Is 2 miles too far to hack to hire an arena???

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cavalier123

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As title says really... I am moving to a rented field and I can hire a fab indoor or outdoor arena nearby, but it is a 2 mile hack, not sure if that's too far if I wanted to then school for 45 mins and hack back? I guess pony would need to be pretty fit? Not sure what constitutes pretty fit though really - Duh!! Any opinions please?
 
I used to do this with my old mare, till I got lazy! Was a nice warm-up, we would just walk, go straight in for our lesson then she would stand with a hay net at my instructors yard and munch whilst I washed her down. A nice amble back then, she always seemed to cope and yes, she was pretty fit, we were out hacking at least 3-4 times a week. :)
 
My best schooling was done when we had the use of a set aside field about 2 miles from us. A walk and a bot of a trot there, a good workout/ schooling session and a walk back.

My horse was pretty fit though.
 
I think it would be an ideal warm up and then cool down. I had a school at the yard I was at but we would usually hack the horses around the block which took approx 35 minutes before going into the school.

Your hirse would not need to be super fit to cope with this.
 
DragonSlayer said:
I used to do this with my old mare, till I got lazy! Was a nice warm-up, we would just walk, go straight in for our lesson then she would stand with a hay net at my instructors yard and munch whilst I washed her down. A nice amble back then, she always seemed to cope and yes, she was pretty fit, we were out hacking at least 3-4 times a week. :)
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Hi DragonSlayer, thanks that's really helpful. I'm sure I will be hacking 3/4 times per week for about an hour and then hopefully should be fit enough for once a week for a lesson at the arena and maybe once a week at home in the field. Looks like the plan is coming together, just need to find the pony now! Currently own a lovely retired boy who has to live out so need a companion and am going to get another ridden pony after much deliberation, so very excited :-)
 
Thank you everyone for your opinions :-) I really appreciate it as I just couldn't decide! Now even more excited about moving to my new yard!
 
No distance at all, a lovely distance to get your horse well warmed up before work and a good amount of time to be relaxed and cool on getting home.

With 45mins of school no more than 2hours work at the most. Take the hack quietly until your horse is fit and then should take no more than 15 - 20 mins to hack 2 miles.
 
Should be fine, two miles really is not far. I would get your horse fit slowly to ensure he can cope with the hacking plus the schooling.
 
Thanks that's so reassuring, I've managed to develop another worry now though... I went a different way to the field tonight and saw low flying aircraft sign - scary so have just started to research that too and it turns out about a mile away there is a private airstrip with, wait for it... NO MORE (WHAT???) than 4 flights per day!!! it's private one man and a helicopter from what I can gather from the google!!!! Loads of horses in the area, should I be worried?? I'm thinking if there's four flights per day horses would get used to it maybe!?? Trying to be optimistic there!
 
No, if you only graze 2 miles from the airstrip you can be sure the planes are flying low over your grazing too. My riding school was only about that from the end of the Christchurch International Airport runway, we had planes coming in to land several times a day flying straight over the riding school. Only time the horses/ponies were bothered was when Concorde came in on one occasion.

Planes were so low you could see the rivets holding them together.
 
ChesnutsRoasting said:
They will get used to it. If you're worried about your horses reaction lead in hand to begin with��
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Thanks ChestnutRoasting! I would be worried, after all it's not something they would have seen before, so no matter how quiet I guess they could react, so leading in hand it definitely a good idea. I suppose if there's other horses around and I've seen plenty of people hacking past the field in the past two weeks I'm probably over reacting!!!
 
Tnavas said:
No, if you only graze 2 miles from the airstrip you can be sure the planes are flying low over your grazing too. My riding school was only about that from the end of the Christchurch International Airport runway, we had planes coming in to land several times a day flying straight over the riding school. Only time the horses/ponies were bothered was when Concorde came in on one occasion.

Planes were so low you could see the rivets holding them together.
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Thanks Tnavas, that's what my rational mind was saying, but a born worrier always finds a worry!!!
 
2 miles is nothing! I wish we had something to hire or shows within 10 hackable miles let alone 2! You'll be fine :)
 
Nope, 2 miles will be fine - as others have said it's the perfect warm up / cool down and a nice way to plan what you're going to do / relax afterwards. While we were lorry-less I quite regularly hacked 5 miles to a riding centre, had a 45 minute lesson and then hacked the 5 miles back - she's always been kept fit and thought absolutely nothing of it, she'd always be bouncing when we got back home. So perfectly doable as long as you take the schooling steady to begin with just to let your horse get used to it x
 
I don't know how far away the arena I hire is but it's a 40 minute fast walk, or a 20 minute trot (ish).
I guess it's getting on for 2 miles, and I quite like it, as others have said it's a good warmup and cool down, means you get a longer ride (more pony time; yay!) and in a way you feel more deserving weirdly because you've tried harder to get there!
 
Worry no 1, 2 miles is a very good distance for both a warm up and cool down. I regularly hack to an all weather gallops which is just over 2 miles away, do a session on the gallops and then hack home. My hack over also includes doing some hills.

Worry no 2 My yard is on the flight path to a local air field and we have planes and helicopters coming in all day long. The horses just get use to them flying over head. I would not worry as I am sure the horses will get use to them over their heads.
 
It has been a long accepted fact that the raceing stables furthest from the gallops on Epsom downs always produced the most winners. Go figure!
 
I used to hack 7 miles to my riding clubs show field, do 2 or 3 classes amd hack 7 miles home and I didnt bimble either. Also being an armed forces child where we were posted my pony went too amd quite a few bases had a livery yard on the base for use by armed forces personell and familys and on 2 our turnout was directly next to the runway with harrier/ tornado/ hawk fighter jets landing and taking off every 20 minutes during the day 5 days a week. The first day new horses ran round like idiots every time a plane went past while field mates ignored them by the third day they completely ignored them too. The same applied to helicopters when we were posted to a search and rescue base. Your horse will soon get used to them.
 
cavalier123 said:
As title says really... I am moving to a rented field and I can hire a fab indoor or outdoor arena nearby, but it is a 2 mile hack, not sure if that's too far if I wanted to then school for 45 mins and hack back? I guess pony would need to be pretty fit? Not sure what constitutes pretty fit though really - Duh!! Any opinions please?
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No, not far at all. We regularly do 6 mile hacks, which we consider short hacks. 2 miles is nothing.
 
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