Is it fair to hack to .....

Boxers

Boxers

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Is it fair (on the horse) to hack to a meet (5 miles) stay out for about 3 hours and then hack home (5 miles)?

Of course it's possible that daughter will be further away from home than 5 miles when she wants to finish in which case we could take the trailer to collect her.
 
i guessing the pony is fit then that should be know problem, a nice warm up hack and then cool down hack back. thats what we use to do back in the stone age..........................before trailers and mums
 
When I took my old gelding hunting for the first time I hacked to the meet which was a quite a few miles away, to take the edge off him. Stayed out for a few hours and then hacked back, and it was further on the way back. In the end I had to get off and walk some of the way home because I was so uncomfortable from riding for such a long time. However it didn't do the horse any harm.
 
Don't see an issue as long as horse is fit, we used to hack to most meets as teenagers and often used to end up hacking home 5 or 6 miles. The ponies used to still want to go at the end of the day.
 
Sounds like a lot to me, but who am I to know?!
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Guess if your horse is truly fit then you will be OK.
 
Oh yes - it's Manni in my siggy - he is certainly fit. He has been out almost every week since hound exercise started in September and is ridden quite alot during the week too.
 
I hacked my mare 4.5 miles to the meet, I walked most of it to save some energy, then hunted for about 2 hours before hacking home. My mare was full of beans and could of done another couple of hours but the hounds had turned away from home and I didn't want to go on to then have to turn round to get home.

As long as your horse is fit enough and you leave plenty of time so you don't have to rush to the meet then I'm sure she will be fine.

ETS. Make sure your daughter knows what time it starts to get dark and leaves before it does, nothing worse then having to hack home in the dark.
 
As long as the horse is fit I don't see it as a problem.

When I was a kid we would hack miles to a show each weekend, enter just about every class and then hack home.

Mind you in those days we didn't have any transport or a school so the ponies were used to loads of hacking.
 
I've happily hacked five miles each way to a show, stayed for a few hours and done several jumping classes on an averagely fit horse so assuming the pony is fit it shouldn't be a problem. From the riders POV however, I was in agony after all that time in the saddle!! you have been warned!
 
i'd say she'd be fine to do that.
make sure she remembers to put something high viz in her pocket for the way home incase she gets caught out by the dark!!!
 
As long as fit and used to distances shouldn't be a problem, I let my beast graze a bit to rest and put something in his tum if it's a long day out, Po runs on grass and hay, Terrano runs on Diesel, I run on Hot chocolate
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I think 5 miles is next to nothing. In the days before everyone had trailers, they would have hacked further to a meet. Will PM you to tell you a tale!
 
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