Lost in the woods

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bluewhippet

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Very lucky in that 30 minutes' ride away have huge stretches of woods. Never meet anyone except deer and the odd bird: just lovely, especially at this time of year, smells beautiful.

Today, with no sense of direction, managed to get properly lost: every path looked the same! In the end, after about an hour and half, cantering and trotting in circles, managed to trace the telegraph poles back to the road.

I wasn't in a hurry, horse was very happy (although walked very fast back home again when we eventually found where we were!). We had a great time. I have such a bad sense of direction - have done this a few times' before...
 
We have amazing woods to hack around on my yards doorstep and its my biggest fear getting totally lost when its just me and the pony !

Well done for staying calm I would have been a mess :-)
 
I only hack around about a third of the woods we have - some of it is closed to horses and I'm always scared of ending up where I shouldn't be if I miss a sign! I did once get lost on my old mare in there. I dropped the reins and she took me home :D
 
Maybe try one of the tracking apps if you have a smartphone :) I use endomondo, and an OS map app called OutSide - that one is particularly useful as it tells you which direction you are looking in from the tilt on your phone, I'm sure it would work well to show you when you're facing the right way to go home. It also shows public footpaths and bridle ways too.
 
HarlequinSeren said:
Maybe try one of the tracking apps if you have a smartphone :) I use endomondo, and an OS map app called OutSide - that one is particularly useful as it tells you which direction you are looking in from the tilt on your phone, I'm sure it would work well to show you when you're facing the right way to go home. It also shows public footpaths and bridle ways too.
Click to expand...

That sounds perfect for me, will look it up.

I like to think if I dropped the reins, my boy would take me home, but I think he is probably as clueless as I am!

I have been to Centerparcs a few times and always get lost there too. Woods are my favourite place but there aren't many landmarks unless you are particularly knowledgable about trees!
 
Very jealous of you guys with woods nearby, the nearest bridle ways to me are pretty much all farm tracks, and one is just a gravel lane :( there's a nice one through fields but its over an hour away just to get there. I need to get transport to go play in the woods :D is there tracks or can you go anywhere?
 
I am really lucky: you can go anywhere for miles. It is half an hour's road to get there - but all very quiet and uphill (so feels very good for him) and then it is totally deserted. Just love it.

And just installed that app!
 
That sounds great, I wish there was somewhere like that near me! My hacks are mostly roadwork but I'm lucky (touch wood) that the roads are pretty quiet round here.. I wish there was more off-road though. It's so frustrating, there's miles and miles of footpaths all around here but very few bridleways and they're spread out all over the place.
 
If it wasn't for the woods, it would be like that for me: if I want a very quick hack, it is all roadwork, but I at this time of year, somehow or other, I manage to find the time.

Have just been playing with that app. Is perfect for me! Thanks so much.
 
haha this made me laugh!

I have NO sense of direction. When i moved my cob for winter grazing we went out hacking and after a few mile i got lost. Felt like we were going in circles, in the end my cob got really peeved off as we where out a long time and it was starting to get dark :eek: next thing she got a stomping walk on, i just went with her and she was whipping round all these little lanes in a very fast walk, and next thing i knew we were back on the yard!!
Its a good job the cob knew where she was going!
 
I am also about 30-40 mins from the forest here, can ride for hours and hours and have found myself not quite where I thought I was and facing a good few miles hack home! Sadly there is no one in the village to share it with during the week and my hacking buddy with who I alternate travelling to, has been poorly for ages :( (Get better soooooon, you know who you are!!)
 
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