Feeling a bit depressed about hacking

[eahotson]

Thanks guys....feeling a bit better knowing it's not just me. I mean, I knew that, but it helps to hear other people say it.

I think I need to stop worrying about the very local hacking and think about hiring a trailer. There are plenty of places to go a short trailer ride from our yard that are lovely and much quieter. While I could move yards, this yard is fantastic in all other ways - year round grass turnout (not just mud), lovely YO, a small group of nice friendly liveries. So I think a trailer is the answer. Even if I only went out once a fortnight that would probably do.

I haven't towed since I took the trailer test a few years ago now...eek. Perhaps I can find a friend to come with me a few times while I tow an empty trailer!! I won't tell the trailer hire place I'm just planning to tow it around empty as practice....they will think I'm mad.

You will soon get used to towing again, bit hairy at first but after a couple of trips you won't even think about it.You could try hiring at first and make a couple of trips without the horse in the back to begin with. You could even drive solo to one of the places you are thinking of taking your horse to and think about where you are going to park with the trailer etc. Good luck.

 

[muddy_grey]

Decent hacking is a bit of a luxury now a days. Mostly drivers on our roads are ok (always a couple of idiots), but we do have a lot of lorries and large vehicles. Luckily my horse is fine with traffic. Off road is pretty crap though. There are 3 very short, overgrown bridleways one of which is a dead end. They have you over a barrel with needing a TROT membership. Our rides are considered "gold" so the most expensive of course ?. For that we get a few orchards which are ok, but not very big, so a decent canter is hard. They get so churned up in the autumn they are horrid in the winter.
I would love my own transport just to get to better hacking

 

[Widgeon]

Doesn’t help that farmers have taken to ploughing to edge of fields but at least we are allowed to go on them.

Yes same here, it leaves us with a little raised ledge about 12 inches across that the horses have to pick their way along!

 

[Hallo2012]

i am pretty lucky in that mine doesnt care about any traffic, and i live on a narrow road surrounded by dairy farms so can meet 10+ tractor/trailer units in a 45 min walk down the road!!!!!

however its boring and tiresome.

i box to hack, 15mins drive gives me access to hours and hours of off road estate riding, so always well maintained. the £125 for 6 months is SO worth it.

 

[Muddywellies]

I totally feel your pain. I'm not a huge lover of hacking and given half a chance I wouldn't bother, but I do it for my horses sake. I think back to my youth when hacking seemed relatively safe and it always seemed quiet. Now due to satnav and more townies in the country (sorry about this sweeping statement which poss isn't even true, but it just seems that way when they are getting stroppy with me for holding them up) the quiet lanes have become a rat run. It really is quite hair raising! My livery yard is on what was once a tiny little country lane but now we have Tour de France on it every day who are all hell bent on beating their personal best, heads down not looking where they are going, joggers, a gazillion dog walkers, kids on motorised skateboardy scootery things, commuters using it as a short cut, amazon drivers in an almighty hurry, with the odd tractor and bin wagon thrown in for good measure. Yes I know they all have a right to be there, and for all but the commuters it's nice that they can enjoy the countryside, but it's just so busy these days and most of these people really don't know how to safely pass a horse. Just makes hacking out pretty scary and makes me feel like I'm a total nuisance for being out on my horse (and for the record I wear hi viz, get out of the way when I can and thank everyone who passes me)

 

[PeterNatt]

Unless horse riders and yards become more pro-active to get more off road riding then things will continue to deteriorate as local development causes the roads to become busier.

 

[GinaGeo]

We don't hack out from home anymore. The roads around us are somewhat of a Rat Run.

We do Box up to a few places though and make the best of that. Well worth it and we all enjoy it!

 

[Widgeon]

Unless horse riders and yards become more pro-active to get more off road riding then things will continue to deteriorate as local development causes the roads to become busier.

I do agree with this (we do a lot of walking too and it's the same situation there) but I just don't know how to go about it. Nobody is going to offer us additional paths - it's hard enough trying to get landowners to maintain the existing ones. Farmers plough right up to the edge of fields leaving us a 12 inch ledge to walk along.

It isn't really local development making the roads busier either; it's more the attitudes of the people we come across. I don't mind riding in traffic and past pedestrians and building sites etc. so long as people make some allowances for us (which to be fair, many of them do - most local people are very kind and nice to us). However there seems to be an increasing number of people in "the countryside", for want of a better term, who are either a) in a huge hurry, b) completely clueless about how to behave around a horse or other livestock, or c) frankly, just thick. And they are so aggressive when you make polite requests of them or try to explain your behaviour - my friend was recently filmed by a man when she stopped to ask him if he wouldn't mind asking his son to briefly sit still in the tree he had climbed rather than dangling out of it and frightening her horse.

Additionally, farm machinery now is huge. No matter how careful and considerate the driver a massive tractor with attached trailer can't actually get past a horse on a single lane road without it being a bit hairy for all concerned. I'm not blaming farmers for this, it's just how things are.

I'm looking into trailer hire around us!

 

[Bernster]

I moved from a yard with good off road hacking to one which has road work before you get to bridle paths, and more limited hacking. Didn’t think I’d miss it as I would often do the same hack every time, but I do. Recently discovered a lovely bridle path though so have realised the hacking isn’t as limited as I thought.

I never used to be someone who would box up to hack out but I have done that now. There an amazing place in the chiltern hills which I’ve visited twice already. So that’s how I will get my hacking fix.

it’s a shame but there are options if you have transport. The yard has other advantages over hacking and the most important is how settled and happy finnegan seems to be.

 

[Widgeon]

it’s a shame but there are options if you have transport. The yard has other advantages over hacking and the most important is how settled and happy finnegan seems to be.

Same for me really, our yard is lovely in a lot of other important ways and horse settled straight in within a few days of arrival. So for both of our sakes I don't think I'll be moving yards.

 

[Kat]

Gosh this is sad.

I love hacking, and will go for hours. When I first arrived at the yard another livery said "of course the hacking is terrible, all roads, no bridlepaths at all". She is both right and wrong.

There are no bridlepaths (unless we ride for about an hour to get onto the high peak trail, but that's full of kids on scooters and dogs on extendable leads). There are a couple of byways although the surfaces aren't great and our YO allows us to ride on some of their land at certain times of year.

However we have a network of narrow country lanes and you can loop round them doing circular routes. As they don't really go anywhere much they aren't too busy and they are narrow enough to force traffic to stop for horses. We have to be careful at silaging time, and the local pub can attract morons for sunday lunch but we can hack out safely for hours. By briefly using busier roads we can go even further.

So don't discount road riding, from the map our place looks dreadful but it is great.

 

[PeterNatt]

Widgeon! There is a lot riders can do about it. We have proved it in this area where we have dramatically expanded the amount of off road riding routes by re-creating or creating new Public Rights of Ways as either bridleways or restricted byway status and we are in Hertfordshire which is only 30 miles north of London. For instance I took two endurance riders out on a five and a half hour circular hack a couple of weeks ago and we hardly did any road work at all the route being mostly on Bridleways and Restricted Byways. A lot of the new Public Bridleways and Restricted Byways we achieve are based on doing Historic research and using User Evidence. We also improve the surfaces and gates on existing routes and ensure that they remain passable and if ploughed up the route is reinstated. Much of this work has been done by the local volunteer BHS Access (Bridleway) Officers working in conjunction with the local footpath associations and the Access Department of Hertfordshire County Council. If you need more off road riding then the Access Department of the British Horse Society will be only too pleased to assist you and they even do courses on the subject. You can also approach or even join your local County BHS Committee who will have their own group of volunteer access officers who will assist you. If you do nothing then nothing will happen so it is down to horse riders to be pro-active. Good luck!.

 

[Skib]

Now due to satnav and more townies in the country (sorry about this sweeping statement which poss isn't even true, but it just seems that way when they are getting stroppy with me for holding them up) the quiet lanes have become a rat run. It really is quite hair raising!

Townies, we are, from London. But it is country drivers who get stroppy with us for holding them up. Sometime OH draws into a lay by to let them past. The Sussex country lanes where we go to watch polo are horrendous. In London we have speed bumps to slow traffic. In Sussex the locals get furious with us as we are too slow - yet my impression is that the death rate for young male drivers on these narrow roads may be quite high?
I would not like to hack on the narrow roads where we drive (or sometimes walk). In London we have traffic speed control and pegasus crossings.

 

[TotalMadgeness]

Oh how I feel your pain. I have beautiful views from my home (where I keep my horses) but it is all land that can't be ridden on. I dream of winning the lottery so I can buy a mahoosive Scottish estate somewhere so I can hack off road for miles. I do box my horses to local woodlands occasionally but even there you can get illegal dirt bikes which can be very dangerous.

 

[Ceriann]

I feel quite lucky - i can hack from home for a couple of hours on roads that we can cope with (my mare really doesnt bat an eyelid at traffic) or link to bridleways. I tend to stick to roads mainly because the bridleways are a network of gates and popping on and off isnt so easy now!! I hack a lot now, forced in many ways due to her being injured 18 months ago - the constant exposure really has made a difference to her (and my) ability to cope with very heavy farm traffic. I have also found that locals, particularly farmers, have got used to us and really do go out of their way to make sure we are ok. I’m not blasting around fields like I used to but thats age!

 

[PeterNatt]

Ceriann If you are having issues with gate that can not be opened from horse back then contact your local county council access officers and ask them to replace the gates. The British Horse Society have a fund for improving bridleways called 'Paths for the community' and if the local authority won't pay then apply to the BHS access department for some funding towards it.

 

[Ceriann]

Ceriann If you are having issues with gate that can not be opened from horse back then contact your local county council access officers and ask them to replace the gates. The British Horse Society have a fund for improving bridleways called 'Paths for the community' and if the local authority won't pay then apply to the BHS access department for some funding towards it.

Thank you! Wasn’t aware of that. I walked a route I used to use only a week or so ago and gates had chains etc . . .

 

[PeterNatt]

Good luck!

 

[w1bbler]

I'm the opposite end of the scale. I often complain as I have no local access to a school, closest is a 20 minute journey in the trailer. However, after one road crossing I have access to the whole of dartmoor.
Might explain why I love hacking & rarely compete ?

 

[Widgeon]

Ceriann If you are having issues with gate that can not be opened from horse back then contact your local county council access officers and ask them to replace the gates. The British Horse Society have a fund for improving bridleways called 'Paths for the community' and if the local authority won't pay then apply to the BHS access department for some funding towards it.

This is really good to know, thanks.

 

[Muddywellies]

Townies, we are, from London. But it is country drivers who get stroppy with us for holding them up. Sometime OH draws into a lay by to let them past. The Sussex country lanes where we go to watch polo are horrendous. In London we have speed bumps to slow traffic. In Sussex the locals get furious with us as we are too slow - yet my impression is that the death rate for young male drivers on these narrow roads may be quite high?
I would not like to hack on the narrow roads where we drive (or sometimes walk). In London we have traffic speed control and pegasus crossings.

Sorry. Itvwas a bit of a generalisation. Putting myself on naughty step ;-)