Trying out horses hacking

debsflo

debsflo

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Silly question maybe but am viewing a horse and will see it ridden before i try it out .I want to try a potential horse in all situations inc hacking alone and with others ,would you always ask to see it ridden by others first in traffic.?
 
I am in the process of buying at the moment and they offered for me to take the horse out on the roads alone, with owner walking next to me. I let the owner ride the horse in the field and jump, I then rode and hacked on roads.

They're the most lovely people, because since then they let me take the horse cubbing and bringing her over to my yard to ride too!
 
debsflo said:
Silly question maybe but am viewing a horse and will see it ridden before i try it out .I want to try a potential horse in all situations inc hacking alone and with others ,would you always ask to see it ridden by others first in traffic.?
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Absolutely.

Follow it in a car and if you are happy with what you see you can then ride it yourself.
 
I don't think I have ever been asked to take a horse out on the road before the viewer, obviously they have seen it ridden in the arena, ridden it themselves in the arena and maybe the fields, then usually I wander down the drive with them and they go off down the road for a short ride, if they are lucky they will meet some traffic but it may only be a car or two although we do meet most things on a daily basis the roads are quiet and sometimes you see nothing for 10 mins, if they were waiting to see how it reacted with me the trial could end up being very long and rather tedious for all involved.
If they want to ride in company or go for a proper hack then I expect them to arrange for a second viewing rather than try and cram it all into one day, selling horses is extremely time consuming and I would rather the buyer felt committed enough to travel a second time having slept on it than either rush to buy or try and do too much in one go and pull out because they feel they have not had a full enough try for some reason, it can be difficult to fit in everything.
 
PeterNatt said:
I like to see it being ridden out by itself on a busy road.
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What if there are no busy roads, the lanes near me are generally quiet, we meet farm traffic, milk tankers plus the normal cars, vans and bikes but it is intermittent and at weekends the roads can be very quiet, yesterday we met about 8 tractors pulling huge silage trailers plus various other vehicles, tomorrow we may meet just a few cars, the nearest busy road is an A road which is not suitable for riding along, although we do cross it occasionally I would not want someone I do not know taking my horse on it however good the horse.
 
No first viewing is on the flat and to check we are interested. I would want to go back a second time but hacking is really important to me and have made a mistake before when horse turned out to be a nightmare in traffic so won't do again. I have already preempted that. I know it's time consuming for sellers but I will be spending a good chunk of money on a horse so needs to be suitable.....just wasn't sure best way as am not taking their word it's good to hack.
 
I think if you want a horse for a particular job, then you must see it doing that job. Whether you could ask the sellers about taking it out on the road rather depends on how much time they/you have,and where they are situated. I would expect the owner would want to ride it on the road first.

It is difficult when the sellers say "oh he is very good in traffic" when they live in the middle of nowhere and just go hacking down lanes, whereas the buyer might have to negotiate some busier roads.
 
Before I bought my horse I watched him ridden in the school, then I rode him in the school, the seller took him down the lane without company to show he was happy to leave the yard etc.
I arranged to go back the following weekend and asked if I could brush him off and tack him up (to see what he was like in the stable) I then hacked him out accompanied by the seller on another horse. The roads were busy, we saw a lot of traffic. The horse was good as gold he had one big spook & the seller said "that's all he does if you can live with that you will be fine" I have had him 3 years, love him x
 
debsflo said:
No first viewing is on the flat and to check we are interested. I would want to go back a second time but hacking is really important to me and have made a mistake before when horse turned out to be a nightmare in traffic so won't do again. I have already preempted that. I know it's time consuming for sellers but I will be spending a good chunk of money on a horse so needs to be suitable.....just wasn't sure best way as am not taking their word it's good to hack.
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If you are planning on a second view to hack then it may be best to just ask the owner to get back on and go a short way down the road to show you it is ok in traffic even if they only meet a single car it will give you an idea of how it reacts, if the lanes are really quiet you could go past it in yours to test it, I agree you cannot take their word as gospel and need to go back to have a decent hack if you like what you see on the first visit.
I think the second time you actually get a better idea of what the horse is really like, unless there is a good reason I never ride on the second visit, I like the potential buyer to tack it up, get straight on and do what they want, within reason! they then have the chance to sit on it without it having been warmed up/ settled down and can get a good feel of how it will be if and when they take it home.
 
I think hacking is one of the hardest things to try when viewing. I took my (then) prospective horse for a short hack in walk & trot through fields & on the road which including negotiating a narrow set of barriers then through a wooded track. I had the seller walk a good bit back from me to make sure the horse wasn't influenced by her presence! I hadn't watched her being ridden on the road but was satisfied with initial trial In arena that she was safe & well schooled.
 
Prior to viewing a horse I tend to ask a lot of questions on the phone including how good the horse is in traffic.
The last horse I bought I arranged a viewing and saw them riding the horse before riding it myself around their manage and fields.
I then asked to see it ridden on the roads (luckily they had a very busy road outside the yard with a nice motorway bridge going over the road).
I would not purchase a horse that was not quiet in the heaviest of traffic as I want to be able to hack my horse on the roads.
 
When I bought my horse I took him out by himself after trying him in the school. He hadn't been hacked by himself before so I wanted to see how he reacted. He pottered along steadily and walked past the farm entrance on the way back, no napping. The farm was at least 2 miles down a dead end so I knew that he hadn't seen much traffic so I took a risk on that which has turned out fine.
 
As hacking is my discipline then I would absolutely expect to take a horse out on a hack before I considered buying it. It would be pointless my riding it in a school as I never do and have no intention of starting. I took my current horse for a bomb round the New Forest before I bought - I needed to know she would be good for bombing around Salisbury Plain.
 
My last horse buying experience is a distant memory and we only went to see 2 anyway...but I do remember that I got on one horse in the school briefly before taking it out hacking with several other riders in heavy traffic (even went over a motorway bridge), and the other one I got on and we went straight out on the roads as there was no school. I was 11 :eek:. Nowadays I think I'd be more cautious!
 
I'm another happy hacker, and neither me nor Neds (oh the shame of it) never see the inside of a school. So for me, any horse I buy would have to be 101% OK in both traffic AND solo hacking.

This is quite a big ask IME; a lot of horses will hack OK in a group, but solo hacking seems to be a huge issue for a lot of horses. But I certainly wouldn't buy anything that hasn't hacked on its own before and was nappy, or wasn't safe in traffic.
 
I only wanted to hack mine so I took him straight out on the roads. Not something I'd usually do but yes they offered to walk on foot or to come with me on another horse which is what we did.
 
PeterNatt said:
I like to see it being ridden out by itself on a busy road.
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Yes, me too!

When the vendor took her out onto the nearby very busy A road and she totally ignored the motorbike, double-decker bus and the empty sheep transporter that rattled past her, as well as the many cars, I knew that she was the one for me.
 
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The last one i bought was advertised as 100% in traffic. The yard was fairly remote and no real traffic. I asked where they hack out and was told they go up the lane, turn round and come back. I had to insist we find a busy road so I could try the horse.

I did buy the horse and for months she would hack for 40 minutes and then stop and try to turn around. Not actually nappy but she calculated how long she had been walking for and decided that was enough !

Teaching horses to be good in traffic takes time and skill. I would love to be able to hack traffic free.
 
I was very lucky with my last purchase, the vendor was fabulous. She tacked up two horses for her and my friend, gave me the tack for my "potential" horse whom i readied myself and we all set off for an hours long hack. I was lead, middle and rear, left behind and hacked out in front. Chased by a stallion, over taken by cars lorries and farm vehicles, went for a gallop up the stubble fields - then had a pheasant leap out at us. He never batted an eye lid. Schooled him afterwards - Needless to say he is mine now!
 
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