"Happy Hackers", would you pass judgement on a horse hacking in draw reins?

Personally I have no use for the things, unless to educate a very very rare pony that its head can come down. It is literally then for one session and I find groundwork far more useful in these cases generally.
I dislike the trend amongst competition riders in particular to use them as a safety tool-if your horse is dangerous/too fresh out hacking to need them, I think you need to address that issue, not cover it up.
 
I know that they have their place, but personally I'm not a huge draw reins fan. I have broken in my boy (big wb, he's fit and certainly can be sharp!) and started successfully competing him, without having to resort to them... For me, hacking is about the horse gaining confidence, independance and going forwards, none of which are encouraged by draw reins.

Also, when a horse is overbent or even just a little behind the vertical (which tbh, they usually are with draw reins) it limits their sight, so a horse hacked in draw reins is more likely to startle/spook. The horses that I know that have been ridden in draw reins a lot (and I mean every schooling session/out on hacks too) seem to have lost confidence in their mouth, and often seem nervous about their outline. But I have no idea if the reins were used correctly in these instances.

I only knew one person who hacked in draw reins, and that was because they had bought an eventer that was quite frankly far too much horse for them, and they were scared stiff of what it might do out on a hack.
 
Massive thread this on a fairly simple question. In line with quite a few others I think that I would assume, knowing nothing else about the sight, that the rider was a bit nervous of their horse.

The thing that really amuses me though, is the 'Happy Hacker' phrase. It conjours up someone bumbling along with a vacant smile on their face.

In reallity the cream of the equestrian crop, the eventers, the show jumpers and of course the dressage folk are all riding in a fairly controlled environment, which their horses are, or should be, familiar with.

Hacking out, on the other hand, continually presents the rider and their horse with numerous occurances which can test the best of riders. Traffic, gates, obstacles such as fallen trees, water to cross, wooden bridges, dogs, cattle, black plastic blowing about everywhere, people jumping out or creeping up, cycles, planes, helicopters, tractors, knob heads who skim passed and brush the stirrup, the list is endless.

The point being, that unless someone is confident and competant, hacking can be and often is the thing that can lead to a serious incident. Therefore feeling that you need draw reins to go out for a hack, leads me to believe that hacking is the one thing they should not be doing.
 
AndySpooner said:
Massive thread this on a fairly simple question. In line with quite a few others I think that I would assume, knowing nothing else about the sight, that the rider was a bit nervous of their horse.

The thing that really amuses me though, is the 'Happy Hacker' phrase. It conjours up someone bumbling along with a vacant smile on their face.

In reallity the cream of the equestrian crop, the eventers, the show jumpers and of course the dressage folk are all riding in a fairly controlled environment, which their horses are, or should be, familiar with.

Hacking out, on the other hand, continually presents the rider and their horse with numerous occurances which can test the best of riders. Traffic, gates, obstacles such as fallen trees, water to cross, wooden bridges, dogs, cattle, black plastic blowing about everywhere, people jumping out or creeping up,
cycles, planes, helicopters, tractors, knob heads who skim passed and brush the stirrup, the list is endless.

The point being, that unless someone is confident and competant, hacking can be and often is the thing that can lead to a serious incident. Therefore feeling that you need draw reins to go out for a hack, leads me to believe that hacking is the one thing they should not be doing.
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love the knob head bit :D
so so true down our area,
 
Hate the things. In my 30 years of breaking, training and teaching, I have never had to resort to them. I have yet to meet a horse that I cannot get working in a lovely light contact over its back, without gadgets. At worst, draw reins do untold damage to the neck muscles, at best they make the horse stronger against the hand when they are removed and so make the problem they were first employed for worse! I can tell immediately when sitting on a horse for the first time, when draw reins have been used in their training. They will never be as light on the forehand as horses that have never had them used.

As for hacking in them, then this is worse than training in them, as hacking usually lasts far longer than a schooling session.

I do like running martingales however, as a safety precaution, for a horse that may get its head above the point of control when over excited.
 
I wouldn't think anything other than the rider must have her reasons. I don't see how anyone can make any judgements without knowing the horse and rider.
 
SusieT said:
Personally I have no use for the things, unless to educate a very very rare pony that its head can come down. It is literally then for one session and I find groundwork far more useful in these cases generally.
I dislike the trend amongst competition riders in particular to use them as a safety tool-if your horse is dangerous/too fresh out hacking to need them, I think you need to address that issue, not cover it up.
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so how would you address this? if horse is perfectly well behaved in school and at comps but is a bit 'sparky' on a hack... the obvious answer is to stay in the school- but surely that is very boring?? :confused:
 
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