What do you think?

oldie48

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I may have the opportunity to loan a 13.3 connie from a friend. He's a lovely chap, been a super schoolmaster to a number of children but is looking for a quieter life without jumping although he's still fit and looks fab for his age (early 20's). As you know I am in my 70's, love Rose as a competition horse and happy to hack out round our lanes in company with her, she's not great with big traffic but copes fine in company. she's strong to canter in the open and can have a buck and tbh i don't feel confident enough to use the great hacking we have pretty much on our doorstep to it's full advantage. I'm about 5'4" these days as I've shrunk, weigh 63KG and I'm one of those longer legs shorter torso sort of builds. I used to ride our 13.3 connie and I think I was rather heavier than I am now. When I had two rideable horses at home I had some lovely people who would come and ride out with me who became good friends and I miss that. so what do you think? I'm not too big or heavy for the pony am I? I'm thinking if I can find a more confident/capable rider than I am who could ride Rose then we could hack out together and have some fun. My daughter would have been perfect but sadly those days are long gone but I do miss them.
 

J&S

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If you have the time and space and you are missing your hacking go for it. Do make sure your rider for Rose is really up to scratch though it would be a shame for all the hard work you have put into her to go out the window.
 

oldie48

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If you have the time and space and you are missing your hacking go for it. Do make sure your rider for Rose is really up to scratch though it would be a shame for all the hard work you have put into her to go out the window.
I do miss the hacking and tbh I think Rose would benefit too. She's currently being brought back into work for me and last Friday she was popping down grids and over 90cm as if she's been doing it all her life (which she hasn't) and on Sunday hacking round fields and finding it all quite exciting! Perhaps we both need a bit more fun in our lives but I would need to find the right rider as she can be a bit of a madam when the mood takes her, but can't they all?
 

Mrs. Jingle

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Oh please do go for it! I was in a similar situation to you this time last year, and similar age and all set to retire from riding along with my mare when she had to retire for health reasons. She could be a slightly spooky and somewhat forward quirky ride and the past couple of years with her had dented my confidence somewhat to say the least.

I couldn't imagine I would ever have the confidence to hack out again on an unknown horse so made my mind up that was it, time to hang up my boots. I felt very sad I have to say.

I wont bore you with the details but last July I found myself the rather bewildered and surprised owner of a strapping great 17.2 tank of a horse who did not tick one single box on my vaguely possible type of last horse to keep hacking out. Oh boy- my confidence has soared, I am like a silly child with their first pony. He is safe and steady out on the roads....and doesn't do the Grand National the moment his great big hooves touch the grass.

If you are lucky enough to know of a pony or horse that you are confident will carry you safely and calmly out hacking then please go for it - I like to feel I have a good few years riding left in me now I have found the right horse, and I am sure you have too . ;) Cant wait to see the update and pics!:D
 

oldie48

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Sounds great ?? have you tried him?
No but I know him well and am very good friends with his owner. He's a really lovely pony, got something about him TBH there's always been a queue of children waiting for him to become available and she's always kept him on her own yard so she can ensure he's well looked after but she'd be happy for him to come to me, which is hugely flattering.
 

Clodagh

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Sounds perfect and looking forward to pics.
The one pony I really regret ever parting with was a 13.2 Welsh C who was completely bombproof, not a word I normally use. God I miss her!
 

oldie48

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Oh please do go for it! I was in a similar situation to you this time last year, and similar age and all set to retire from riding along with my mare when she had to retire for health reasons. She could be a slightly spooky and somewhat forward quirky ride and the past couple of years with her had dented my confidence somewhat to say the least.

I couldn't imagine I would ever have the confidence to hack out again on an unknown horse so made my mind up that was it, time to hang up my boots. I felt very sad I have to say.

I wont bore you with the details but last July I found myself the rather bewildered and surprised owner of a strapping great 17.2 tank of a horse who did not tick one single box on my vaguely possible type of last horse to keep hacking out. Oh boy- my confidence has soared, I am like a silly child with their first pony. He is safe and steady out on the roads....and doesn't do the Grand National the moment his great big hooves touch the grass.

If you are lucky enough to know of a pony or horse that you are confident will carry you safely and calmly out hacking then please go for it - I like to feel I have a good few years riding left in me now I have found the right horse, and I am sure you have too . ;) Cant wait to see the update and pics!:D
Thank you , that is so kind. I am so pleased that you found the one. If this Pandemic has taught me anything, it's that life is so unpredictable I just ought to go out and do what I want to do. I love riding Rose, she is awesome and I can't wait to have her home but I walk Stanley across fields that I could be cantering a horse on but Rose isn't going to be that horse and I think this pony would be.
 

Skib

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If you love to hack take the opportunity while you can. I am 80. I learned to ride in order to hack. I love to hack and am missing it terribly while shut down in the pandemic.
However to quote your misgivings -
she's strong to canter in the open and can have a buck and tbh i don't feel confident enough to use the great hacking we have pretty much on our doorstep to it's full advantage.

If this excitement is in company, is the problem with chasing the other horse? With cantering first or cantering second? I had a bad fall cantering second on a horse that hated not to lead in canter and it is not a problem I have solved. I now either hack solo or with a lovely young woman who always allows me to canter first.
However from the days when I rode many often lively RS horses and ponies, one can teach the horses to canter calmly out hacking by riding many transitions canter to trot .I used to alternate 20 paces of each till my darling horse caught on and I had to vary the counting. I also ask the horse to canter just six strides so it understands that the cue for canter does not signify a horse race. Once I get to know a horse, it is good too to alternate sitting canter and forward seat - and the same in trot, rising, sitting and forward seat. So the horse does not assciate one lifting one's seat with a cue to go faster or transition.
I was taught to do all these exercises because I learned to ride as an adult and much of my learning was out hacking.
All the compliance one achieves in the dressage school, is designed to make the horse biddable out hacking. Last autumn on a new horse I accidentally discovered what "proper"H&H riders probably know already: that the pace preceding the transition can have a big affect on the sort of canter one gets and the amount of excitement.

My companion suggested that if the mare felt calm, I could try a canter? I guess she was so calm in the trot that when I asked for canter, the mare seemed entirely doubtful. But I told her that if a horse can go from halt to canter, she could certainly manage it and after considering it, she transitioned to what my companion says was a beautiful regular dressage canter.
I am the same size and about the same age as you and it is really up to us to see that the horses we hack behave as we want them to out hacking. If you cant convert this horse into the sort of hack you enjoy riding, then dont ride it. I was forced by my RS to hack a horse I thought unwise and it did not end well.
On my old long term favourite the yard girls who took me hacking would sometimes astonish me by asking me to go from halt to canter on her. She was a Connie. She would do that for me. But the ISHs I have shared - I dont think they would. The horses have their own ideas about canter - what they have been trained to do and what other people have asked of them in the past. I am old and slow and I relax the horse and she dawdles out of the yard as if we have got all day. I was told she bucked with other peple when excited. But she has not yet been excited with me. So the canter she eventually gives me is going to be very different from when she is ridden out by a young rider at dawn to go for a brisk spin to reduce her energy levels.
And I think that the calmness that we older people give to the horses out hacking, does make a difference. The worst was when my companion's horse spooked and set off for the horizon. My mare spun too but didnt follow far because I turned her to graze. People think one cant ride because the horse ambles along and one has no outline or position and it is all so easy. But if you want a safe easy hack, it is an effective solution. Ridel ike an old lady and the horse will oblige.
If you have great hacking go out and enjoy it - go the whole hack in walk if need be. Survey the landscape as it it were your private estate. I am deeply envious in prison here.
 

Carrottom

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Definitely go and try the pony, it sounds like you don't have to make a snap decision but you won't know if you try ? He sounds perfect.
 

oldie48

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If you love to hack take the opportunity while you can. I am 80. I learned to ride in order to hack. I love to hack and am missing it terribly while shut down in the pandemic.
However to quote your misgivings -


If this excitement is in company, is the problem with chasing the other horse? With cantering first or cantering second? I had a bad fall cantering second on a horse that hated not to lead in canter and it is not a problem I have solved. I now either hack solo or with a lovely young woman who always allows me to canter first.
However from the days when I rode many often lively RS horses and ponies, one can teach the horses to canter calmly out hacking by riding many transitions canter to trot .I used to alternate 20 paces of each till my darling horse caught on and I had to vary the counting. I also ask the horse to canter just six strides so it understands that the cue for canter does not signify a horse race. Once I get to know a horse, it is good too to alternate sitting canter and forward seat - and the same in trot, rising, sitting and forward seat. So the horse does not assciate one lifting one's seat with a cue to go faster or transition.
I was taught to do all these exercises because I learned to ride as an adult and much of my learning was out hacking.
All the compliance one achieves in the dressage school, is designed to make the horse biddable out hacking. Last autumn on a new horse I accidentally discovered what "proper"H&H riders probably know already: that the pace preceding the transition can have a big affect on the sort of canter one gets and the amount of excitement.

My companion suggested that if the mare felt calm, I could try a canter? I guess she was so calm in the trot that when I asked for canter, the mare seemed entirely doubtful. But I told her that if a horse can go from halt to canter, she could certainly manage it and after considering it, she transitioned to what my companion says was a beautiful regular dressage canter.
I am the same size and about the same age as you and it is really up to us to see that the horses we hack behave as we want them to out hacking. If you cant convert this horse into the sort of hack you enjoy riding, then dont ride it. I was forced by my RS to hack a horse I thought unwise and it did not end well.
On my old long term favourite the yard girls who took me hacking would sometimes astonish me by asking me to go from halt to canter on her. She was a Connie. She would do that for me. But the ISHs I have shared - I dont think they would. The horses have their own ideas about canter - what they have been trained to do and what other people have asked of them in the past. I am old and slow and I relax the horse and she dawdles out of the yard as if we have got all day. I was told she bucked with other peple when excited. But she has not yet been excited with me. So the canter she eventually gives me is going to be very different from when she is ridden out by a young rider at dawn to go for a brisk spin to reduce her energy levels.
And I think that the calmness that we older people give to the horses out hacking, does make a difference. The worst was when my companion's horse spooked and set off for the horizon. My mare spun too but didnt follow far because I turned her to graze. People think one cant ride because the horse ambles along and one has no outline or position and it is all so easy. But if you want a safe easy hack, it is an effective solution. Ridel ike an old lady and the horse will oblige.
If you have great hacking go out and enjoy it - go the whole hack in walk if need be. Survey the landscape as it it were your private estate. I am deeply envious in prison here.
what a shame you live so far away, you'd be most welcome to ride Rose out for me to show me how to do it. We do have glorious hacking here, Castlemorton common and up on the Malvern Hills, but it is very open and all our horses have found it rather exciting even though they have all been very reliable to hack generally. I used to love riding my little TB there, he was a little pocket rocket but he'd never buck and as long as he was in front, I had brakes! These days, however, I'd prefer to have to kick on a bit.
 

oldie48

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Going to try him tomorrow but think adult daughter wants him to stay on their yard to teach another pc child the ropes, so not holding out much hope. However, as OH didn't have a fit when I said I'd like another horse even if this doesn't work out, I will keep looking for something suitable. Interestingly I went to a socially distanced outdoor pilates class today and rider friend announced she has just bought a 14.2 cob to ride alongside her 16.2 WB dressage horse. Reason being she wants to hack out without having to worry too much. It must be something in the air or has this pandemic made us realise that life can be too short!
 

Nari

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I hope you can get him if you like him, he sounds perfect for what you want. As you and others have said if you could find a suitable rider for Rose it would be ideal, and if they wanted to compete you could be the proud owner :)
 

Skib

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what a shame you live so far away, you'd be most welcome to ride Rose out for me to show me how to do it. We do have glorious hacking here, Castlemorton common and up on the Malvern Hills, but it is very open an

I think that you know the answer to that. That I cant show you how to ride your horse. And in particular because with horses, nothing is instant. Building the communication takes time. MY RI said that when I hacked her horse, I schooled it. I dont know what schooling means. Every time I hack, I check everything all the time because I need to feel safe.
I learned to drive a car years before I learned to ride. And Richard Maxwell describes horse riding on public land in much the same way as driving a car. You dont do it without brakes.

I started sharing a new horse last July. I did almost all of my first long solo hack on her almost entirely in walk. Are you sure you couldnt walk your horse along the most exciting stretches? I dont mean every time. But just for once?

One RI could not believe I had walked the whole length of the longest fastest canter track. I did it because (as I explained) two RS horses were ahead of us and sped away like greased lightening. I hung back because I wanted to be sure she wouldnt chase after them.
But O wow, I would love to visit you and hack. I grew up in a house with a painting of the Malvern hills on the landing but I have never seen them.
 
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