How often / how far do you hack your horses?

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Tayto

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So I am getting to know my new mare a bit better now and am venturing out on longer hacks. She is 8 years old and I am wondering what would be an acceptable amount of work to have her in. At the moment, we hack every day. Varying from 1 mile to 5 miles per hack. She is a little unfit so have been introducing longer periods of trot and tonight did our whole hack in trot. It wasn't far but it was such fun :) I want to start making our hacks longer and maybe at weekends do a half day hack where we stop for a picnic or something.

At the moment we are just happy hackers with the occasional schooling session. I will add more schooling in the future but just having so much fun hacking just now!

How old are your horses and how much hacking do you do with them?
 
Sounds to me like you want to be trying Endurance with your mare! :) An awesome sport, with something for everyone, from 10-mile Pleasure Rides all the way to extreme 100-mile FEI *** .

My pony is probably 11yo, and we regularly hack 1 to 2.5 hours at varying speeds. He currently competes at up to 60km (40 miles), which he did in about 5 hours.
 
I would love to do endurance! I am building up both our confidence and we might give it a go next year. Where can I get more info on endurance locally?
 
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Funny you should ask...I'm with Grampian branch...

http://www.serc-grampian.org.uk/

Our next ride is at Ninestanes on 11 August, and offers a Taster of 12km (about 7 miles), and entries are still open. There's also a Facebook group called "Grampian Ponies' Lonely Hearts Club", for finding hacking buddies. Excuse the silly name! ;)
 
I hack my 6 year old ISH approximately 3 or 4 times a week, the other days she is schooled or jumped. The shortest hack we do is 3 miles which takes half an hour. The longest so far is 7 miles. I only have road work so it gets a bit dull doing any longer then that but as her fitness improves I'll have to start taking her further!

My 18 year old is also hacked 3 or 4 times a week, again the shortest ride is 3 miles but we take a bit longer doing it and tend no to do the long road work hacks. For longer/faster hacks I box him out to local farm rides.
 
I hack exclusively, hate the confines of a menage. I ride my mare at least 5 times a week, and our shortest hack is about 5 miles. On a weekend I usually try to go on a longer ride which at the moment will be between 12 and 15 miles, we are waiting for the cooler weather to go even further afield. I wouldn't think twice about doing a 20 mile hack, and regularly rode my previous mare upto 30 miles!
ETA, my mare is 7, and an endurance bred arabian, but any horse is capable of going on a 20 mile hack, with a little preparation!
 
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Another endurance rider here - based down in glorious Devon.

My arab mare is 11. During the week, we do 3 sessions focusing on interval training, hill work and fast work. At the weekends we do our longer, slower hacks. Try to aim roughly for 10-12 miles on one day, 12-15 on the other. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It really depends on the weather, going, my workload, her mood, etc. etc.!

Similar to my running training. Short and sharp during the week, slow and long at the weekends....

It's the best equine sport around. Very addictive!
 
I used to love long fast hacks, we occasionally go for 4-5 hours in company (walk and trot so far as need to work on cantering in a balanced manner!) but my girl is a bit spooky on her own so we do very short ones down the village or hour long hacks in company. She has improved greatly but we are having a spooky phase even in company at the mo.

Sigh, I miss not worrying and just exploring like I did on my old share horse! I love my horse and we will get there as time and confidence allows but sometimes I want a really bombproof readymade hacking machine of a horse to have fun on!
 
My boys are 13 and 7 and I will take them out about three times a week each, on anything from an hour and a half to 6 hour hacks where we stop for a picnic and they enjoy some lovely fresh grass!
 
I am lucky enough to live slap bang in the middle of the High Peak! If anyone could point me in the direction of an endurance group or similar I would be very greatful!
 
spookypony said:
Funny you should ask...I'm with Grampian branch...

http://www.serc-grampian.org.uk/

Our next ride is at Ninestanes on 11 August, and offers a Taster of 12km (about 7 miles), and entries are still open. There's also a Facebook group called "Grampian Ponies' Lonely Hearts Club", for finding hacking buddies. Excuse the silly name! ;)
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I saw that advertised through Pony Club - I keep my horse literally two miles from the Mulloch Woods (that's one of our regular rides). Much as my boy is great to hack, I don't think endurance would be for him at all... we hack ALONE because he is awful with other horses. Even cantering with his field buddies results in a rodeo, and he hates horses he doesn't know, and being overtaken more than anything else!! So did consider, but think it's a no-no for us :(

I regularly hack my boy 6 miles, mostly at trot and canter - for XC fitness :). We do quite often go further, as I hack to local shows/pony club etc, and often go on day rides with my hacking buddies whether across hills/moors/beaches etc. Haven't done the 25 miles loop with my boy yet but aiming to soon!!!
 
I do love hacking, it's so fun exploring the woods and finding little tracks to have fun on. I know we should school more cos she is very green in the school but its so boring! How would we start to train for endurance? Would I have to get her used to cantering with other horses, being over taken etc? Excuse my ignorance, I know very little about endurance apart from it sounds fun!! So far she has not shown to be competitive in company but as mentioned, she isn't at her peak fitness so I wonder when she is fitter if this will change.
 
Schooling is good for endurance horses too to help them build the correct muscles for carrying a rider, but you can do a lot of that while hacking! Overtaking does happen on rides, though generally at trot, and horses do go through a phase of finding that very exciting (mine is in a tail-chasing phase at the moment). Many people go out in pairs or small groups, and having a buddy does seem to make horses more interested in staying with their buddy than in having a huge race.
 
Well when Tess was in full work and when she is brought back into work over summer we would hacked probably 5 times a week and school twice a week just because she was bought as a happy hacker :) we both love it.

But over winter we go to work in the dark and come home in the dark she is only ridden at weekends when she is hacked one day and schooled the other :)
 
So long as you build up gradually you can hack all day if you want to i would think. I love going for long hacks on my fittest horse I often did 30 plus miles a day (longest I ever did was 42 miles) and not that slowly either. Never did long rides back to back but often a couple of times a week. The rest of the time I did short rides and lots of dressage schooling.

My next horse I worked up gradually from a regular 5 mile hack to 26 miles without much problem. Just keep adding a bit more and a bit more.

Current mare is 8 and only gradually getting really strong for ridden work but she is doing 12 miles comfortably now. I hack 2 or 3 times a week usually one very short and the other two longer rides. Other times she is schooled for dressage or we do some jumping practice - mostly grid work at the moment.

If you ride slowly though you can ride even a quite unfit horse for quite a distance. I have often ridden on long trail rides with a company called free rein based in wales. riding 18 miles a day for a week. I asked them once how they got their horses fit. And the they said that they didn't have to really as slow work taking all day was not as taxing as you would think for the horse - they used mostly cobs and solid good doer types. They said that people rarely rode fast because the ground was often tricky and they kept stopping to check maps and routes so horses got lots of breaks
 
The Cleveland Bay we bought in January is 17 so I've been taking it easy with her! The vet is out next week to see her as she's showing signs of arthritis but is sound and happy enough at all paces so we'll see what he says. I try and hack at least 4 times a week, mostly at walk, building up trot and the odd short canter in which she is now lovely and balanced. She originally rushed in canter, her previous owner used a Waterford which amazes me as she's perfect in just a French link.

Hacking varies from 40 minutes to 2 hours. I school in the field once a week or so as well, but keeping it relaxed, and no small circles with her joints. Because of potential arthritis I stick to walk only on hard surfaces, and we have a massive amount of off road hacking which is great in most ways. But as she is barefoot I'd ideally do a bit more work on tarmac.

Once the youngster is backed I'll be building his hacking up gradually too and eventually want to start endurance with him, but that's a good couple of years away yet.
 
Great - this has really given me something to think about! Thanks guys :)

At the moment, we have lots of off road hacking but I need to get her used to seeing completely new places without exploding! My plan is to sit my trailer test next year and buy a trailer so that I can box her out to new places. I really want to ride through water - sounds silly but I love cantering through a big puddle, I go out hunting for puddles to ride through in the woods. Does anyone know of routes in/around Aberdeen that incorporate water (apart from the beach)? I could maybe chum up a friend to take me in their trailer one weekend.

Sorry - this post seems to have wandered off on a bit of a different subject ;)
 
I have a Hann x Tb & a Selle Francais, both are affiliated show jumpers. They are hacked out twice a week as part of their training/fitness regime. They are worked whilst hacking, they don't saunter along. They are out for an hour or so on each hack.
 
I do long distance riding, Pleasure Ride and have competed upto and including 65km. I tend to ride 3/5 times a week. 2 short hacks of 1/1.5 hrs and and 2 long 3/5 hours, one longline or lunge session. I do lots and lots of walking and hill work in my hacking and also use training and pleasure rides for fitness going up the levels of distance.
 
spookypony said:
Schooling is good for endurance horses too to help them build the correct muscles for carrying a rider, but you can do a lot of that while hacking! Overtaking does happen on rides, though generally at trot, and horses do go through a phase of finding that very exciting (mine is in a tail-chasing phase at the moment). Many people go out in pairs or small groups, and having a buddy does seem to make horses more interested in staying with their buddy than in having a huge race.
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My horse gets rather excited if another horse passes us in the woods at home so even though she is not competative when hacking in company I can imagine she would get rather excited if a horse overtook her so I like the sound of riding out with a buddy to keep her sane :p

When is the next event near Aberdeen? I could maybe come along and help out to get an idea of what it is all about?
 
My youngster is doing two or three hacks a week of 45min to 1hr30 and the others do anything up to 3hrs atm but we are still building this up. About 80% of our hacks is walk with 15% trot and 5% canter roughly. We are building up the distance done and the percentage of trot and canter done until we hit 50% walk and 50% trot and canter.
 
We love hacking and we also compete at endurance - between 30 and 40 km rides with the RC team.
Izzy is a 15 year old cob and is worked 6 - 7 days a week usually. Jumping lesson, flat lesson, long lining session and generally the rest is hacking or competing at various disciplines (not very well, we just do it for fun).
Distances wise our shortest hack would be a fast 1 hour all at trot. Usually do a 2 hour fast hack and then a couple of longer hacks, anywhere between 3-4 hours. But really depends what we have on and work etc.
I don't have a set training regime for us, we just do lots of hacking, interval training, jumping, trec and flat work as I know the flat work helps with the jumping;)
 
The Ninestanes ride is still looking for helpers! Specifically, someone to help the Timekeeper, and someone to do Parking Steward. If you wanted to come along, I could put you in touch with the admin people. You'd get a free lunch, too! :)

Tayto said:
My horse gets rather excited if another horse passes us in the woods at home so even though she is not competative when hacking in company I can imagine she would get rather excited if a horse overtook her so I like the sound of riding out with a buddy to keep her sane :p

When is the next event near Aberdeen? I could maybe come along and help out to get an idea of what it is all about?
Click to expand...
 
Tayto said:
Great - this has really given me something to think about! Thanks guys :)

At the moment, we have lots of off road hacking but I need to get her used to seeing completely new places without exploding! My plan is to sit my trailer test next year and buy a trailer so that I can box her out to new places. I really want to ride through water - sounds silly but I love cantering through a big puddle, I go out hunting for puddles to ride through in the woods. Does anyone know of routes in/around Aberdeen that incorporate water (apart from the beach)? I could maybe chum up a friend to take me in their trailer one weekend.

Sorry - this post seems to have wandered off on a bit of a different subject ;)
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Yeah, try hacking the deeside way. I've hacked from Banchory to bieldside and back along the way, and as it runs next to the river at lots of points you can take the horses in for a drink and splash :) also if hacking from aboyne to Banchory, on the old railway line there is some great fords that are fun to canter through/jump into...
 
spookypony said:
The Ninestanes ride is still looking for helpers! Specifically, someone to help the Timekeeper, and someone to do Parking Steward. If you wanted to come along, I could put you in touch with the admin people. You'd get a free lunch, too! :)
Click to expand...

I'd be up for helping the time keeper - that would be fab if you could put me in touch with the admin folk :)
 
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