Is it better to school or hack out when you...

Tia0513

Tia0513

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want your young horse to work more forwards (not fast) and not become overbent?

Tia is the opposite of what I am used to really and becomes overbent when I take a contact & shortens her stride. She has improved a lot since I first got her but I am unsure if I should try to work her more in the school or just do more trot work out hacking. When I took her to dressage on the 16th the Intro judge commented at the end 'Some good steps - needs to continue to work with constant rhythm into the contact - watch she doesn't become overbent.' The Prelim judge commented - 'lovely horse but you need to allow her to go more freely forward through the shoulders for better balance & engagement - especially in the walk.'

So what would you do? She is 4 this year & 16.2 approx at present. I know it's a case of her learning to balance/hold herself better, and that will come with time and patience, but I would like to help her best I can. I will be starting lessons with her in March or April hopefully with the instructor who helped me immensely with my previous horse.

Thanks :)
 
Yeah I would go and hack her for a month, forget the school and go with forwards, you can still play with the contact out hacking, but forward is key!
 
As she is only 4 I would be hacking rather than schooling to get her moving forward and opening her frame, you can do loads out on the hacks with less risk of her shortening up and coming behind the leg and hand, she is still growing and gaining physical strength so hacking will also help with that.
Be careful with the walk, it sounds as if you may be asking for a little too much, allow her to have a long rein most of the time so she is able to really take long relaxed steps rather than stay in a frame as you run the risk of losing the quality of walk more than any other pace, it is the hardest to get back once it becomes short and restricted through the shoulders.
 
Hacking. Make it fun and get her used to working out solutions to the things she meets, like gates, ditches, different types of ground and banks etc.
Done thoughtfully, she'll become confident, fitter and better balanced than she would by staying in the school.
 
Thanks

I do hack more than I school but atm it's been a little difficult to get someone who will actually do trot work with me. My usual riding partner hasn't ridden for a while as she has been busy with work and other commitments, another woman who can ride hadn't ridden for 4 months before I got her to ride out on Saturday with me and her confidence isn't great (although the pony didn't put a hoof wrong) so it was more walking than anything else. The only other person who rides is my mum and her cob is also just turning 4 and he has done less than Tia so two youngsters together tackling the outside world is a bit... not disastrous... but not brill if they both decide they don't like something.

I'm not adverse to hacking out on my own but, whilst she is young, I definately appreciate the company just in case! Aah well, we will get there :)
 
A young horse will usually benefit far more from hacking out than it will from doing what it sees as boring school work - a bit like young children, they lose interest and focus and become disruptive!!
You can do a lot of sneaky schooling along the quieter lanes, tracks and across fields (when they dry up)
 
Agree with everyone re hacking, I think people often underestimate how useful it can be. As a little anecdote, I have no arena and therefore never school unless I make a big effort. However particularly remember when I took my (now late) mare to a riding club lesson one day, and despite her not being particularly fit, or recently schooled at all, the instructor was extremely impressed at her cadence, straightness, freedom of movement and rhythm in her trot work. She wasn't completely untalented, but I think lots of hacking out in long straight lines helped. They can develop their movement unfettered. Of course schooling and suppleness is important, but if they are building up muscles evenly and developing good paces, schooling will progress much more quickly on this strong foundation.

<gets off soapbox>. :D
 
I don't think anyone here underestimates the usefulness of hacking. ;)

But then I don't think schooling is boring either and when I've been in programs where the horses don't hack much i haven't found the horses get stale/difficult/unsound/limited at the rate people assume will happen.

That said, I think hacking is very useful for all sorts of reasons and it's of definite benefit for the horse's physical and mental education.

I don't think though, that it necessarily intrinsically fixes issues with going off the leg or contact problems. It give opportunities to work on these areas, to be sure, but I meet lots of horses who hack a lot and don't necessarily work correctly! If you are using your hacking to teach the right lessons and broaden the horse's education and it makes it easier and forces you to be more through, brilliant, but it's still about the riding. It CAN even make problems worse - I rode a horse recently that can get quite heavy in the school and anxiety out hacking has actually made it exponentially stronger and LESS ridable. Of course the problem now has to be fixed hacking but you can't say it's improved things in the short term.

OP, do you know what your horse is coming behind? What helps or makes the situation worse?

I think because you are starting lessons soon, I agree with the others, this is probably a good time to just work on the hacking. Lots of walking with a long soft neck sounds like just the ticket right now. Then when you start lessons you can discuss the whole program with someone who is actively involved.
 
TarrSteps said:
OP, do you know what your horse is coming behind? What helps or makes the situation worse?
Click to expand...

I think its due to her balance/strength tbh and more than likely myself. When I first got her, June last year, she was very overbent but willing. I spent the summer hacking her lightly for anything from 10-20 minutes 1 - 2 times a week and just asking her to take more of a contact and stretch which she now does. She had two periods of time off due to my hols and weather on another occasion. Since I have started doing more in the school she has begun to lean on my hands a little bit but I put that down to her being young/balancing but I am beginning to think she's doing it now a bit more because I have allowed her to. My problem is that my previous gelding was sort of the opposite... I had to learn how to get him working correctly but bringing his head down into the frame whilst working from behind, where as with her I know I have to encourage her up/forward. That's why I want the lessons but because of her age I don't want to do too much too soon. I have done a little bit of trot in the school with her where I practically left her to it, slowed my rising and let her have the rein so she had to carry herself...however I am not sure this is the right way to go about it?! She did it quite well but I am conscious of asking too much of her. She's very obediant and listens extremely well.

Basically I am scared of breaking her and want to help not hinder her. I'm not sure if I have answered your question! I am more of an 'instinctual' rider and find explaining things quite difficult.
 
First off, chill. :) I'm sure you're not going to break her, for the simple reason you're worried about it.

Then, since you're so close to having lessons anyway, I'd still go with my original advice. Lots of forward walking out with a relaxed neck, building up the length of time you're out and, if you can, adding in hills, uneven footing etc. Build up her fitness so she can at least walk for the amount of time you'll want to allow for a lesson. If you can trot safely out (perhaps your walker can stand while you trot a away and back) then super. If it's not safe or useful to trot out hacking right now then add a measured amount in the school at the beginning or end of your walk hack. You don't have to throw the reins at her but (purists look away now) at this point if she pokes her nose, so much the better while you're just doing this fitness work. Then by the time your lessons start you'll have built up a good fitness base and your instructor can help you fine tune. I think you are right to get good help on the ground as early as possible - it's always easier to start right than be trying to fix problems later.

Good luck.
 
So am I! I'd rather worry, ask the questions and try to find the answers though, than ignore my little voice telling me I could do better.

I'm sure you and your horse will be fine. :)
 
I agree with TarrSteps, work on her basic fitness more than schooling as such. As long as she is working in a relaxed frame don't worry too much about what is happening as long as she is 'off your leg'. As she gains confidence and strength the other things will become easier for her and hopefully follow on.
 
Just be careful of too much of a relaxed frame... I have been hacking my horse on quite a loose rein, marching around the lanes, nice and forward and I have successfully turned her into what my friend politely called a 'racehorse'. The only time I was picking up the reins was when I was I was about to jump a fence, she then associated a contact with going up a gear. She was just trying to be helpful! Anyway a few disciplined rein contact sessions out hacking and I have retrained her brain. So just be careful about too much loose rein.
 
To clarify, I didn't say loose rein, I said long, soft neck. You can't teach a horse to go to the contact and accept it if you don't have any contact. As you say, if you walk around with your reins in a loop until you want to go faster it doesn't take a horse long to figure out that picking up the reins means go faster. Actually, contact shouldn't have anything to do with speed - the horse should technically be able to travel at any gist with a loop in the rein, or not, as the situation warrants but that, too, is not a conversation about contact, so much as it's one about balance and reaction to the other aids.

I'd still say though, for a very young, unfit horse with a tendency to go behind the contact and the vertical, ridden by someone who has, quite sensibly, arranged to get professional help with the horse in a matter of weeks, doing the basic fitness work with the nose out (although not necessarily with a loop in the reins) is the lesser of two evils at this point.


This is, of course, the problem with advice from the Internet! In person you could just say, "Okay, shorten the rein a bit but keep the arm relaxed and the hand allowing. A little bit more. Yup, that's it. Now let's try in trot," and that would be that. On line you have to think of all the little things that MIGHT happen and warn against them.
 
I don't plan on walking her out on buckle end don't worry! I've actually had a message off my usual riding partner last night to say she can ride this afternoon so I'll be taking her out later and will give things a go. :D
 
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