How to keep hacking interesting

[ponynutz]

Hi all, for multiple reasons including uni, only having the ride on my childhood pony, and not having a proper arena I find myself only having hacking to hand when I'm home. I'm getting a bit bored of the same old routes and I'm sure Dusty (pony) is too.
How can we liven things up?
Please bear in mind given she's had 2 months off with me at uni she isn't the fittest, and we have limited areas to gallop - it's really just the odd canter and with the rain and mud it's actually mostly road hacking now.
Riding's always been part of my life and she does enjoy her hacks - like a dog going for a walk - so any help would be great.

 

[poiuytrewq]

You can do bits of schooling on the road where safe. I leg yield and do shoulder in etc on straight bits of road.

 

[! Hackinghappy!]

Definitely schooling!

There is a good book called schooling while you hack with some exercises.

I like doing transitions, rein back up or down hill, leg yielding etc

 

[ponynutz]

Thanks both will try that out and have a look at that book

 

[Squeak]

If you have transport I find boxing to a different place to hack or hiring an arena every now and then makes a big difference.

 

[SEL]

Playing chicken with speeding cars on single track roads seems to liven my rides up right now ?. I know where you're coming from. Our bridlepaths are too muddy for more than walk so it's getting a bit dull.

 

[Tarragon]

I used to use telegraph poles, or ditches in the verges (used to call these grips when we were in Suffolk - or have I remembered that wrong?) to trigger an action, whether it was a transition change, or change of pace, or simply changing my diagonals!

 

[sbloom]

Utilising verges, banks, the camber on the road, anything you can, to do really really slow walking up, down, around, twist and turn...it's all brilliant for proprioception and posture.

 

[Gloi]

I spend time looking at wildlife and plants when I'm riding out. Keep my eyes open for anything to forage too At the right time of year I pick sloes, blackberries, mushrooms, nuts, crabapples and stow them in the saddlebag I've also once come back with a roadkill deer over the pommel ?

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I keep my horses at home and don't have an arena so any "schooling" has to be done out and about!!

I got my current pony at just-backed 4yo and she's 8 now - and has only been in an arena once in her life and that was for a TREC day!! Ohh the shame of it!! But actually you CAN achieve a great deal of "schooling-in-the-real-world" out on a hack:-

For e.g. leg-yield - we have a fair amount of gates where I am so we had to learn leg-yield early on. You the rider have to have it VERY fixed in your head where you need to go - and how you're going to get there! Because if you (as herd leader) don't give firm directions then your horse will get very confused. We are experts at it now!! The best piece of advice I was given was to dismount and do it all on the ground first, gently, with you using your hand on your horse's side plus your body language, to indicate where they should go, and then when you're both happy try it up-top.

Gateways: leg-yield again - getting horse to stand politely and without fidgeting. Also you can turn on the forehand and/or hindquarters in gateways, all good practice!

Roadworks & Road Cones etc! Wow these are excellent TREC practice and are superb confidence-builders. Myself and a friend are well-known in the local area for sussing out where roadworks are taking place - you won't get a better TREC-training (or Horse Agility!!) practice area! Just take it easy, be aware of your horse's anxieties and don't be ashamed to get off and lead-through if horse is getting stressy and/or other traffic in the area puts either of you in danger. Not helpful to be attempting something new if man-in-van is up your backside! Tho' they SHOULD damn-well wait! End of.

Traffic generally: I'm in a rural area and we get everything here ranging from the usual farm machinery to the local haulage depot which is just down the road, plus local quarry which we ride through regularly on a working day. All horses thoroughly bombproof therefore!! And all excellent confidence-boosters. Again if in doubt, lead. No shame in it. Stay safe.

Logs: if you can find any to pop over all well and good. Ohhh lucky people who have woods near them! We don't!

If there are two or more of you then you can teach manners and respect very easily: one horse goes ahead, out of sight, the others (or the other horses if just two of you) stay back. Politely and without fussing. Then follow on without charging. This is an invaluable thing for horses to learn!! It might need some perseverance and again always stay safe and don't attempt this on a busy road. The other thing you can do is to change the riding order, i.e. one horse goes ahead, then the last horse in the column then overtakes on the off-side and goes ahead of everyone and then goes to the front. Repeat until every horse has changed order. Start in walk, then up to the passing horse being in trot. If you're bold enough (and open space!) then try it in canter. These two things we did a LOT of when I first took on my youngster and it was something the person (friend) who'd backed her does a lot with hers; it teaches them not to panic when they're separated and to also learn how to deal with say people passing them at speed out hunting or whatever.

Just a few ideas, hope they're helpful.

 

[tda]

Great ideas, all I can say is that your transitions will be as sharp as anything, I use telegraph poles as markers.
Use every action as a schooling exercise, halt always square etc.

 

[Skib]

I hack and mostly on bridle tracks. Once can do almost anything out hackng except circles and in summer one can do those too if there are meadows or playing fields. Our RI said that I schooled out hacking but I didnt know what that meant. I was simply reassuring myself that the mare was listeing to me and that I was safe.
The other day, someone suggested that I hack my current share as if she were my own horse and I soon realised that this imposed much higher standards. At times I allowed her to make her own choices but at other times my transitions and riding were more refined. Especially downwards transitions where out hacking I have often let her choose.

I relised how easy it is on a safe and familiar horse to become a lazy rider. And that I tolerate behaviour in her because she is a share. The YM tells me it isnt fair to ask more of her, but I think it is fair to ask more of myself and my riding. If I were in a school, I would canter at A, no messing about. And Covid rates permitting that is what I plan for nextweek.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I often school on a hack it's brilliant for doing collected trot then working trot then some extended strides and just playing around with it, then we do the same in canter although that sometimes can get a bit exciting ?

 

[ponynutz]

Hi all, just wanted to say thanks for sharing what yous all do! Went for a little boxing day trailer ride to the beach today and had a little school as well as our normal couple of gallops and it felt so good - Dust was really responsive and seemed to actually enjoy having to use her brain a bit. Something I'll definitely carry on wherever we go. Felt nice for me too and my motivation to ride has come back somewhat so excited to try it out on our normal routes