Hacking out - tractors and buses

L

lucy1984

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 August 2007
Messages
820
Location
Royston Vasey
Visit site
When hacking alone, how does your horse react to tractors and buses? Is your horse 'used' to them?

I have a 4 year old who I'm bringing back into work this year and we have started to enjoy hacking, I'm all on my own though and don't have the opportunity to hack out with company. (I walked her out in hand on the roads for the first few weeks before getting onboard).

Luckily the few tractors and buses that have passed us have turned their engines off and have been really great. My horse tends to be very hesitant passing them but when we do start to go by them I praise her. She has got better over the past few weeks and I can't wait to get to the point of her just treating them as normal unscary traffic! I try and time it so we get the opportunity to come across more of these situations.
 
You're doing well :)

I'd stop praising her now as she goes past. Just ride normally, maybe sing a little (quietly if your singing is anything like mine lol). The aim is for her to think of them as no different from the norm.
 
sounds like you are doing brill - mare mare doesnt bat an eyelid - the day I bought her she was hacking up a busy main road with double deckers going past at 50mph and she wasnt bothered - so she is going to teach our 3yo TBX how to do it!!
 
Hi there
Well your horse is doing well and it's great drivers switch off engines. I think exposure is a great way to build up confidence with traffic so you're doing the right thing and praising good too.
It only takes one idiot to drive past me and my gelding too fast or too close to upset him (tries to canter off etc). I, like you, am building up his tolerance for traffic and if necessary stop or slow down vehicles if I feel they're too fast approaching. Not come across busses yet but tractors are not in his comfort zone yet, but he has stopped trying to run away at least!
God luck and happy hacking, I also hack alone so I know how you feel!
 
With us, buses aren't a problem as their engines aren't that loud.

Tractors, lorries, bin lorry, dogs barking out of car windows, horse boxes (with noisy horse inside) etc on the other hand are quite difficult to get past as its very rare that they will turn their engine off for us. They are building a new house in the field next door so we have alot more traffic than usual :(

Sounds like you are progressing well though. I'm sure she'll be alot more confident in no time!
 
Sounds like you're doing well. My mare would hack past buses, motorbikes etc if you just rode her like they weren't even there. However I kept her on a busy working farm with tractors driving around all over the place, but if we met one on a hack she would rear up, spin around and try to gallop back to the yard. If I turn her around and pushed her forwards she would finally go past it once they turned the engine off. We had an interesting hack when I came across a vintage tractor race one day...and she was 15 years old at the time!

Well done, and sounds like you are very lucky that they will turn their engines off for you!
 
Your horse sounds like she's doing great and you're dealing with her very well :)
My girl is fine with buses, but they're the smallish country ones you get, she's 5 and has been fine with them since a 4yo.
If there's a tractor ( with muckspreader, trailer, baler etc) I just stand her in a gateway/drive to take the pressure off and she just stands quietly, watching them go by.
She's brilliant to hack, even as a 4yo she was used as a nanny to older horses. :)
 
Our five year old is great with tractors and buses. A small pile of logs, however, will most possibly kill her!


You are doing fine, keep at it!
 
Horses take time to get used to things that they meet when hacking out. The more often you hack out the better.

I would suggest that you always wear high-viz on both yourself and your horse when hacking out. Also suggest that you take te BHS Road Safety course and test as this will provide you with some skills to enable you to deal with other road users.

A wise precaution is to have a dog made up and fitted to both your horses saddle and bridle which has the contact telephone details of yourself, a member of your family or friend and your vet just in case you and your horse ever get seperated.
 
It will get used to it - mine has a major problem with air breaks on bussess and lorries, the noise of the engine just makes him tense a very little, air brakes, he blind panics ! but admit the busses and lorries round by us are brilliant and always slow right down and dont let the air go !!!
 
My boy used to be phobic about tractors, then I sent him off to working livery at equestrian college where he was fed haylage, carried by a big tractor with a high loader thingy (you know, the thing that makes a tractor look like its got "horns"!!!), plus some loaded up on a trailer, and he's been brill ever since!

Buses are usually OK as long as they don't let air brakes off - we're on a bus route and there's one driver in particular who ought to be reported coz he always lets air brakes off when he sees horses and apparently scared my neighbour's pony when her kid was out riding. I would've complained.

He doesn't like flatbed trailers, probably coz they're too near his legs, and mistrusts cyclists coz the prats come up silently behind him - will they never learn??

He also isn't keen on joggers running straight at him, I think this must be somethign to do with his background, suspect he's not always been well treated poor lad.

Is fine with helicopters flying at tree level directly overhead and low-flying jets, plus aircraft - we live near an airport.

The only problem we've got at the mo is pigs!!! Some people up the road have just got some of the blimmin things and today I had to get off and lead him past - he was scared rigid poor chappie. I think I'll have to go up the road and make a strange request for a bucket of pig ****!!!! Then I'll put it in the yard and let him get used to the smell!!
 
my youngsters always have at least a month in the train field the train track is 4 feet the other side of the fence! loony for the first 2 days then watch the trains, then ignore the trains, so usually are very good when on the road.
on the issue of air brakes, unfortunately drivers have no control as to when the air tanks discharge air, the tanks release air to regulate the tank pressure, usually once the vehicle has slowed down significantly or stopped.
Sounds like your horse is learning well. I would thoroughly recommend any one with a horse who has issues with traffic to try to find a field next to a train track, or a busy main road (obviously with good secure fencing) and turn them out to watch and learn for a couple of weeks.
 
Sounds like she's doing well. I'm fortunate because there is a ton of activity at my yard - it's huge and includes a vineyard and winery. We routinely go past large trucks, tractors, big loaders that tend the manure pile, trucks hauling trailers and strange things like golf carts which management uses to get around the facility.

We also have a lot of cyclists who go through to use the trails attached so the horses get used to them too. My mare doesn't bat an eye at any of those things anymore.
 
Well done! It sounds like you're doing really well :)
Luckily for me my grandad's a farmer, so we gradually introduced my horse to all the farm machinery, starting with engine off progressing to engine on and now its confident enough with them to go past without batting an eyelid. Good Luck!
 
sounds like you are doing a great job - the more the see the better they become (as long as anything too scary doesnt happen!!!) My mare is a star and I think its because she is just used to them - although today very nearly pushed her too far as a tractor was trimming the hedge and verge in the field on the opposite side of the road. We go level and she was quite happy and the driver decided to suddenly go backwards again to get a bit he missed. We were level with him and in full view!! I couldnt believe it - what an idiot, obviously no consideration at all. My mare scooted along a bit with her tail between her legs but was fine after. I waved my 'thanks' at him.....
 
My boy spent about 6 yrs on a working farm so nothing really fazes him. I can ride past hedge trimmers, the tractor kind, (in fact the day I tried him there was one on the hedge behind his stable). He will pass any tractor moving or not, the ones that look like an exotic fairground ride buses etc. Show him a man with a shovel. complete breakdown, bless. You are doing so well. I really couldn't cope with a horse/pony not good in traffic and would not be able to introduce a youngster to traffic. Well done you!

Jane
 
Both of my boys are pros at all sorts of traffic such as tractors, recycling lorries, boy racers, flustered mothers' cars on the school run and, most recently, trains! Our yard is close to a lovely hack which takes you right alongside the railway track and for a short time we are literally a few feet from the trains :eek: To be fair they are more rider scarers than horse ones, it seems, but the first time we encountered them we assumed the worst would happen, and pretty much nothing did. Just a slightly surprised look from my large boy. You're doing great getting your horse used to traffic. It's invaluable, and makes hacking out all the more pleasurable. Well done! :)
 
my pony is getting much better with them in deepest darkest countryside hereso no buses but loads of tractors etc as long as there is a good passing place he will be fine but gets a bit worried if somebody tries to zoom past or there is no pull in the other day some IDIOT was drving v fast on wrong side of the road with his head down and he nearly hit us! and then i was trotting up the hill to an obvious passng place where some thicko zoomed past me with a trailer banging in the middle of the road so my pony started cantering and the driver didnt do anything! how rude!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top