What ground do you deem suitable for trot/canter - hacking

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Miss_Millie

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I'm curious as to what surfaces others deem suitable for trotting and cantering out hacking, as there seem to be so many varying opinions.

E.g. would you trot or canter on tarmac/over hard surfaces like stoney ground? I know several people who do, but wonder what the concussive force would be like on the joints, even for a barefoot horse.

I'm lucky in that I have a lot of good off road bridleways through fields etc for faster work, so don't need to worry about it.

But am still interested to hear the general consensus from others.
 
I agree it depends very much on the horse. One of mine is a bit like a mountain goat and appears to handle absolutely anything.
The other I think I need to be far more careful with.
I’d never canter on rock hard ground
 
I always cantered and galloped on gravel forestry enclosure tracks on my first pony.

He was sound until the day he was PTS in his 30's.

All the teenagers I used to ride with at the time did. Many of them kept their ponies into adulthood and I can't think of any that had any problems as a result.

My current horse was used for pony round ups a lot in his younger years, regularly going over questionable ground at speed.
 
Jenko109 said:
I always cantered and galloped on gravel forestry enclosure tracks on my first pony.

He was sound until the day he was PTS in his 30's.

All the teenagers I used to ride with at the time did. Many of them kept their ponies into adulthood and I can't think of any that had any problems as a result.

My current horse was used for pony round ups a lot in his younger years, regularlt going over questionable ground at speed.
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Same. My old/first pony went flat out over any old surface. Never tripped stumbled or had a days lameness. He was just amazing.
 
I go over anything and always do first canters on breaker uphill on a lane. Because they never buck on tarmac 🤣

I basically hack out like the 90s child I was/am. But I have only ever had one horse with a soft tissue injury (a suspensory) so I don’t think it can be that bad for them.

I think working in circles in the school is far worse for horses than varied terrain out hacking.
 
Patterdale said:
I go over anything and always do first canters on breaker uphill on a lane. Because they never buck on tarmac 🤣
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Wish you'd told one of mine that...He flipping well did! 🤣

Hard ground affects joints, soft ground is usually worse for soft tissue, so pros and cons to both.
Working on a variety of surfaces will built up strength and resilience.
Push any system too far though and it will fail.
The thing is they're all different and what one horse would be fine with another would be hopping lame over.

My lad is barefoot and if its stoney or gravelly he'll stick to walk, we trot on roads for hoof maintenance. I don't canter if it's rock hard. I usually worry more when we're slithering about on a boggy bit of bridlepath though.
He's an ex flat horse so was used to working on perfectly groomed turf. It took a long time and a lot if pole work and hacking for him to stop falling over slightly longer blades of grass!
 
I trot on tarmac, as long as it’s not the awful slippery stuff they like using now.

I’ll trot or canter on fairly rough ground, not stony but uneven or broken going, I just expect them to watch where their feet are going. And uphill, downhill and round corners if it’s a wide track with a good sight line.

I worked a lot of horses over a lot of miles for years, and the only one who ever broke down did it in an indoor school…
 
No trotting on the road unless traffic hazard. Canter on ground that has had some rain. No cantering during really dry spells unless we have sandy tracks which luckily we do have. Would rather walk than lame the horse.
 
Happy to trot on tarmac, provided the horse is sensible and doesn't "hammer" the road. I wouldn't do it for hours & hours mind. I don't canter in very soft/deep ground or on rock hard ground, but in general I think a variety of terrains is good for a horse so try not to be too precious if possible.

All that said, why are roads getting slippier? That worries me more than the hardness of tarmac.
 
Another who happily trots on roads, but not down hill. Canter where we can as so few opportunities where we are! So, mostly grass verges and the odd stretch of green lane where I know there are no walling stone hidden in the grass. Most of our green lanes have that annoying central groove made by off road trail bikes which make them too dangerous to do anything but walk. I wouldn’t canter on roads.
 
pistolpete said:
No trotting on the road unless traffic hazard. Canter on ground that has had some rain. No cantering during really dry spells unless we have sandy tracks which luckily we do have. Would rather walk than lame the horse.
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This is pretty much the same as me, I will jog them up a hill on the roads though but apart from that I only canter when the ground is good and tbh likewise with trotting but I'll trot up a hill on a bridleway.

We have hacking on the hills that is on old turf so I get my canter work in there and luckily that stays good pretty much all year.

Sometimes I wish I could just trot for miles on the road or be less cautious about the ground as it would make fitness work much easier!
 
Patterdale said:
I go over anything and always do first canters on breaker uphill on a lane. Because they never buck on tarmac 🤣

I basically hack out like the 90s child I was/am. But I have only ever had one horse with a soft tissue injury (a suspensory) so I don’t think it can be that bad for them.

I think working in circles in the school is far worse for horses than varied terrain out hacking.
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All day long!!

I think as long as you don’t grab them unfit from the field/arena only life and go hammer them it can actually be good for them!

I take my lad down our bridle path which has some very soft patches which will shortly be bogs… he canters from start to finish and will as winter progresses just jump them when the become standing water. But I think there is a lot to be said for conditioning legs, building up road work gradually, same with uneven ground, trotting/cantering up down hill. I think some of our modern soft tissue and body work injuries are related to the fact horses don’t really ever get toughened up (in a good way..) by working on less then perfect surfaces? That and we obviously are much better at diagnosing things and less likely to say something is off, throw them in a field for 8 months and start again next year with no vet ever involved, we’ve evolved past kill or cure but maybe lost a bit of oh he’s fit and ready, a bit of a slope/moderately hard/soft will be fine.
 
I try not to do too much trotting etc on tarmac on my normal hacks which are mostly lanes. If we do trot, it's at a steady pace and not for too long. I don't mind gravelly/shaley tracks so much, don't have much access to grass. I do canter on forestry tracks although I go for the ones that are a bit greener/grittier in the middle! I'd be much more concerned about boggy or slippy going than gravelly tracks.

Of course, when i'm out competing at endurance, I absolutely do trot on tarmac/stones and canter on all sorts of trickier terrain, so if I never ever even trotted on a slightly mucky twisty bridleway at home, we'd end up on our faces a lot out competing!

Like all these things, do it in moderation, and at a reasonable pace not a hammering fast trot or gallop.
 
Barefoot I’ll trot on the road fairly happily unless surface appalling or a steep downhill. Would canter the previous horse on it in an emergency or hand canter to catch up out hunting as an alternative to flat out trot… current one would fall flat on his face.

For canter / gallop I’m most concerned about rutted, rock hard ground and personally would only walk on that. I’d also not trot / canter on really stony tracks unless in boots (but on a horse comfortable & used to the terrain I’d have less issues). Ok with grass as long as not a slippery bog and limestone/ similar topped with sand or a decent dirt track that’s not a mud bath.

I was more willing to do stuff on less than perfect ground with the Welsh D as he had at least one extra leg whereas the Highland sometimes feels like he’s missing one! (& isn’t in ridden work anyway)

When I had shod horses I was probably less concerned about stonier ground or about grip on grass if it was a bit wet but was more cautious about what I did on the roads due to lack of grip!
 
Mim could gallop on hot lava and Miri could fall over her feet at a walk on a flat surface.

I generally walk or trot on roads, walk over stoney or uneven hard surfaces, trot or canter in fields where the ground has a bit of give but I don’t worry too much about it being perfectly flat. My fields aren’t, and I am far less brave than either of them are when they are bombing about unsupervised.
 
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Flattish (not rutted, not steeply sloping downhill), no big stones, not next to a fast road, not muddy. Whether we trot or canter on that is mostly up to the horse - their hooves, not mine. If it looks grassy and good I will suggest, they will give final verdict. If I am being boring safety human and they think the going is good, likewise I will get hints. Having walked and run miles with breakers this summer I have a renewed appreciation for the damage uneven ground does to your joints!
 
My horse will tell me which speed he likes on what terrain. If he's happy to go faster, we go faster, if he wants to go slow, we go slow. He's not exactly a fast, forward horse so if he wants to speed up I let him.
 
Flowerofthefen said:
I would never trot or canter on stoney or holding ground. I wouldn't trot or canter on very hard or rutted ground. Basically I would only trot and canter on giving fairly flat ground!!
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Basically this and its weird my horses know the ground I've had mine think for themselves and they know what they they want to do so I do tend to listen to them.
 
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