How good is your hacking?

[AandK]

Very lucky where I am now. Yard is at the foot of the downs, we have some good road hacks round the village and then very minimal roadwork to get up on the downs (quiet no through country lane that the yard is on). The South Downs way is at the top of the lane, and there are numerous bridleways branching off it. Could ride for hours and hours up there!

 

[paddy555]

good hacking from here. 5 minutes walk up or down the road in either direction and we are on open moorland and can ride all day off road.

 

[Reacher]

I have tonnes and tonnes of bridleways interlinked with mostly quiet lanes. Huge variety of loops; I think I lived here about 3 weeks before I rode in the same place twice.

I feel very lucky, definitely the best hacking I’ve had (minus a blissful summer as a working pupil on a huge country estate)

If I wish to be fussy; there aren’t many places for a good long gallop but a 3 min lorry drive up the road gives me that. And sometimes you have to be a bit careful when exploding as not all the bridleways are suitable for horses due to very rocky old moor paths.

Do be careful exploding !

 

[sportsmansB]

I'm in Northern Ireland where bridleways don't exist so we are all on roads albeit fairly quiet ones. The only off road hacking here would be if you had acres of your own land or lived adjacent to a forest park which allowed horses, of which there are not that many. Funny you don't really miss what you haven't ever had... We do use the roads especially early in the season, I like a longer jaunt on a sunday morning which does involve crossing a road which is busy at other times. All our horses are traffic proofed early on in their education

 

[Lexi 123]

Amazing we have 2 off-road hacking areas a wood area which is 30 / 40 minutes hack and there also a lope around the yard which is 30 minutes hack too. No road work at all because it’s on the yard grounds . I live in Ireland so we don’t have bridleway the only reason why they have is because it’s an endurance yard and ex dairy farm so lots of paths .the yard has waiting list because the hacking is brilliant .

 

[PinkUnicorn]

Pretty good for a midlands town. We have about 150 acres of woodland tracks and fields on the farm which keeps us busy for an hour or so. Then we can cross a road onto another 400 or so acres or open access land and woodland which in turn leads to quiet bridleways and more woodland. So, for the sake of crossing one road there and back, we can hack for 2-3 hours, which is enough for me.

 

[Callieann]

Straight in to forest no road work ever and I never see another soul except for the occasional deer

 

[equinerebel]

I just moved from all road hacking to all off road moors. I cannot wait to get out and explore!

 

[Izzwall]

I'm so lucky where I am, straight up onto dartmoor with no roads apart from one busy B road where I have to cross, thankfully it's a straight road so easy to see traffic coming. Only downside is I have to do 5 gates to get up there, all with different latches too which is a pain! I did teach my mare how to open and shut them herself which makes life easier
Being straight up on the moors means I can watch the sunset and come back when the stars come out too. It's my happy place! I also have 3 forestries a 30 min hack away on quietish roads, plus a cycle track which allows horses which is about 7 miles long. Even better, it has gates all along to access other bits of Dartmoor so I can ride some of the cycle path, then come home across the moors.
I do however, have zero facilities at my yard, just a field and a stone barn that I rent on my own with next to no help so I'm up there after work at 9pm in the bleak dartmoor winter trying to muck out with a head torch. Wouldn't change it for the world though!
This is the moors I have direct access to from the yard, I could literally ride for hours without seeing anyone.

Cycle path

Sourton tor which has a gate to access from the cycle path
Which then leads to here at Meldon
One of the forestries, this one isn't very big but down the road there's lydford forest which takes a good hour to go round with a really good gallop opportunity at the bottom. Then a 10 min hack away is Burley woods which is great fun if you like jumping logs and blasting about on your pony like I do

Best thing in the world watching the sunset with not a soul around for miles.

Looking at all these makes me miss riding my girly, she's been lame for most of the year with a mystery lameness

 

[Boughtabay]

Brilliant if we box, ok if we go from home. Some roadwork & crossing a busy (for Wales!) main road to get to where we can start from just as easily if we box. All pics from hacks under 10mins drive from home…if mine wasn’t such a pain to load I wouldn’t begrudge the boxing out at all!

 

[vmac66]

All roads.

 

[cindars]

South Downs and bridalways on the flat

 

[ponynutz]

Mixed bag - lots of busy dual carriageways (although pavement is fenced and labelled as a bridleway so is relatively safe, until you cross at the lights!). But also a 10 minute walk down a busy road (or 30 minute walk down concrete bridleway/roads) is miles of grass bridleways and stubble fields if you have the right permission! Also many quieter roads to ride around on. We can also box up to the beach which is about 5 minutes away and have a fair few hills nearby too

If you wanted to train a bombproof happy hacker our hacking is perfect!

 

[Maxidoodle]

On the new yard we are on (a god send last minute change of yard arranged from abroad), it’s directly onto a 60mph road and there’s a blind bend just before the entrance to the yard, the road is windy and they use it like a race track. Some people hack (mainly the younger liveries) but a lot of people don’t leave the yard.

 

[Landcruiser]

I used to livery in the heart of the Marlborough Downs, and could ride all day without even crossing a road if I wanted, even in winter (chalk). That was the huge compromise when we bought our own place. Now we are on clay, most local bridleways are not well kept and very wet/unusable in winter. We are lucky in that we back onto 300acres of oak woods and there is a driveway through it which is actually a designated footpath, but the landowner is a horse owner and allows riders to use it to access various tracks and paths, which in turn allow access to a long green way and an off road ride to a pub about 3 miles away. There are a few other usable bridleways locally but often problems with grazing horses/stallion, overgrown, bottomless mud, awful or locked gates...otherwise it's a fast narrow B road that my yard opens onto and a half mile up to the village and a pootle round the quiet back roads/estate up there (and a pub if needed).
I chose "OK".

 

[PeterNatt]

I am part of a team of BHS Access Officers working within Hertfordshire and we have been working hard to gain more off-road riding for horse riders and carriage drivers. Within Hertfordshire over the last few years we have applied for about 270 new Public Bridleways/Restricted Byways, however this requires a lot of hard and time-consuming work. If you wish to have more off-road riding or to preserve what riding you have then please join the BHS as they do a lot of good work.

 

[JCW]

We have some amazing hacking but to access it I have to go on the roads for about 15 mins so for this reason I’ve just said it’s ok. The way I go the most is a country lane however it’s quite busy as people use it as a cut through.

 

[Boughtabay]

I’d like to downgrade my answer from “Brilliant if we box, ok if we go from home” to “Brilliant if we box, horrific if we go from home” having nearly been crushed by a lorry while leading along the v short stretch of main road (with 30mph limit through a village ) to get to the back roads. Never again.

 

[MissMoo]

Looking at all these gorgeous photos I have a severe case of hacking envy!!
I used to think our hacking was ok but in reality its rather poor, although better than most yards have in our area. We have a couple of farm tracks that provide a 30 min or 1 hour hack with minimal road work first on a quiet lane however they are very stoney and only really suitable for walking on, or the same lane provides access to a bridleway that leads to the beach - however the beach is very busy with walkers, dogs, fishermen and other horse riders who box to the beach from out of the area - this has increased considerably in the last few years to the point I tend to avoid it now as it is just too busy for my mare. We did have one other farm track but that has been closed due to local cyclists and dog walkers abusing it. From home I would have a 10 minute walk on a main road leading to a bridleway which in turn leads to a quiet road giving approx a 1 hr ride and there are some permissive tracks however sadly they are unusable. I really need to persuade my partner to relocate!!

 

[follysienna]

All of these photos make me so jealous. I grew up with incredible hacking onto common land, the new forest and open countryside full of bridle paths. Sadly I never appreciated it as it was all I had known.

Now I have a 20 minute plod down a lane and thats it. It connects between two busy main roads into the city so I avoid them, although know people who do ride along them. Luckily my pony isn't that keen on hacking!

 

[TRECtastic]

I've put brilliant, as it's brilliant to me but maybe not to others
Field gate is a few meters from a large country park with all off road riding
Lots of paths , open fields , woodland etc but it can get busy in certain parts, you have to go under a mainline railway , and over the M5 to reach all of it
We do have 1 busy lane to cross over from one side of the country park but it has a pegasus crossing for us

 

[Pedantic]

Losing more and more all the time, one big stretch of river is now being Tarmaced , plus housing and commercial parks have made the traffic ridiculous, as infrastructure not taken into account, we just don't get catered for, brand new sign gone in with pedestrian and cyclist motif on it at river entrance, NOTHING, to include us , I have thought about having my Willy cut off sewing breasts on and calling myself a woman colouring the pony rainbow colours to see if this inclusivity stuff would work for us minority

 

[Orangehorse]

Where I live and used to ride it wasn't that good. I could do 5 different rides from home, but all on lanes. A bit further a field I could use the only bridlepath in the parish and make it a much longer circular ride (the other bridlepath I never used as it came out on a bend on a very busy main road, although I was given permission to use someone's drive, but never did it in the end.) It could be worse, but it was getting less fun due to being a cut through from two industrial estates and the dreaded Amazon drivers. But it could have been worse.

However, now I am riding someone else's horse from their home and the riding is much, much better. Just about opposite her house and we can go straight onto three different bridlepaths, which are mostly hard tracks, and join up with very quiet lanes and some field and wood crossings too. There are some short distances of main roads but her horses are quiet in traffic and it is a B road which is quite busy but the drivers seem to be considerate. All these bridlepaths can join up and provide long circular routes. I have hardly been on exactly the same route twice since going there. I am told that there is a 20 mile route possible, but I haven't done that one yet.

 

[spotty_pony2]

I’m lucky that although our house is on an A road, I can go out through our fields and get directly into the village which is very quiet. There are a few bridleways that link off here too. We have a fair amount of bridleways in the area, but some roadwork is required to link them together.