How far do you hack?

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Hovis_and_SidsMum

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Intrigued (and a lot bored at work :)) as to how far you all hack on average (per hack).

Hubby took the Destroyer out on saturday and did about 10 miles with one of our friends. I do about 5 miles ish with him per hack but at a faster pace than hubby did at the weekend (the ground is so hard out our way so he didn't canter and walked a fair bit).

Hovis is relatively fit although not as fit as he'll need to be to blood hound again this year (don't tell him i've agreed to let him go again!) and although sweaty (it was very warm) he was fine.

Anyway some our of our fellow liveries looked agog at how far hubby and friend had gone. How far do you all normally go?
 
At the moment not very (broken pony), but a couple of summers ago was hacking 10+ miles quite happily. Would also hack 5miles to a competition, compete and then hack home again. As long as the horse is fit the further the better! They get to see more different places and so do you :)
 
Not sure about distance, but my friend and I seldom hack for less than an hour. Our average hack lasts from 1.5 - 2.5 hours.

Hacking is excellent for building fitness. I think 5 - 10 miles sounds perfectly reasonable for a fit horse.
 
We have lots of rides but:

Very short: 1.5miles
Short: 4.5 miles
Medium: 8 miles
Long: 12 miles+

Lucky us! They also vary a lot as in one direction we have the wolds and in the other it is flat, so some short rides are very very easy on the horses and others have lots of hillwork AND cantering spots. Makes it perfect for fittening!!
 
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My standard round the block hack, is approx 4-5 miles. With my old horse we used to have a 10 mile route and one that took about 3-4 hours. I just used to stuff an OS map in my pocket and go exploring. I am hoping my new horse will eventually settle and we will be happy hacking by the end of the summer. It's a bit hairy at the moment - at least the first 30 minutes are !
 
Not sure on miles but hacks after work are 45-60 mins and weekends hour to an hour and a half. I don't have a school so tend to hack 4 times a week and then school once plus competing. We also have a fair few pleasure and xc rides around us so do those too as you then get 10-12 miles of nice off road riding and some jumps too.

Hacking keeps them much fitter than lots of schooling imo.
 
I don't worry about how far he goes - he's the ultimate all terrain vehicle and will go all day if you asked him to. He loves his hacking but its how far my knee will tolerate that holds he and I back.
I was just slightly surprised that people thought 10 miles was far for a "normal" horse (if you can call Hovis normal!!).
 
Currently round and round and round the school - the joys of living in London, sigh. But my previous country living alter ego would have thought 10 miles to be perfectly normal ...
 
Depends on who I'm hacking with, what the weathers doing or how energetic I feel!! We have a quick 30 minute hack up to 4 hours plus. Usually we do approx 5 miles but as with yesterday because it was lovely and blustery weather and the lanes were very quiet and horses keen and happy we went for around 10 miles. I certainly don't think 10 miles is too much..my knees might say otherwise but around here 5 miles is a normal 'just going for a hack hack' but 10+ miles is a 'lets make a afternoon of it hack.'

My cob would happily go all day if I let him...and still finish off the hack with a good old gallop back home through the fields (disclaimer..it's very very very silly to gallop back towards home through a 40 acre field..only very irresponsible and fool hardy people would do that. :o).
 
A week-day hack for me is 45 mins to an hour (I think that's probably around 5 miles), and a weekend hack is usually an hour and a half (probably around 7 - 8 miles?). We live in quite a hilly area, so I make sure I do lots of hillwork which is great for their topline. I prefer hacking to schooling, and I've also found that my horse performs best if I only school him once or twice a week.
 
I tend to go out with my boy for hours and hours sometimes! I hardly ever school him so I tend to hack him out 4-5 times per week (usually 5-6 times during the winter when he is stabled at night and I am keeping him really fit for hunting.) I vary how long I go for (can be anything between 1 and 4 hours!) The longest hack we did was 25 miles so I wouldn't worry about your other half doing 10! We don't necessarily go quickly, it depends on ground conditions, etc. I usually get him to a fitness level where he can comfortably trot or canter for a mile at a time without being out of breath during the winter for hacking but in the summer, although he is still quite fit I do allow him to lose a little bit of it and then start getting him back to hunting fitness at the end of Autumn. :)
 
in hand about a mile (usually done the day after a comp to just stretch legs)

short - 3miles - includes good hill work
medium/average - about 6miles
longer - 10+ up to about 15miles

but saying that if i ever find an open gate i sneak in and school for a bit (no arena so take the opportunity when i can ;)) so i can do 20mins schooling too

for example today i rode a mile - fonnd an open field - schooled hard for 20mins - then went another 5 miles with some good trots and canters
 
Varies between 5 and 25km depending on when we go and who we go with. There is a lot of geography here and thus a great deal of hill (side of mountain) work.

Out on our own for a pootle is usually about an hour every day if not schooling - so five or so kms. Out with endurance friend is usually three hours plus and between 20 and 30kms of 'interesting' terrain. We do that about once a month :)
 
Not sure of distance but from our yard, we have various routes that range from 20 minutes (quick round the block if we're in a hurry or for horses coming back into work!) to about 3 hours. Every summer we go to the Gower and our 'long ride' there we've worked out is about 15 miles. This takes 5 hours including an hour's pub lunch so I suppose a 3 hour ride must be about 11-12 miles?
 
Ours hack most days as we only have a grass school which is rock hard at the moment. When the ground softens a bit, it'll be a nice change for them to work in the school.
Today was a typical weekday ride, about 8 miles for cob and 4 year old. The young one is bright eyed and bushy tailed after 8-10 miles. A winter of hacking has done her the world of good.
Weekend rides are slightly longer 10-12 miles at a leisurely pace with a few trots and canters along the way depending on the ground.

Rehab horse does 30 minutes in walk and sometimes grab one of the other two again to go along for a bit of 'normality' for her.
 
Usually get a bit carried away and go for roughly three hours. Mainly road/verge work, walk with some trot and the odd short burst of canter. Flat sections and and a couple of wicked long hills.
 
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