Snobbery in the horse world and happy hackers.

hayleyshep88 said:
Yeah interesting! I'm sorry if I'm hogging this post, lol, but it's a topic that I often think about. I wonder that when I get older and maybe lose my competitive streak, that I won't want to bother with horses? As I don't get that much pleasure from hacking, does that make me an awful, not proper horse lover? :( could do with some fellow competitives to help me out here ;P
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Having not been able to go near horses for 35 years, to me it's just a joy to be in their company again. I love to ride, but I'd still be among horses even if I wasn't able to ride. The horses are the thing for me.

If that's not so for you, it's not "awful", we're just different. Maybe you'll always compete, or maybe you'll find your love of horses takes a change of direction: possibly hacking!!

As for "not a proper horse lover"... so are we even competing about who's top horse lover now? ;):rolleyes: :D:D
 
Walk tall and man up if you want to have a lovely time hacking out. And if you're out to compete, fabulous, too. Just enjoy what you're doing! Zen person leaving now....
 
I'm neither a happy hacker, or a competitive rider. I would call myself a happy schooler. I did my BHSII, then trained on the continent to satisfy my urges to ride proper dressage. I can ride the advanced movements, and get a good tune out of most horses on the flat, I love teaching, and get more satisfaction out of watching my clients do well in competition than I ever did competing myself. I'm just not interested in going to parties - never have been. I've done it in the past, but only because other people wanted me to.
 
If you are not competitive then, like you say, would you want to school and progress in your riding, if you aren't aiming for competition? Would you do it for pleasure?
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well I do ;) There is a pleasure gained from improving just for its own sake, you can see, or rather more importantly feel, it yourself. Of course it is nice to get feedback on how things look too .... but to me its the feel. Sometimes people cannot actually see what it is you are aiming for ..... that lightness, that softness that is hardly discernable to onlookers unless they are knowledgable and looking for it ;).

The up side for me is that I can then take it at our pace... not a pace driven by deadlines for events ...... or the skills we chose to work on being dictated by say a dressage test / level.

and we take breaks as and when we need / want not when a season begins /ends.



I dont know whether my attitide is because I used to be a competitive swimmer and I know first hand the sacrifices, dedication, time, money and energy it takes to get to even reasonable level of competition in any discipline. I was also quite active in may sports ion my younger days..... so maybe I jsut wanna chill now:D
 
I think hayleyshep88 overlooks one thing. There are plenty of 'competition ' riders who are pretty good rubbish and who I wouldn't let within a mile of my horses.

I've had a very long life with horses. I hunted for years, have done ODE, LDR, ridden polo ponies, brought badly ridden (sorry but yes) jaded, spoilt ompetition horses back into being decent horses. But some of my best times have been hacking, and they still are. Hacking is not sitting grimly clutching the pommel and following another horse round the local lane. It's exploring, jumping, wading, galloping, picnicking, riding in the sea, scrambling up and down crags, crossing bogs.

At which points one or two of my 'competition' friends over the years have suddenly remembered they have to go home and put the washing out! They're fine within the perameters of their sport, but pretty useless outside it. And I hope none of them recognise themselves...
 
Well I imagine even the happy hackers look down on me. I'm just a lazy cow so bring it on.

My old boy has carried me around for 30 years and still does if I can be bothered. My daughters semi retired show cob will do the same. Neither of them give a dam whether we do anything or not and neither do I.

I even got on my daughters warmblood once (didn't stay on long as it was far too stressful) but I proved I could climb up there still.


I love grooming for my daughter when she competes, I love all the chalk and polish and having the cleanest horse in the ring.
 
Thank you Auslander I did not know what I was but thats me a happy schooler I only go to competions to Jusify going for training.
 
:D


hayleyshep88 said:
I'm sorry, I think I fall into the 'snobbery' section. :D Many happy hackers I'm afraid IMHO aren't the best riders, some may be but if all you do is hack, in my book that means you can't ride a horse in terms of getting a performance from it. If that makes sense. Competitive riders hone their position, their aids etc etc. Happy hackers wouldn't do this correct?

I suppose it depends on what your definition of a good rider is... Some one who sits on a horse and walks around can sit on a horse, it does not mean they can ride. I could put my non horsey OH on a horse for a hack, does not mean he can ride!
If said horse starts pratting about (on a hack) and the rider can control it, not lose balance, get back in control quickly, sit to spooks etc, then yes they may be a good rider.
Having said that, I don't think there is anything wrong with happy hackers, whatever makes you happy! Just don't pretend you know everything about higher standards of riding, schooling etc
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Love this post. ^^

I guess I would be classified as a happy hacker then :)
I stuck to mooching about on pretty ponies every weekend with a gang of friends.

I will freely admit that I know little and care less about higher standards of riding and schooling.
I don't want to if I am to be honest, I am not interested, it bores me rigid, always has, always will, I leave that to the people who actually enjoy it. :)

I am always in awe of people who work towards, and achieve, their own personal goals :D
 
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Surely it's about riding to the best of your ability, whether your interest is competing or hacking or both. I hate watching riders allowing their animal to "slop" along, if you took the trouble to groom it and tack it up, make it stride out a bit!
 
Millikins said:
Surely it's about riding to the best of your ability, whether your interest is competing or hacking or both. I hate watching riders allowing their animal to "slop" along, if you took the trouble to groom it and tack it up, make it stride out a bit!
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Aha, I never said that I slopped, I said schooling bored me senseless ;) I still classify myself as a happy hacker.
This is the kind of mooching I like, and if you've ever read Molly's book "In the Pink" you'll know this horse, and, No, I never did make fridge magnets, that was poetic license :D She really wanted the mince pies just out of shot.

11155_1273770879907_1098984636_30876150_5932092_n.jpg
 
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Years ago when me and my cob was in our prime. I would do alot of showjumping on him everyone would look down on us but he has a huge jump top of the wings jump. And look at disgust at us when we beat them. I only did it for fun didnt care win lose who cares many a time travelled to a show and he wasnt in the mood so put him back in the box without jumping a pole. My friends used to say give him a good hiding make him jump my answer was if he dont want to i wasnt going to make him. I never gave him a hard time about it. My other horses events my tb showjumps but never to win just for fun.
 
What dianeholmes said. I know countless "competitive" riders who won't take their horses off the yard. Traffic no excuse here either . Toll rides, hundreds of acres of woodland etc. They just want to stay in the confines of their arena.

Completely fine by me but utter nonsense to suggest hackers can't really ride or don't bother refining their position.

Oh and I hack and compete btw!
 
Hacking is not sitting grimly clutching the pommel and following another horse round the local lane. It's exploring, jumping, wading, galloping, picnicking, riding in the sea, scrambling up and down crags, crossing bogs.
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Absolutely :)
 
I find all this very amusing! In my opinion, people will only ever be as judgemental as one let's them be... But maybe I am just ignorant / couldn't really give a monkey what everybody says. Both my horses compete successfully with mr and the sharers and both enjoy a decent hack or a holiday on the beach. They both go alone or in the group, on the road and even in London. It has all been part of their education ...
I keep horses for pleasure and enjoyment and have no intention to let anybody spoil that ( not that anyone has tried :-)
 
hayleyshep88 said:
I'm sorry, I think I fall into the 'snobbery' section. :D Many happy hackers I'm afraid IMHO aren't the best riders, some may be but if all you do is hack, in my book that means you can't ride a horse in terms of getting a performance from it. If that makes sense. Competitive riders hone their position, their aids etc etc. Happy hackers wouldn't do this correct?

I suppose it depends on what your definition of a good rider is... Some one who sits on a horse and walks around can sit on a horse, it does not mean they can ride. I could put my non horsey OH on a horse for a hack, does not mean he can ride!
If said horse starts pratting about (on a hack) and the rider can control it, not lose balance, get back in control quickly, sit to spooks etc, then yes they may be a good rider.
Having said that, I don't think there is anything wrong with happy hackers, whatever makes you happy! Just don't pretend you know everything about higher standards of riding, schooling etc
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Oh dear :rolleyes:

So those of us who have competed to reasonable levels or above, who (for whatever reason) are hacking out, do not allegedly have sufficient skills?

Thanks for the sweeping statement, it does no help to anyone in the horseworld to be honest for you to come out with this.

I know I'm not in a minority round my neck of the woods in actually enjoying riding a horse outside a school - having ridden, trained and schooled to quite a high level previously - perhaps you might think a little more and refresh your opinion?
 
hayleyshep88 said:
I'm sorry, I think I fall into the 'snobbery' section. :D Many happy hackers I'm afraid IMHO aren't the best riders, some may be but if all you do is hack, in my book that means you can't ride a horse in terms of getting a performance from it. If that makes sense. Competitive riders hone their position, their aids etc etc. Happy hackers wouldn't do this correct?

I suppose it depends on what your definition of a good rider is... Some one who sits on a horse and walks around can sit on a horse, it does not mean they can ride. I could put my non horsey OH on a horse for a hack, does not mean he can ride!
If said horse starts pratting about (on a hack) and the rider can control it, not lose balance, get back in control quickly, sit to spooks etc, then yes they may be a good rider.
Having said that, I don't think there is anything wrong with happy hackers, whatever makes you happy! Just don't pretend you know everything about higher standards of riding, schooling etc
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What rot.

I compete AND class myself as a 'happy hacker'.

You do NOT know what they have done in their past, I know many older riders who no longer compete and could knock socks off the younger generation with their horsemanship skills.
 
Millikins said:
Surely it's about riding to the best of your ability, whether your interest is competing or hacking or both. I hate watching riders allowing their animal to "slop" along, if you took the trouble to groom it and tack it up, make it stride out a bit!
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Who cares if a rider wants their horse to 'amble on'? As long as all are enjoying themselves, what the hell does it matter?

what the heck has it got to do with anyone else?

These threads enrage me...

Keep your nose out of other peoples business!

Grrr......
 
I am a happy hacker and proud.;)

Does that mean I don't ride to the best of my ability? No

Does it mean I can't ride to a high level if I wanted to? No.

Every time I hack out I can be faced with a variety of 'obstacles' - rivers to ford, bridges to cross, heavy traffic to deal with, logs to jump, gates to open, steep gradients to deal with, not to mention spooky objects etc.

Because of this I have a deep bond with my horse, any schooling is a mean to an ends of an obedient horse out hacking, but my horse is light, responisve and quite capable of shoulder in, half pass etc. I don't jump great heights like I did in the past, but enough to get me out of trouble if I needed to.

Because I'm not on a timescale like many competitors and have no incentive to reach the top, I can school at a pace that suits both of us while out hacking, no gadgets or shortcuts needed which I've often seen in competetive riders.

Just because someone doesn't compete doesn't make them a good or bad rider, there are both in competition and out hacking.

As dragonslayer has said, even if a happy hacker wants to 'slop along', it is nobody eles's business and as long as both horse and rider are happy then that is what matters, not how many rosettes are pinned on the wall at home.:)
 
I've never come across snobbery, yes competiveness but when you are competing it's natural that you want to win.
I've ridden past a few riders with their noses stuck in the air but never on a yard.
 
perhaps it is the younger riders who feel the need to compare themselves to eachother and have ideas about what or whom is better:)
At the grand old age of 40 i have to admit i no longer give 2 hoots about peoples opinion of me and what i do with my horses, as long as i'm happy and the horses are happy and well looked after then what does it matter to anyone else:confused: my horses at the end of the day that i pay for ;)
 
I think it's a silly thing to get offended at....no more derogatory than Dressage 'Diva' or other terms used in life in a light hearted way?

I use it, but certainly not meaning it in a snobbish way. I often say I'm off out happy hacking! Just the same as if I'm going to school I same I'm going to do some 'poncing in circles' or at certain times of year we go 'stubble bashing' or if I'm attempting some jumping/pole work, I say we're going to go and 'trip over some sticks'!! (and not because we can't do it, maybe I'm just an odd person!?)
 
Hmmm - I find tooling around an arena unbelievably boring to be honest. I like getting out and about, and seeing what there is to see out there. Does that mean I don't bother about how I ride, or just slop about? No... I still like to ride to the best of my ability, I just don't like doing so in little circles with a fence all the way around me.

As to 'not pretending to know all about higher standards of riding', well that's a rather large assumption to make about someone's background and past experience... and we all know what assume makes... yep, and ass of u and me. But mostly u, the one doing the assuming. ;)
 
I'm not snobby about happy hackers, but I do feel riders who mong about in the middle of the road, not thanking drivers, not controlling their horses are dangerous and give all riders a bad name among the public.
I'm not a fan of hacking, I do it to keep the horses fit for hunting and competition, so I really don't see the attraction.
 
hayleyshep88 said:
If you are not competitive then, like you say, would you want to school and progress in your riding, if you aren't aiming for competition? Would you do it for pleasure? Im a terrible perfectionist, so can't imagine not wanting to improve my riding! :D
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It doesn't have to be a competition though. I've got a mare who's fab out hacking but green in the school and a gelding who's "challenging". So my motivation us to improve my riding to also bring on my horses. I have regular lessons but most of what i do is hack - but I do work on my position while out hacking and also school (to some extent).

I don't feel the need to compete. I have done it and I've enjoyed it but tbh I just find it stressful. I do plan to take my mare out to do some local RC dressage next year but more for fun and to see how she reacts more than to try and win any rosettes.

I'm on cloud nine at the moment as I can now touch my gelding on the shoulder with a carrier bag and my mare is beginning to understand leg yield!! Each to their own.
 
Enfys said:
Aha, I never said that I slopped, I said schooling bored me senseless ;) I still classify myself as a happy hacker.
This is the kind of mooching I like, and if you've ever read Molly's book "In the Pink" you'll know this horse, and, No, I never did make fridge magnets, that was poetic license :D She really wanted the mince pies just out of shot.

11155_1273770879907_1098984636_30876150_5932092_n.jpg
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:eek: Is that Ari!? I loved that book, loved the sound of Ari too!:D

*Plans to reread book this evening to see if she is right*
 
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