How far would you hack to a show?

[Mythical]

As title really. We were having a conversation about this in the pub yesterday, one person said they'd hack up to ten miles each way to a show, another said they wouldn't ever hack to a show because it's not fair on the horse. We had other answers in between.
As kids, we'd ride a mile to the show, stay there all day and ride back. Sometimes we'd go the long way round and have a canter before we got there, other times the owners would pick us up, riding one and leading two or more and we'd snake our way to the show via everyone's houses. the ground was anything from grass to tarmac to builder's rubbish and I never knew any of the horses or ponies lame or sore (but they DID get a couple of days off afterwards)
Nowadays I worry about hacking my horse to the end of the lane and back (about half a mile in total) let alone hacking miles, doing a show and hacking back!!

 

[lottiepony]

I've hacked to shows and of course hunt meets. If your horse is fit and your sensible about what pace you go at etc I dont see the problem of course you have to make sure you dont do too much as there is still the hack back to consider. Would happily hack if my girl was fully fit and had a person to meet me at the other end with all the things I would need!

 

[catkin]

As long as the horse is conditioned for the work and the route is OK there's nothing wrong with hack a few miles to a show. I used to regularly hack mine to a competition centre 7 miles from home to do dressage, they were actually fab about it and tried to give me times in the middle of the day where possible so that there was plenty of time to get home in daylight. I also 'hack' ponies doing in-hand classes a mile or two to our local agricultural show - again, they are conditioned (as is the handler!!) to the work and surfaces so no problem at all.
I quite often go on my own too - you very quickly get used to doing touch-ups with little more than a couple of babywipes. There is usually someone who will very kindly keep an eye on your hi-viz, boots etc whilst you are actually in the ring.

ETA: I've just remembered one advantage to hacking to shows - you never need to be towed out of the lorrypark

 

[Mythical]

I suppose if gong alone I could, quite feasibly, shove the bike in the back of the landy, with water and hay and any bits I need, plus space to dump my hi-viz/mucky boots drive the landy to the show, cycle back to the yard, swap bike for horse, hoof boot the horse, ride horse to show, faff about with boots and hi-viz, then do my class/es and reverse directions to finish.

I'm wary of hacking her on roads cause she's unshod, but i guess if i put hoof boots on her it doesnt matter; She's sensible until we get to her old canter spots (most of which haven't been a massive problem and we're training her out of them slowly) but I've never seen her bothered by any vehicle even though i can be nervous around lorries and tractors. I can modify our normal weekly hack to make it into a loop with a hundred yards or so of main road, then back to quiet country roads. At the moment she's doing a little over 2 miles a week on the roads and her feet appear to be wearing down quite quickly. I'm hoping she'll start growing them more quickly as she gets accustomed to the work. The nearest show is just under 5 miles away, which takes me an hour and a half to walk, but there's no rush. I can take forever to get her fit, longer if I want. It'll probably take me that long to learn the test anyway.

 

[carthorse]

I remember when I was 13 in 1966 I had my first pony. Both myself and my parents had no idea. I saw a show advertised and decided to hack to it alone. It was 15 miles away. I got there at lunch time and just did gymkhana games. Then hacked home. My parents never came . It just wouldnt happen now

 

[Zimzim]

Luckily we have a show ground which is about 30-45min hack away from our yard on back country lanes, so hacking to a show isnt a problem. Also I didnt have transport at the time, and being honest I dont see it as a problem as it gets your horse warmed up nicely before you do anything and if you have something abit fizzy/ quirky it takes the edge off them.

 

[MurphysMinder]

I remember when I was 13 in 1966 I had my first pony. Both myself and my parents had no idea. I saw a show advertised and decided to hack to it alone. It was 15 miles away. I got there at lunch time and just did gymkhana games. Then hacked home. My parents never came . It just wouldnt happen now

I used to do similar in the mid 60s, hack around 10 miles to a gymkhana, compete in games all afternoon and then hack home. If I remember correctly the shows were held fortnightly. We used to take a rucksack with sandwiches and a drink for ourselves, and the pony used to wear a headcollar over his bridle so he could be untacked and have a graze during he day. If we were going to shows further afield about 10 of us used to go in a lorry, 2 ponies together then a single pole divider. Then us kids used to pile in the back and sit up on the luton , and have a sing along on the journey. Gawd knows what H & S would make of it nowadays, but we had some brilliant times.

 

[Mythical]

I remember when I was 13 in 1966 I had my first pony. Both myself and my parents had no idea. I saw a show advertised and decided to hack to it alone. It was 15 miles away. I got there at lunch time and just did gymkhana games. Then hacked home. My parents never came . It just wouldnt happen now

Similar when I was a kid. I had a pony on part loan when I was 11 in 1994. The owners used to hand the tack over, see me out of the gate and say "have him back by 'x' o'clock" I think my parents came to one show each - (different shows cause they hated each other) but other than that, it was mostly just us kids at the shows. There were times when no one in the group was over 16 but we'd all go for long solo hacks when we weren't at shows!

Great times. At the risk of sounding like an old woman, it's a shame it's all gone the way of health and safety!

 

[abbijay]

I did a whole season competing with only 1 trip in a wagon, the year before last. We have lots of venues within 4 miles so were very lucky. It always worked very well for us as I would time my arrival so that I had to pay entries, do a quick tidy up have a quick canter in the collecting ring and then straight in.
The main thing I always had to consider was how many classes I could enter based on BP's fitness so I wouldn't spend all day in the ring! The day that was toughest was the day we did a ODE and hacked 1 1/2 miles each way, not that far but BP was tired on the way home and earnt a good dinner that night.

 

[Moon]

I met a man at a show once who would send his trailer full of chairs and picnic blankets etc and then he'd caeriage drive his horses 14miles there and 14 miles back. Hed been doing it for the past 40 years every year. Different horses of course

 

[Wundahorse]

We used to hack miles to shows in the 1970's,taking packed lunch and some money,stay around at the show all day then hack back,often cantering where we could to speed up the journey.The ponies managed this without any signs of fatigue and they were fit to ride the next day.I would not even consider this now,and go everywhere by box.In the olden days (never thought I'd hear myself say that)we had no box,and only occasionally got a lift with friends.The irony is that i never came across any horses and ponies with laminitis in those days,and no fat ponies to speak of.We also used to go out hacking all day too so guess the ponies were fit for the job.

 

[VikkiL]

Our nearest show is 7 miles away. Horse is a swine to load so its easier and less stressful to hack him there and back, we do it quite regularly in summer, normally on our own, with a rucksack containing show jacket and essentials.

He seems quite happy doing it, but have to say it does make it a long day, Ive considered moving yards to one closer to a showground several times!