Hacking - get off or stay on?

Meowy Catkin

Meowy Catkin

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Rather than completely derailing another thread, I thought I'd start a new one. :) ;)

I had an interesting discussion with another poster about dismounting when hacking to lead your horse past something scary.

Do you do this or not? What are your reasons for doing/not doing this?





I was faced by the following situation once - how would you and your horse handle it?

I was riding on a very bendy road (blind bends) and had a couple of cars close behind me, as I came round one bend a still smoking, burnt out car was on the verge to the left. As the cars were pretty close behind and obviously wanted to overtake and my mare tensed up, I hopped off, led her by the wreck which then meant the cars could pass safely (waved thank you to them as they passed) and then remounted and carried on with the hack.

If your horse goes past abandoned, charred, ex-joy riding cars regularly - think back to the first one you came across when you answer the question! :p
 
It really depends on the situation, if it is something really out of the ordinary as you have described, I may get off and lead past but I wouldn't make a habit of that in normal circumstances
 
I usually stay on, this is because i feel i can give my horses more confidence wrapping my legs around them and talking to them than i can on the ground. Also if they did manage to get off me and bolt there's the stirrups flapping to frighten them more and god knows were they will stop, if i am on board then i can continue to try and stop them limiting danger to other people and the horse.
 
Wheels said:
It really depends on the situation, if it is something really out of the ordinary as you have described, I may get off and lead past but I wouldn't make a habit of that in normal circumstances
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I may be wrong, but I think it says in the Highway Code that you must not dismount on or beside the road?
 
I don't get off anymore, but when my horse was younger and getting used to hacking out alone I would frequently get off and lead her past anything new that she hesitated at. I had 2 reasonings for this, 1, she is much bigger than me and if it came to a fight she would win, 2, she was very happy to follow me past so it was easier to get off and lead her, giving her a good experience of said scary thing she'd never seen before, and also teaching her to stand to be mounted anywhere and everywhere. I never had to get off more than once for the same object, once she was past it and everything was fine then she was fine
 
When I was younger I'd have rather eaten my own leg than got off and led past a scary object as I believed I should be able to ride any horse past anything. I was young and a prat.
When I look back to those occasions I'm not so proud of my riding :-(

I'm still an assertive rider but I now realise there is no weakness in being a leader from the ground and showing my horse some support.I've not had to get off and lead yet but I would if legs on and being firm wouldn't work or if I couldn't be sure of her safety I.e stopping her from leaping into the traffic.

I also realise now that I'm not invincible!
 
It has always been seen as given in and the horse has not learnt and you have then lost, but IMO all situations are different as are all horses and likewise their riders so depending on all the circumstances and the situation that you and your horse find yourself in I see nothing wrong in getting off. What is the point in getting either into a fight with your horse with which you prob will not win and just making the situation a whole lot worse than it is already. So if getting off to help your horse deal with the situation I think is a better thing to do, others may think differently but I would have done what you did.
 
I always feel safer/ more in control when aboard. If he's just mucking about, then I stay on board at all times.
However, if I felt a potentially dangerous situation would be better dealt with on the ground, then I would get off.
I think, faced with what you described, by dismounting, you were highlighting to the car drivers that there was a danger that they may not normally anticipate, that being the unknown reaction of your horse to the car. An unhorsey driver may not give a second thought to how a horse would react to such a thing, and try to pass normally, which could potentially be disastrous.
In that situation, I would have done the same thing.

ETA. Thinking about it, when I face something that I am expecting my horse to spook at, and there are cars approaching, I usually pull in before I get to it, and wait until the road is clear before riding past in whatever fashion we can manage. I appreciate that with bends etc, that can be tricky, so in that instance I refer to my comment above :)
 
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For the particular horse I have now she takes great comfort in having a person on the ground, maybe it's just her personality or maybe it's because she started her traffic-training as a very young horse long before backing. So I'd probably do exactly the same.

As I see it, you are actually asking the horse a number of questions here, so you need to chunk it down:
can you trust me that that scary object won't eat you?
can you go past that scary object?
can you go past that scary object with me riding?
can you go past that scary object in good form and rhythm with me riding?
what is the best course of action depends upon the answer from that particular horse at that particular time.
 
With cars behind you and a genuinely relatively one off scary thing (unless you live in a nasty part of an inner city and burned out cars are an every day thing) I'd certainly hop off, 1) you and your horse are safely past 2) you haven't made a big deal out of scary thing 3) cars get past quickly so they are happy and don't do something stupid

I'm all for a healthy 'debate' about whether to do as asked or not - but you need plenty of time and space to make sure you win - I believe you have to pick your fights, as someone above says they are bigger than us and could always win if they wanted to!

I judge whether he is really scared or trying it on, with the big horse when I can feel his heart pound through his girth, he grows about 2 hands and does a giraffe impression and start bunny hopping - then he is safer being led, if he just plants or goes to spin then I wait it out - standing around, one step forward, 2 mins standing one step etc. But I couldn't do that on a road with traffic.

If you lead them past then carry on as normal I've not found it does them any long term harm.
 
I usually stay on, I feel a lot happier on board and I think you're more likely to lose a strong horse on the floor, but my last two horses have made me more open to getting off. Current horse occasionally decides the odd thing is terrifying and the easiest, quickest way to prove to him that its not is to hop off and drag him towards it - it works ETA but thinking about it he's not needed it for ages. My last horse would shut down when very frightened and start doing airs above the ground on the spot, sometimes the way to snap her out of it was to hop off.

I've never felt in any way defeated, just dealing with a problem.
 
Nikki J said:
I may be wrong, but I think it says in the Highway Code that you must not dismount on or beside the road?
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I would be very surprised if this is the case - there are always likely to be situations when you need to dismount from a horse. Also, if it's a public highway then surely you have the right to walk along it, lead animals etc.
 
I have been known to get off and lead my horse past something scary, get back on and then carry on. It is very rare that I will have to do this now as he 14 and although still a little spooky, I can manage to ride him past most things but when he was younger, I did it quite regularly. I much prefer this as it is the kindest option and the least stressful one for both horse and rider. 'Thrashing' a horses past a scary obstacle will do nothing for the horses confidence (or your appearance!) and will only confirm to the horse that what he is warning you is scary, is in fact about to eat him. He will get stressed and relate the stress to the scary object. By reassuring the horse, leading it past if necessary and then continuing on the hack this will help the horse to grow in confidence and realise that what he once thought was scary, really isn't that bad after all!

I have also used this technique with nappy/stubborn horses. I used to ride a Trakhener who refused to go through water when he was out hacking on his own. So he got the shock of his life when I got off and led him through! ;) He never refused to go through it again after that though - just walked straight through it so it definitely worked!
 
I just was wondering if the fact that I regularly walk unbacked youngsters out in-hand, makes me think that getting off to lead past is less of a big deal than maybe people who only have ridden horses think it is? Maybe this is nothing to do with it?

Is there anyone who wouldn't get off whatever they were faced with?
 
When I was in the first flush of horse ownership I was constantly reading the accepted orthodoxy 'better to stay on than dismount'.
my arab mare however taught me otherwise! She would refuse to pass something and then I had 2 choices: 1. dismount and lead her past, remount and continue or 2. insist to the point where she plunged forward blindly, in a rather unseating way.
(I guess there was a third option - REALLY wind her up into god knows what sort of state).
So my coping strategy, though it drove me mad at times, was 1. however she always stood still for me to dismount/remount even after a gallop, and always led past whatever it was, nicely.
Nowadays I ride a big warmblood x mare (not mine) and honestly think I am better off staying on her as I have no faith that she would lead past something - can quite see her tanking off regardless of me hanging on to the reins! also she's too big to remount from the floor!!


I suppose there is no single answer.
 
I have no issues with getting off and leading my horses past anything they are terrified of, its easy to read the situation and know if a little bit of patience will get your horse past or if you know you'd be putting yourself and possibly the horse in danger by having a big fight in the road. My horses have always gained confidence with me being on foot beside them and i've never had to lead them past the same object twice.
I think years ago you stayed on no matter what as it was thought to give in to the horse to dismount, thankfully that silly attitude is long gone.
 
Interesting I used to be of the never get off school but I have completely changed my opinion now.
My horse had KS and lost all his confidence hacking, and so did I,as that is where he experienced most pain. Now having spent ages lunging and doing in hand work we have a great relationship on the ground but spook each other ridden.
We do Hike and Hack I ride part way then dismount and lead some of the bits we have had issues (think huge Labrador) or where there are huge dragons. It works very well and our confidence is growing and I am getting fitter.
 
Wheels said:
It really depends on the situation, if it is something really out of the ordinary as you have described, I may get off and lead past but I wouldn't make a habit of that in normal circumstances
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This ^^^ As a rule I would rather stay on as I feel I am less likely to lose the horse in the process but if a major melt down is occurring/horse in genuinely scared/I was in danger then I would get off and lead!
 
Depends on the horse the rider and the circumstance I guess.

There is another point to remember, how dangerous is it to actually get off? If you are on a panicking spooking terrified horse, and you want to get off and lead, can you do that safely?

I had a bad fall once trying to do just that. Maybe if i stayed on the out come would be worse, but the simple act of getting off the terrified horse made the situation a whole lot worse than it was at the time where I made the choice.
 
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Personally i wouldn't get off my horse, you can support your horse from being on its back more effectively, and its safer in my opinion. You can give your horse confidence by riding positvely with your leg, keeping your contact soft and making sure your're not tensing up over the situation. From the ground all it takes is for the horse to pull back sharply and you could let it go, then you have a more panicked, loose horse that could cause harm to himself/others.
 
Depends on the horse, my gelding I would get off as he takes comfort from me on the ground but my mare I would never get off as she listens far more when you're on her back and seems to feel some sort of responsibility for you but would be liable to ****** off if she was really panicking about something if I got off.
 
Yes, no problem at all. But I am very into groundwork as well as riding so confident that my horses will find it familiar when I'm on the ground and take notice of me. It does seem to help.
I have a dear pony who hardly ever does much, but every now and then I drag her out of the field and off we go. In her case I ride when she's happy and walk with her when she gets tense. It's a lot that I ask of her and she responds bravely to that approach.
 
If the horse was genuinely scared I would get off in order to cause less stress to her, esp having a care behind! If they were just a bit unsure I would try and push them on! think my mare would be fine but my youngster I would get off as he seems more confident if im next to him
 
I get off! I made a thread asking if I'd done the right thing in doing so recently! My previous loan pony was only 13.3 and very young who gained confidence from me on the ground. I'd get off. Lead him past, turn around and repeat two or three times. Then I'd hop back on and he would be fine walking past it.
I tried this tactic with new loan horse but at 15.2 it was a LOT harder to get up!! (I'm 5'2" and not athletic!). In this case she got more and more wound up and got dangerous so I lead her home as I was unable to get back on. I felt I had more control and I wasn't transferring my increasing nerves to her.
 
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