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

I'd say 2 miles each way plus 45 mins schooling is fine for a reasonably fit horse. I would just bear in mind that if it's a very hot day or you work particularly hard then you may need to take it steady on the way back.
 
sport horse said:
Used to hack up to 10 miles to shows and jump up to 1.40 affiliated classes. Everyone's getting a bit 'soft'!!
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Yep. This exactly. OPs horse will be so much healthier for the work, and fitter. Few of us really work our horses as much as they are capable of; mainly I suppose because of time restrictions and traffic conditions, but they used to be so much better for it.
 
used to hack 15 miles to pony club rallies when I was a child and to all the shows as we had no transport Even did one day events after a 15 mile hack there and rode back mind you the horse was very very fit
 
windand rain said:
used to hack 15 miles to pony club rallies when I was a child and to all the shows as we had no transport Even did one day events after a 15 mile hack there and rode back mind you the horse was very very fit
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Yes - remember those days well - horse trailers were few and far between. We had just as much fun hacking to shows as riding in them. One show I remember it rained all the way, we were soaked by the time we arrived, then we did our show classes and then jumped in deepening mud and then played games in even deeper mud, all the time getting wetter and colder - we just didn't care we were at a show with our ponies and we were going to enjoy every minute. Then we rode home in the rain - I then had to cycle 5 mile to get home as my parents didn't have a car.

2 miles is a stroll!
 
I wouldn't have thought so, unless a horse was very unfit.

I tend to hack for at least 10 mins on a loose active walk and a small amount of loose trot before entering a school/arena and the same hack after. Although I also give the horse 10 mins on warm-up in walk and loose trot on a surface before asking for anything else.

Warm up and cool down are very important.

In short, unless you have a weak baby or very unfit horse, I can't see a real issue.
 
I hack a mile to use an arena, good warm up! I have hacked 7 miles to a show before then done three sj classes with horse still flying round!
 
Can I jump onto the end of this thread please, as I'm in a similar situation - just started riding a 24yr old horse, wanting to hack 2miles to a school for lessons then hack back. Horse has been out of work for at least six months and considering her age just wondered if this would be too much? She lives out 24/7 and according to owner has not medical conditions.

Would this be OK, do you all think?
 
KEC said:
Can I jump onto the end of this thread please, as I'm in a similar situation - just started riding a 24yr old horse, wanting to hack 2miles to a school for lessons then hack back. Horse has been out of work for at least six months and considering her age just wondered if this would be too much? She lives out 24/7 and according to owner has not medical conditions.

Would this be OK, do you all think?
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Perhaps not now, but once she's fitter I wouldn't see a problem. We have a 25 yr pony with Cushings and EMS, who is relatively fit, and hacks 4 miles easily, every few weeks, although we don't go too fast.
 
I'm planning to hack 3 miles, have an hours lesson and then hack home.
I used to hack 8 miles, compete show jumping and then hack home.

I just ensured the horse was fit enough to cope
 
KEC said:
Can I jump onto the end of this thread please, as I'm in a similar situation - just started riding a 24yr old horse, wanting to hack 2miles to a school for lessons then hack back. Horse has been out of work for at least six months and considering her age just wondered if this would be too much? She lives out 24/7 and according to owner has not medical conditions.

Would this be OK, do you all think?
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You'd be better to get her going by hacking first. Build up her fitness but once she's fit, there's no reason that she wouldn't manage it. We used to have 20+ year old horses in the riding school all fit and healthy doing 3 or 4 hours work a day.
 
fidleyspromise said:
You'd be better to get her going by hacking first. Build up her fitness but once she's fit, there's no reason that she wouldn't manage it. We used to have 20+ year old horses in the riding school all fit and healthy doing 3 or 4 hours work a day.
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Thanks for all the advise, especially the above. It's what I was thinking but as I don't know the horses history and the owner is a novice it's a bit like the blind leading the visually impaired. I was going to spend a few weeks of just doing the hacking part and then bringing in the lesson if she's ok. Would prob start with walk and trot first in the lesson too.

I think a lot of people have quite low expectations for 20+year old horses.
 
No, two miles is nothing to a horse, they travel 15 miles a day in the wild in search of food. At the weekends I often hack around 5 - 8 miles, on the weekdays probably about 4 miles. I do this three or sometimes four days a week. As long as you don't hammer them on the roads, they build up fitness quite fast.
 
I think it is more a question of time available, although if you compare just getting on and going, to hitching up a trailer, loading, travelling, unloading then over a short distance there isn't going to be much difference.

As for "is it too much for the horse" - er, no. Horses are capable of a terrific amount of work if conditioned for it, think hours and hours, particularly slow paces.
 
Orangehorse said:
I

As for "is it too much for the horse" - er, no. Horses are capable of a terrific amount of work if conditioned for it, think hours and hours, particularly slow paces.
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When you think about how hard horses work in foreign climates, and how work horses who round up cattle work, 2 miles would be like taking a couple of steps for them! I know we worry about our horses and I know that a tired horse can often result in an injury but most of the time horses are more than capable of doing the work we ask of them, its us humans that worry about it too much.
 
Reminds me on when I used to hack my 18/19yr old mare 4 miles to my friend's farm, then go out hacking with her for a good hour or so, then hack back. I'd be gone most of the day (ah them were the days). No, I dont think what you are proposing is unreasonable :-)
 
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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Good grief! No wonder there are so many over-fed and underworked horses in the UK today. 2 MILES???? . A horse in a field would walk more than that in a morning. I used to hack my mare to a local showground which took most horses about 1.5 hours but mine did it in 50 minutes because she liked to canter at least 50% of the journey, do 6 ridden and in-hand classes including jumping and WH, then hack home again after and the return journey was inevitably even faster. And she did all of that on a bit of basic mix and chop plus a haynet. We would think nothing of hacking for 4 hours on Sundays and include a good blast up and down the hills both ways and a whizz on the flat to keep her happy. I think I would have described her as "pretty fit".
 
2 miles is no distance. I still hack to a show approx 4 miles away, then do either dressage, showing or jumping and then hack back. My mare is 24 years old (25 in May) and is still raring to go on the way home. Last year we did a treasure hunt and were out for approximately 6 hours (hacking approx 3 miles to the start venue, doing roughly 9 miles for the treasure hunt and then hacking the 3 miles back home).
 
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