Why is it so hard to find a horse that is safe hacking alone?

Faracat said:
ticker said:
You have to take the individual horse and the circumstances into account. Where I used to hack (main roads lorries giving you 2 inches birth etc...) it was far safer to pop off and lead my mare past a scary object. It never made her more nappy as she would then not spook at the same thing next time.
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So that means each time your horse meets an object it finds too scary to go past, you have to dismount and lead them past it? In what way is that successful? Sorry, but I wouldn't put up with that behaviour in a horse out hacking, and I would find it dangerous on a road that I would have to dismount and hang onto a horse while traffic went past. The horse should go forwards when you ask it to when ridden. I can understand if something exceptionally frightening happened, but normal objects you meet out hacking every day? I wouldn't find that acceptable, unless your horse's behaviour is so bad that you think you will fall off and lose control if you persist in asking them to forwards. In which case, I still don't find that acceptable behaviour out hacking.
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Thankyou for all the replies. I just can't understand it really as when I was a child I don't remember having difficulties hacking alone and have many friends with horses that are lovely to hack on their own. My old horse was also a star on his own so didn't expect it to be soooo difficult :(
 
Just to add I'm an experienced adult rider have had horses all my life and have competed to a fairly high level and brought on youngsters from scratch,just since having children I'm not as gun ho as I use to be and just want to enjoy plodding about with the odd pleasure ride or sj clinic. I'm not bothered what the horse looks like, or it's age or breed just want something fairly sensible.
 
I was reminded of an older lady at a yard with a tb x cob.He was a very genuine, sensible all rounder, but he had switched off to the leg as she kicked him in the guts every step then after a couple of years wondered why he wouldn't increase speed (he didn't dawdle but he was half cob so wouldn't keep up easily in walk with my arab, or the other ladies tb's). In the end she decided to sell him (to the local riding school - that's how sensible he was) for something 'more forward going but more sensible'. To my knowledge she never found another horse. If she had tried anything forward going & booted them every step like she did that lad (only about 8 years old) I suspect she would have had some less than pleasent experiences.

Bought my girl, she'd had 2 weeks backing, aged 4. Introduced her carefully to traffic, she's not bombproof, never rears bucks or spins so that's pretty near (will admit to jogging when excited) but if there is something scary coming she'll deal with it without messing, & she's a hot arab. Her daughter has had road education from a yearling, being led out down the lane in hand, & will seriously commence her ridden road work schooling next spring. They need schooling to cope, as much as they need any other schooling. She isn't a hacking horse, but I expect her to be good on roads as she will have to cope with anything being bred for endurance. Number of times I've given leads to other people on cold bloods past scary things, over wooden bridges etc.

Consider a horse who may need time put into schooling for roads, & pay someone suitable to do it if you aren't wanting to take the risk (roads hurt when you hit them, bit hard). Just because they haven't been taught doesn't mean they can't learn. Maybe the current owner is afraid to hack alone & uses the horse as an excuse.
 
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I suppose that's your answer, OP, as an experienced rider, find yourself something with a sensible temp and bring it on as a hack yourself. Good hacks are made by confident riders who insist that the horse just gets on with it.
 
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Completely agree that it is the rider who makes it. My TB hacks beautifully alone, will be looky at scary things like give way lines or cows next to the road, but is generally very steady and is IMPECCABLE in traffic. When I first got him? He dumped me in a field IN COMPANY because he wanted to go back to the barn. He soon learned that when I said we went away from the barn, we went away from the barn... and returned at MY PACE. He looked a little at bikes, motorbikes, lorries etc to start with but because I didn't react when they passed, and always topped him, turned him and let him look he soon realised that this was fine, and now will continue walking on a long rein when a fleet of racing bikes whizzes past us from behind, motorbikes, tractors with trailers, snowplows, the knacker lorry etc all go past... he's a star.

Now, I'd say I trust him more out hacking than I do in the school...
 
Mithras said:
So that means each time your horse meets an object it finds too scary to go past, you have to dismount and lead them past it? In what way is that successful? Sorry, but I wouldn't put up with that behaviour in a horse out hacking, and I would find it dangerous on a road that I would have to dismount and hang onto a horse while traffic went past. The horse should go forwards when you ask it to when ridden. I can understand if something exceptionally frightening happened, but normal objects you meet out hacking every day? I wouldn't find that acceptable, unless your horse's behaviour is so bad that you think you will fall off and lose control if you persist in asking them to forwards. In which case, I still don't find that acceptable behaviour out hacking.
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No - I had to do it about half a dozen times in 7 years! Yes, it was successful because each of those dismounts was with a different thing and the object could then be ridden past after that. I have met full size steam engines out hacking (narrow lane too) and not needed to dismount - so the horse isn't a disaster. In fact she's ace in traffic and it's other stuff like fly dumped fridges that weren't there yesterday, burnt out cars (still smoking) and alpacas spitting at her that she doesn't like. It was the traffic that made discretion the better part of valour in the situations I was in. I would dismount again if the situation arose. :)

Why would the fact that I chose to dismount in certain situations make me incapable, the horse untrained or her behaviour unacceptable? You are assuming a lot without knowing very much about these individual circumstances.
 
I have got all my horses used to being ridden alone through Central London weekday traffic. They willl stand still at traffic lights and Zebra crossings with double decker buses or articulated lorries around and behind them. They won't flinch at emergency service vehicles and won't spook at almost anything. This is all based on being ridden nearly every day for the first few years I have owned them. There is no doubt in my mind that the temprement of the horse is important. It needs to be laid back and chilled out in all situations and not have had it's mind blown by previous owners or breeders. On the other hand you need to spend the first three years bonding with a new horse and riding it as much as possible. Unfortunately the vast majority of todays young horses are not exposed to traffic etc. at a young age and this is why probably only 1 in every hundred will happily hack out by itself and remain calm and controllable in all situations.
These safe happy hackers are out there but you need to look past a horses appearance and look at the temprement of the horse. When you look at a possible purchase always ask the owner to ride it out along a nice busy road and you will soon be able to determine how laid back and hackable it is. Then it is your turn to have a go and see how it reacts with a different rider on board (always most intersting).
I wish you good luck with your search (put some wanted adverts up in your local feed mechants and tack shops and mention your requirements to your farrier, vet, instructor and friends.
 
Hi Sparky I have PM'd you

I think people just don't bother anymore if a horse doesn't like it
I school one that is a ratbag to hack alone so I always do. Owner only hacks in company, so don't know why I bother
 
It is hard, when looking for a good hack I found that 4 out of 5 adverts the horses "would not hack alone."

Luckily mine has never, ever even thought about napping, from the very time that he was backed and taken out for his first wobbly hacks. I think he was always so nosey he wanted to see what was round the next corner.

I think it is harder to find a good hack now. So many horses have their education in an arena, and aren't taken out and about so much, often due to heavy traffic and lack of good hacking.
 
Agree OrangePepper.
At a viewing I asked the rider if the mare hacked out alone. He promptly took the fully clipped competition horse out onto the road in freezing, driving sleet. Trotted briskly down a main road, round a roundabout with haulage lorries zipping past and the mare returned to the yard with a look that said, What else do you want to see ?

With a work ethic like that, I snapped her up.
 
Just I case anyone in the southwest has the saint of horse I'm looking for please feel free to pm me.anything considered between 15hh and 16hh :)
 
It's difficult because this is pretty much what everybody who doesn't want a competition horse wants. It may not sound like much to ask but great happy hackers that will also be a nice a good allrounder a pretty much like gold dust.
 
Don't discount a younger horse that hasn't done much if you are confident and steady hacking out yourself. As long as it has the trainable attitude and temperament you will have your horse in no time.

All ours go out happily alone, and that includes daughter's 12hh pony, yes she can ride down the main road (60mph limit) and know she won't spook, spin or bolt etc, and we bought her as an unbroken 3 year old. But we did a lot of long reining on the local roads as part of her initial training. When I bought my old horse at 4 he hadn't done much road work in heavy traffic but soon learned because we went out several times every week and gradually built up the level of traffic. We used to ride through the middle of our county town on market day without trouble, and with flashing lights (including on bridle cheekpieces) and hiviz we could ride at night.

Recently bought 4 year old 15.2hh pony not long backed for 12 year old daughter, ostensibly as first BD horse, but temperament is impeccable, and she has been able to hack out alone on the roads, me following a little way behind with dog, from day one. We had to teach her that grids weren't going to eat her but we worked on that by boxing up to a quiet residential estate and spending time walking round where we knew that the traffic would be slow and infrequent. Unfortunately time to do this is a luxury that many owners cannot afford these days, and I think that most people won't push to ride in modern traffic.
 
We've got 6 and they're all brilliant in traffic - some more forward going than others but none of them blink at tractors or cows or anything else.

One in particular I used to teach a friend's young horse to hack by riding and leading her off him. She soon learned that acrobatics from her were ignored and she just got on with the job - her new owners now hack her for miles

He's so easy to hack I would class him as dull - which may be someone else's dream hacking companion!
 
I don't think it IS difficult. Or not IME anyway. I bought a new horse last year after semi-retiring the one I had. I think I viewed 6 or 7 horses. Every single one was described as good to hack. Of those, IIRC I liked three of them enough to want to hack them out (as in, there were a couple that after 5min in the arena, I didn't like enough to bother hacking out because I knew I wasn't buying) and all were fine. The horse I bought, I was told he is very green, we have hacked him out and he's OK, just babyish and a bit spooky. I hacked him out with the seller on one of her horses and he was just that. I went back a couple of days later and hacked him out alone. He was fine. Called a bit but that was all. When I got him home, I hacked him out with my sharer on my big horse for a couple of weeks. A bit sharp and babyish but nothing nasty. From that point on, he was expected to hack out alone if needed. I built it up slowly but now he'll go out for hours alone, do fun rides alone, whizz round a HT/ XC phase alone (napped a bit the first couple of times but fine now).

He definitely isn't a "happy hacker" as he gets bored if he only hacks, and although he *will* go out alone, hacking isn't his favourite pastime. He is still spooky and sharp, though he is safe. He gets bored if he hacks a lot or for too long. I'm hoping he's going to be a nice little competition pony (well, he's 15hh!) for me as he adores jumping in any form, hunts well (though not his fave activity) and is mannerly, now really enjoys DR too, but he hacks safely. Like spacefaer said, they just have to get on with it (though I do appreciate not everything will hack!). I think it is perfectly possible to have a horse who is good to hack yet has something about it! Mine just needed educating about tractors, cows, gates and so on.
 
It funny, there are lots of stories about great happy hackers etc. but ...... Nobody sells them as they are so great and if they do get sold it is at a premium!
 
If it's any comfort, my tb is 100% to hack and he cost next to nothing. The first time I rode him on the roads a bus stopped next to us and let off it's air brakes, and he didn't move a muscle! He is 100% with all traffic/lorries/tractors/motorbikes, and you can gallop him in the fields and easily stop him afterwards. And he is one of the more sensitive tbs, there's a couple up our yard that were complete dobbins to hack and you could let little kids loose on them. They do exist! Perhaps take a look at some ex racers, they're usually pretty bombproof. Also because they're kept on a working farm, they get used to tractors and lorries and people drilling right next to the stable etc.
 
Kikke said:
It funny, there are lots of stories about great happy hackers etc. but ...... Nobody sells them as they are so great and if they do get sold it is at a premium!
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Nothing could be further from the truth with my lot. They're all beyond bombproof (NOT slugs), but I assume they're worth nothing (they certainly were when I got them), because all the 'money' ads go on about is competition records and showing.

Maybe we should advertise our services training other people's horses to hack properly!

I take good in traffic for granted these days, but was delighted yesterday when my ride of 8 (me plus 7 young children, including 3 on stallions) trotted down the road past a herd of horses + pet sheep who had galloped to the fence without even looking at them. :)
 
OP.

Consider a ride and drive horse. Successful driving horses are generally rock solid in traffic and sensible about most other things...
Ex Racers are often good in traffic but not so sensible :)

Do remember though (as I had to when I was looking for a saint like this) that horses like this quite rightly have a serious premium on their price as they really are worth their weight in gold!
 
Because so few people (and therefore horses) do it! My boy is fab to hack alone (The first time I took him out alone, two weeks into owning him, was hay making week and we met one tractor pulling a mower, another pulling a baler and another with a massive wagon full of hay travelling in convoy. He didn't bat an eyelid) so I do it with him quite a lot. My share horse however isn't 100% with large vehicles following an incident with a motorbike and a glazing van (just a near miss and a fright thankfully but enough to still cause problems 6 years on) so we tend not to go too far from home alone, especially as the first road we have to go on is narrow and busy.

He doesn't do much as he's such a gent, he just stops dead and stands there staring and trembling. There's no way he'll go forward however, so I have to turn around and find a convenient gateway to hide in. He'll happily let them go past as long as he's not directly facing them. I do still take him out as a matter of principle and because there may be a time when he has to do it to get somewhere, but it tends to be early on Sunday mornings to avoid meeting anything horrible. He's also far better in the school than my boy so I'm more inclined to choose the school with him.

The roads we have to go on are way too busy for their size so it's just not worth the risk with a horse who isn't 100% and I think a lot of people feel like that. Even 20 years ago when I was taking my 5yr old first pony on the roads for the first time we had far more time and space to react and deal with issues than we do now.

I'm far from a wuss out hacking but sometimes, especially when it comes to hacking alone, discretion is the better part of valour.
 
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I was riding out a lovely pony for someone getting it ready to be sold, she was fine in traffic and the narrow lanes around are very busy, anyway we came across la larg artic' who kindly pulled over and asked if I wanted to introduce her to the lorry :P so we had a wander round and a sniff. I think its so important to hack out alone as they may not always have company when new things occur at shows etc. but it is also important for the rider to know how to hack alone. When I lost a bit of confidence recently I did find the horses I was riding reacting differently to me than before as I wasn't riding forwards or supporting them enough.
 
Is it really that difficult to find something that hacks alone? All my horses my entire life have hacked alone.
Some completely reliable in all situations, others that have taken a little bit of riding at times but have still done the job. TBH it's a question I rarely ask as I just assume I will get a horse to hack!

Sometimes it's interesting to see a horse that will happily hack with one rider but not with another ... some people just ooze nervous vibes that horses pick up on
 
I've never known a horse who wont hack out alone, obviously some can be spookier but I've never come across one that won't at any of the yards I've been on. I wouldn't say mine are 100% in traffic as they don't tend to like big lorries but they are manageable and listen to me. Hacking is getting less and less pleasurable round here with the traffic and rutted tracks but we don't have it bad compared to other areas. Maybe people just aren't hacking so much so horses have less exposure.
 
Both off my horses are good to hack alone. I have spent the past eight years bomb proofing my Appy out on hacks and although he has his sharp and spooky moments, he is very good to hack alone and I can take him anywhere. My ISH wasn't very good with big traffic when I got him but over the past five years (and this past year alone) I have been working on getting him more confident with bigger traffic by hacking him out with my Appy, and just generally letting him see as many things as possible. He too is not nappy and will go anywhere you ask of him. I had a young mare to bring on and sell and I would say 90% of what I did with her in the time I had her was hacking on my own. I believe this gives young horses a good grounding, teaches them to trust their rider and to be prepared for everything. I think more people should hack their horses on their own, but a lot do not.
 
horserider said:
So often the people looking for a horse that is safe to hack out alone should never be hacking anything out alone.

Show me a rider who is confident and a leader and I'll show you a safe horse.
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This ^^^
In all fairness there are a lot of factors in hacking out on your own. Firstly when I learnt to ride (just over 20 years ago), after the initial lunge lessons until I could balance I then progressed to a group lesson in a massive field where there were 3 different lessons going on in different areas, you had to steer you horse to stay on the lesson, if you didn't then it would take you back to the yard. I know that in general and this is general but a lot of places have lovely nice fenced schools to learn to ride in and with litigation hacking out is restricted, therefore unless a rider has access to privately owned horses then hacking out alone is a totally new experience. Secondly not one of my horses has been unhackable on their own, I've had everthing from ex-racers straight out of the trainers yard to unbroken show ponies, I expected them to hack out so they did, I was also fortunate enough to have access to bridlesways/green roads so traffic could be dealt with once the horse was good going out or avoided all together, and thirdly our roads are a lot busier now with traffic that is not 'horse aware' this is our main problem.
My last horse (before my current one) was the nappiest creature on his own hacking you could come across, think rearing and walking backwards if it came into his head, but only within 5 mins from home, if you could get him past that then he was great, unflappable, the perfect hack. But you did have to be determined to get him going and out of his comfort zone, if you let him grind to a halt for any reason then he'd pull out his bag of tricks if he was on his own. Overall I think that most problems are rider related, with a different rider on a different day then things are completely different and it kept me in a good job sorting those things out. My current horse is fab, however I would not describe him as bombproof or the perfect hack if I was going to sell him, he knows that I expect him to be good so he is but he does have a cheeky side and he will take advantage, so while to me he is great to hack out on his own, he is no plod and a nervous novice would probably end up with their confidence destroyed by his spooks and forwardgoingness (if that is a word).

ETA - it also surprises me how many people don't actually ride out that much, I suppose the rise in traffic does not help. However even where I live, with lots of off road hacking and lovely quiet roads most people keep in the school and then are surprised when at the weekend, they try to leave the yard for a hack and their horse is a bit spooky. Mine is desensitised because the majority of what he does is hack out due to his health problems, we do all our dressage schooling out as he can't do too much on an artificial surface.
 
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sparky1981 said:
It seems I'm looking for the impossible!due to a change in circumstances I'm looking for a safe all rounder with my main priority being that he is safe and sensible hacking alone as this is what I will mainly be doing. When I say safe I mean good with traffic and will walk calmly along the lanes and not spin, rear or buck when he/she meets something they don't like. I don't mind the odd spook. Why is this so hard to find?!??i also want the horse to be able to do some riding club clinics but by no means a Olympic star lol. I realise for a safe horse you have to pay for it so I have a healthy budget but it seems impossible why is this???
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Perhaps people are just being too honest or the horse wont hack alone for them? We had an Arabx that was a nightmare to get out alone and was described as such but my niece persevered, put up with planting, spinning, mild rear moves, each day he gave in sooner and eventually was a sold hack alone. He was not spooky at all just didn't want to go alone, he eventually took his confidence from his rider and it was the best thing to do with him as he grew in every other way and the bond grew too as he trusted his rider to keep him safe.

I guess I'm saying find the right horse and put some time in to mould how you want it. You cam get a sense of general temperament and extent of issue and decide if its 'fixable'
 
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Hi,

all of my horses hack alone, some more comfortably than others.

I did advertise one to sell, he was FAB as a riding club level, or BS to Discovery/Newcomers, or BE to BE100, even got a few BD points but would not go comfortably any further in any sphere. That was his limit. He was a total saint, FAB in traffic, in company, alone, with tractors, wheelie bins, flappy plastic. He was used to nanny babies (baby horses, not actual babies -although Charlie would probably have given that a crack too!)out hunting, would leave the hunt on his own if necessary, swim in the sea, ride in a town centre, look after any rider.

To part with this paragon of virtue at 8 years old I advertised at £8,500 to sell at £8k minimum. No takers. He was worth that to me, so we kept him with little idea what we would do next with him. Charlie then carved out a new role for himself, he taught my husband to ride from scratch to competitive Dressage, taught a nervous child to jump 4 ft, had a middle aged man have a first crack at SJ, did pub rides and was a general good egg for every visitor who had the pleasure to ride him. I even learned to ride bridle-less and had great fun at home even though he did not have the same competitive aspirations as me.

I guess it depends on what a generous budget is? A horse as good an all rounder as this is worth good money IMO, that the general market does not seem to value. To me this horse is more valuable than the host of well bred horses with "potential".

In the end I am glad that no-one valued him as much as we did, as we had many more happy years with him, until he was PTS at a fine age last year.
 
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