Hacking

AmieeT

AmieeT

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How long does everyone hack out for and how far do you ride?

If you ride for a long time, how often do you exercise them for?

Trying to gather the courage to go on a longer hack, but unsure of how long would be enough for his fitness. Plus I was being nosy :D
 
It all depends on how much fitness you want to achieve/maintain and what you want to do. I go out for an hour 3-4 times a week. In walk, but my girl is now old and has arthritis, so it's just to keep her supple, though she seemed rather supple today doing airs above the ground!!! We used to go out for up to 3 hours at a time. and cover quite a few miles. I won't trot on roads though due to concussion, so not as far as I'm sure a lot would manage in that time. My girl follows a routine of two days in work, one day off as a general rule. Hope this helps? :)
 
What level of fitness are you wanting to achieve?

Hacking for fitness completely depends on what you do during the hack. A 20 minute hack getting them working properly with hill work etc, will do a lot more for their fitness than a 2 hour bumble around the lanes.
 
I usually hack for an hour and a half, with a mixture of walk and trot. At the moment, I'm just keeping my mare ticking over through the winter so she is ridden about 4 times a week, always hacking. In the summer, she is ridden pretty much every day and I would think nothing of taking her out for four hours and today I have ridden for two hours at a walk, to enjoy the sunshine.
 
Until the clocks go forward it's hacking at weekends only, so it kinda depends on whether we have any other plans that day or not. Today we had time for the long route which I've just mapped out (feeling nerdy) as 7.79 miles. We did about 3/4 of it in trot and they were still full of beans at the end.

The shorter route is 4.35 miles if I've mapped it out correctly.

I'm terrible for not wearing a watch though so I couldn't tell you how long either route takes exactly. I'd say maybe 2.5-3 hours today but we did detour and visit another livery yard on our way round.

We went past a speed thingy today though and were doing a whopping 9mph :D
 
Anythining from 1 to 2.5 hours. We walk, trot, canter and occasionally gallop. I'm lucky in that I can canter a lot on rides! We ride from 5 miles to 12 miles, normally ride about 6-8 miles though.
 
Thanks everyone!

Umbongo- I'm not so worried about getting him fit to compete or anything, just the odd show here or there and mainly hacking.

Lexi- that's hilarious! We have one near me too so I'll have to pay more attention next time I pass it!

Atm me go out for between 45mins-an hour, mainly as I dont know too many routes (the BF bless him has offered to accompany me walking around the area to see where to go! )

We trot for most of the way apart from the steep hill down from the yard and end with a gallop up the other side whichbis a bridle path- then we'll walk around to cool down.

He always wants to go faster though, soshould I take that as a good sign as to his fifitness?
Xxx
 
No, you can't really use speed as a guide, plenty of unfit horses will happily trot or canter around given the chance. It depends on their temperament.

Your horse sounds quite fit already. If he's being ridden at least 3-4 times per week, is used to the work load you do and doesn't feel tired at the end, he is probably ready for a longer ride. A longer slower ride would be easier on him than a longer faster ride.

I only ride about 45min twice a week, mainly walking.
 
I did 7 miles yesterday , Forrest track with some long steep hills it too me 1hour

I'm going again tomorrow , I'm trying to build up to around 20 miles so my horse has stamina for competitions this spring/summer.
 
We do between 7 and 10 miles usually for a brief spin, although we've started hacking *to* lessons and comps, only four miles or so but adds to fitness. My hacking is either walk/trot on tarmac, or mostly canter with decent bursts of trotting (and a long walk to warm up/cool down) over a shorter distance of four and a half miles.

We used to have loads of hills, so every hack was a workout, new place has a few good spots for hill trotting and cantering, but the flat hacking has to be slow.
 
I get out 3-4 times a week. would be out everyday it wasnt for my hacking partner having to work! a short ride is around an hour and three quarters. the other day we were out for 4.5 hours. average is maybe 2.5. i dont know what ,mileage we do.
all our hacks have a good trot and canter. the boy was totally knackered after the 4.5 hour jaunt, so was i.

i started building my menage last week, so when thats done, work everyday for Buddy! i cant wait he wont be impressed.
 
Just started hacking my mare out in walk as she has had a few months off due to weather and other stuff. She power walks everywhere though so it won't be long before I can add trot. Only out for about 45 mins at the moment.
 
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