to vary the terrain and get my horses out and about a fair bit so they've got plenty of variety but I just don't fancy taking my life and that of my horses in my hands heading out for a hack on the road. I know this is dramatic but a lot of drivers have zero respect for horses particularly in our area.
 
I much prefer schooling to hacking so it would not bother me too much. The most important thing for me is whether the horse is happy and the facilities are good. I don't have great hacking here for nervous or traffic shy horses as we have to cross a busy A road and when the weather has been really wet, the tracks are not very passable. But if you have a good safe hacking horse it is never a problem. Sad thing is we are lacking a good 'nanny' horse to go hacking with at present. My liveries are not big hackers so are not bothered. I plan to do something with the fields this Spring to create a short gallop which will be useful. The thing I miss most since I moved was easy hacking distance access to a four mile cross country course. I used to do the course at least once a week with my mare. It was exhilarating.
 
Hacking to me is one of the reasons I ride. We explore and ride in some fantastic places. I think hours in the saddle is one of the nicest ways to really get a connection/bond with your horse.
 
twiggy2 said:
What is boring about discovering new places on horseback?

finding and playing in streams and fords with your horse, schooling in newly discovered open areas, crossing bridges, facing horse eating sheep (we did that last night) riding past the very scary slaughter house (we did that too), I love it best thing about riding
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This! Hacking is my time with my horse. We go for miles exploring the woodland, recently discovered a lovely open area of woodland with logs set out in a lovely natural jump course :)
 
I love hacking, especially with friends, and although the roads are busy on a good horse it doesn't bother me. However I hack less than I used to, mostly because of time after having children.

I think however even though a horse may be happy not to hack, they should go out once in a while to keep them used to a bit of traffic and the things you meet when out - you may move somewhere where you do more of it, or might sell them. It's part of their general education and should be maintained.
 
I haven't hacked for years, stopped about 8 years ago when my grey bolted twice, second time he dumped me and bolted down the road, amazingly a neighbour stopped him before he got hit by a car. I did hack out a project pony shortly after that but then she simply stepped sideways when a pheasant flew out and fell right off a large bank (with wall) with us landing horizontally onto a barbed wire fence which she got tangled in, was a horrid experience and yet she was such a lovely pony to hack and it still happened :( . That was the end of it for me. I have taken one of my current horses out but about 4 times but literally just down the road and back, it terrifies me nowadays.

Of course its nice to hack out and definately is easier for fittening work, but I managed to event my grey easily without hacking so it is doable. I hope to be brave enough to hack my new horse once Ive backed her but luckily I now have off-road hacking only about 1/2 a mile away, but I'll likely walk her on foot along the road to get to it!
 
Hate not hacking I have limited hacking at the moment due to small (500m) grass verge and a green horse, she is pretty good with traffic so far so hoping soon I can get her further up the road as nothing like hacking to keep them fit and add interest to work.

Id rather have hacking than a schooling area.
 
I'd be bored senseless if I could only hack, my mare is a good girl and will put up with whatever but at one point I was working in the school A LOT either schooling or lungeing etc and I could see her switching off and getting very stale. Now I've got the opposite problem of hacking too much so her schooling has gone downhill (green rising 5yo) so got to find the balance now..

but yes would hate to not be able to hack
 
Megibo said:
I'd be bored senseless if I could only hack, my mare is a good girl and will put up with whatever but at one point I was working in the school A LOT either schooling or lungeing etc and I could see her switching off and getting very stale. Now I've got the opposite problem of hacking too much so her schooling has gone downhill (green rising 5yo) so got to find the balance now..

but yes would hate to not be able to hack
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Plenty of schooling can be done while hacking.
 
I feel like my mare does miss out a bit but unfortunately we don't have access to much off road hacking at all. She is hacked at least once a week though as I do feel it does them good to get out and a bit and also the roadwork can harden up her tendons for eventing.

She loves to hack, is a bit spooky about things in hedges but is fab in traffic.

It's very annoying as there is hundreds of miles of off road hacking a few miles away but pony's not fit enough to get there, enjoy it, and get back as it's about 4 miles on roads and includes some very very heavy traffic. Sometimes we box there though which is fab.
 
I could never be bored of spending the day out with my friends and horses :)

Going to the beach and camping and discovering new areas is the best thing in the world to me.

I do understand why some people wouldn't do it; Unless you trust your horse it can be quite nerve racking.

I work for an event coach and she never hacks, scares her to death, but she has no problem jumping higher than me lol...........now that's scarey!
 
To not hack would be awful! I'm lucky to have direct access to several hundred acres of woodland with lots of tracks where we can hack safely for a couple of hours or so, and also some reasonable local lanes and bridle ways, so I'm much more fortunate than some. So we school a couple of times a week and also do a bit of off road or roadwork to vary the routine and keep my boy fit and slim (the latter being the main issue ... A highland who gets fat on fresh air!).
 
You wouldn't go hacking much if you were in a yard surrounded by roads that boy racers drive on and mr Mondeo man does too.

It's like taking your life into your own hands totally dangerous.

Oh but move yards you all say... Where to; there's no where in at least a ten mile radius that has access to bridle ways...
 
There's people at my yard who don't hack, we only can do road work here in the winter.

However, they are really fussy in what they do in the school, so it's always different and all the horses are happy enough. So I've come to the conclusion that if your horse is bored in the school you aren't doing it right!
 
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